Going Saab 9-5 V6 -> Pacifica: what to expect in terms of performance & comfort?
 

Spamming the forum a bit today ;)

I drive a 99 Saab 9-5 3.0 V6 and I'm thinking about getting 04 or 06 Pacifica AWD. Is there anyone who has driven both of these cars and can tell me something about the difference in performance and comfort & road/wind/engine noise at freeway speeds?

I'm from Europe and our legal limit on freeways is 130 kph / 80 mph. I know there are not many places in Northern America where this is legal (Texas, baby!) - so is Pacifica still a quiet living room on 4 wheels at speeds like these?

About the performance - 7.9 vs 9.4 secs on 0-60 is a bit of a difference but I'm no race driver. I just need to know I have enough power on tap to pass safely (no 5-lane freeways here :( ) and to get out of unpleasant road situations... will I?

Sorry for asking questions that can be easily answered by a test drive - there are only a few Pacificas here in Europe and the closest worth mentioning is a few hundreds of kilometers away from me....

I have a 2006 Pacifica so here are some notes.

Chrysler Pacifica before 2007 model year had only 4 gears, so passing ability is so so. It kind of runs out of juice on a slight incline road & I think it is probably due to lack of additional gears rather than lack of engine power. I have heard 2007 & 08 models are bit better due to 6 speed transmissions.

We had many posts from people in Europe looking for parts & repair instructions for these vehicles. Many of them has mentioned that it is difficult to get parts in Europe.

About AWD Pacifica models, following is a thread with a opinion of a profession mechanic (TNtech): https://www.chryslerforum.com/forum/...yay-nay-17101/ and another thread here about 2004 model year: https://www.chryslerforum.com/forum/...der-4-a-17105/

Best of luck.

Hey, thanks :) I especially like the "professional mechanic" reply :) I guess professional mechanics always tend to remember the worse things they come across in their daily work... After all, people don't go to a mechanic with a perfectly working car ;) But I respect that.

About the transmission - yep, I've read that and I know the 6speedo will be far better. The problem is that there is no > 2006 Pac in my region and when you decide to import a vehicle from another country in the EU, things get expensive - gas, special time-constrained export lic. plates, import technical checks at home (no, I don't know why we are part of this new Soviet union either...). There were two 4.0 AWDs but they of course went to their new owners pretty fast...

As for parts, we have companies that import US stuff here and it's not that expensive (I'd guess Merc or BMW parts might be even more expensive even though we actually border with Germany). Moreover most of the other Chrysler models (like 300-whatever, Voyagers etc.) were officially imported to Europe so whatever parts they have in common we have them here.