FCA's Remaining Pentastar Product Pair, the Chrysler 300 and Chrysler Pacifica, See Prices Slashed for 2018

Only two models remain in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ U.S. Chrysler lineup, but both models will benefit from dramatic price cuts for the 2018 model year.

The 2017 Chrysler 300 was marketed with a U.S. base price of $33,435. That car, the Chrysler 300 Limited, will be renamed for 2018 as the Touring L, CarsDirect reports, one notch above the 300 Touring. Meanwhile, the Chrysler 300C loses its standard V6 engine and is now sold exclusively with the 5.7-liter V8 and rear-wheel drive.

As for the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica, a new Pacifica L below the Pacifica LX allows the 2018 Pacifica to sit well below the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna in the minivan price hierarchy.

Priced from $28,090 for 2018, including destination fees, the Chrysler Pacifica’s MSRP will be $1,800 less costly than the former entry-level Chrysler minivan, the 2017 Pacifica LX.

The all-new 2018 Honda Odyssey is priced from $30,930. The Toyota Sienna, refreshed modestly yet again for MY2018, starts at $30,745 in 2017.

The 2018 Chrysler 300, meanwhile, will now enjoy a base price of just $30,090, a $3,345 cut from 2017. CarsDirect says the 2018 300 Touring will still 18-inch alloys and the same standard 3.6-liter Pentastar V6.

In August, with the discontinued 200 nearly cleared out and remaining Town & Countrys just about gone, total Chrysler U.S. volume fell by a third to only 12,652 units, the brand’s lowest-volume month since January 2011. (Chrysler averaged 27,000 monthly sales only two years ago.) Year-to-date, sales of the Chrysler 300 are down 8 percent to 35,436. At that rate of decline, calendar year 300 volume will fall to a six-year low. Though Pacifica volume is up 186 percent, year-over-year, total Chrysler brand minivan sales are down 9 percent.

Both remaining Chrysler vehicles operate in shrinking sectors. Sales of full-size mainstream brand sedans are down 15 percent this year. Minivan volume has fallen 12 percent.

* Correction: an earlier version of this post indicated the 300 Touring would come standard with leather seats. Having updated its information, CarsDirect now tells TTAC, “the 300 Touring will in fact come standard with cloth seats.”

[Images: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars and Instagram.