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Outside an elementary school in Pasadena, California, my 6-year-old nephew and four of his buddies crawled all the all-new\u00a02017 Chrysler Pacifica\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0interior. Call them Minivan Minions: They gleefully performed the stow \u2019n\u2019 go trick of making the second- and third-row seats disappear into the Pacifica\u2019s floor. After a flurry of pressed buttons, pulled levers and collapsed furniture, they stood triumphantly in the cavernous trunk.<\/p>\n \u201cWhoa! This car is better than my Dad\u2019s Tesla!\u201d exclaimed one.<\/p>\n Who says minivans aren\u2019t cool? An older friend breaks out in smiles at the mention of \u201cTown and Country\u201d because her rock band toured the country in one. What else will easily fit the neck of a bass guitar? A motorhead pal swears by his Dodge Caravan, which he fills with car parts from junkyard sales. Heck, even your 6-foot-5 scribe finds a Chrysler hauler the best mobile office in town. Climb in the spacious third row, flatten the middle seat \u2014 instant ottoman! \u2014 and I can work on my laptop for hours.<\/p>\n No, that infamous minivan stigma comes from you moms out there. You know who you are. Ahem, Mrs. Payne.<\/p>\n My better half represents a sizable demographic who swore they would never set foot in a breadbox on wheels. No sooner had minivans replaced the dreaded station wagon than the SUV came along and replaced the dreaded minivan. Soccer moms embraced high-riding utes, and minivan sales plummeted from 1.4 million in 1990 to some 513,000 last year.<\/p>\n So for \u201917, Chrysler brought in heavy artillery to advance its next-generation van: a soccer-mom designer and a new name.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have a minivan stigma when I started this project,\u201d says Pacifica exterior designer Irena Zavatski. \u201cBut I was determined that no one else would have one either.\u201d<\/p>\n So the Russian emigre and mother of two set about making a curvaceous minivan that didn\u2019t look like a minivan. Oooh, it\u2019s pretty. Beginning with a Chrysler 200-esque front grille, the Pacifica\u2019s lines swoop and dive and tumble like waves on, well … the Pacific(a) Ocean.<\/p>\n Two signature details deserve attention: The lower front grille is tied off at the ends like a Brach\u2019s candy wrapper. And the body\u2019s character line extends from the front fender before wrapping around the rear wheel well.<\/p>\n You can almost trace the lines of Zavatski\u2019s brush as the chrome highlights flow thick to thin across her vehicle canvas. With the C-pillar blacked out, the side windows add proportion. It reminded me of the\u00a0lovely VW Passat wagon<\/a>\u00a0I drove in France last summer. Or \u2014 more familiar to U.S. eyes \u2014\u00a0the Mercedes R-Class wagon<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s right, I\u2019m comparing a Chrysler minivan to a Mercedes. Zavatski and her team worked with engineers on an entirely new minivan platform that pushes the wheels to the car\u2019s perimeter, creating a more planted, athletic stance than the traditional breadbox. Replace the R-class wagon\u2019s four doors with sliders and you\u2019d swear Mercedes and Chrysler had never divorced.<\/p>\n