Folks keep telling me minivans are dead, that everybody wants a three-row SUV now, and I keep telling them the same thing: in my experience, hauling a sheet of plywood AND four kids AND a dog in a big SUV is nobody's idea of a good time. Somebody finally put the theory to a real test, running a 1,700-mile road trip in the updated 2027 Chrysler Pacifica to see if the old girl still deserves her crown.

The short answer, from where I sit: yes. And it ain't really close.

The Pacifica's been around a while now, and Chrysler has given it some updates for 2027, though I can't tell you the full scope of what changed without seeing the whole write-up myself. What I can tell you is the general argument the test was built around: does this aging minivan still outsmart the family SUVs everybody's supposedly buying instead? That's the question worth asking, because the minivan formula, the sliding doors, the low load floor, the box built for cargo instead of looks, does things an SUV just can't match no matter how much money you throw at it.

Tell you what, my standard for any vehicle is whether it holds up when it matters, and road trips are where it matters. 1,700 miles is fuel stops and bad weather and a back seat full of cranky passengers. That's a real test in anybody's book, and a fairer one than a lap around a dealership lot.

Now, I'll be straight with you. A minivan will never look cool in a gravel lot next to a lifted pickup. It's not built to tow your boat to the Lake of the Ozarks, and it's not going down a two-track anytime soon. That's not its job. Its job is hauling people and stuff farther, cheaper and easier than anything else on four wheels, and I'd argue it does that job better than any SUV on the lot.

And that's the part that gets me. Families keep paying a premium for three-row SUVs that give up cargo room, give up sliding doors, give up fuel economy, all for the image. I reckon image doesn't count for much at hour six of a drive, when you're crawling over a middle seat to break up a fight over a bag of chips.

If I were hauling a family across country tomorrow, a minivan like the Pacifica is what I'd want to do it in. It's not the machine I'd take down a Forest Service road, but then again, my truck's not much good at fitting eight people and their luggage either. Right tool for the job, and for the job of moving a family 1,700 miles, the minivan still looks like the sharpest tool in the shed to me.