The Option Every Family Car Should Have
Family cars, especially minivans, are incredibly useful when you need to transport a large number of people or things. Over a minivan's career as a family hauler, it will be subjected to all manner of indignities suffered at the hands of children. From multiple "Peppa Pig" episodes played on the onboard entertainment system to Cheerios and Goldfish crackers becoming fused with the carpet at a molecular level, minivans don't have it easy.
Even if one doesn't have children, cars can get really dirty just through daily use. This typically forces drivers to either spend money and time at the local car wash to use its vacuums or go through the hassle of dragging their personal vacuum cleaner out to the van to suck up the mess. There's one big exception to this reality, however, and it involves an incredibly useful feature that, oddly enough, is only offered in one particular line of minivans.
Taking the competition to the cleaners
Forget heated seats, CarPlay, dual-zone climate control, and other luxuries — a vacuum cleaner is a lifesaver when a potted plant decides to somersault across the back seat while you're driving. At the time of writing, only the Chrysler Pacifica minivan has a built-in vacuum cleaner available to help its owners keep up with the seemingly Sisyphus-like task of detailing and maintaining cleanliness.
A vacuum that's already inside the car prevents one from having to locate the Shop-Vac in the garage for bigger cleanups or spend the next few hours using a handheld vacuum cleaning up yet another spilled bag of Skittles. Every family car manufacturer should take notes from Chrysler. Competent and dedicated family haulers like the Kia Carnival or Toyota Sienna are severely lacking in the incredibly limited Minivans That Contain a Vacuum segment.
The venerable Honda Odyssey used to have an available built-in vacuum dubbed "HondaVac" that was manufactured by Shop-Vac, but, according to MotorTrend, supply chain issues caused Honda to discontinue the option last year. Chrysler's built-in vacuum goes by the name "Stow 'n Vac" and is manufactured by Ridgid. According to the Chrysler Pacifica configurator, the Stow 'n Vac option is only available on the Limited trim and higher on 2022 Pacificas. Is it worth spending nearly $50,000 on a minivan just so you can have an integrated vacuum cleaner? Maybe not, but it's certainly nice to have around.