Three decades ago, the minivan helped kill off the station wagon, to the chagrin of automotive journalists everywhere. Now the tire is on the other wheel: minivan sales have receded as parents flock to much cooler crossovers.

Chrysler invented the minivan, and that’s not something it will take lying down. To defend its turf, it undertook an aggressive redesign for its latest kid hauler, changing everything, including the name. What was once the Town & Country is now the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, a name taken (ironically) from the brand’s last crossover.

Speaking in a stark event space during the Pacifica press launch (on the Pacific coast, naturally), FCA passenger-car boss Tim Kuniskis said the new minivan will hold the line, and not give up any more sales to insurgent SUVs from an already-shrunken segment. After that spiel, it was time to hop behind the wheel of Chrysler’s latest to see if a minivan really is still worth buying instead of a crossover.

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Who said minivan’s can’t be stylish?

Chrysler is the latest carmaker to try to improve the image of its minivan by focusing on exterior styling. The Pacifica may be the most successful effort yet, with a slick and cohesive design that makes it about as stylish as a minivan can get.

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At the front, it wears the same corporate Chrysler face as the 200 sedan, which blends surprisingly well with the larger minivan body. It also makes room for a large lower grille opening, an attempt by the designers to conjure a sportier attitude. What actually helps in that area is the proportioning: the Pacifica is wider than the Town & Country, rides lower, and has shorter overhangs. Those are all good things.

Related: Chrysler’s minivan is reborn with a hybrid powertrain, spiffy styling, new name

As in many other new vehicles, the sides get a bit of sculpting to make things a bit more interesting. Engineers also pulled off the neat trick of hiding the sliding doors’ tracks, giving the Pacifica a cleaner look. And there is even an option for 20-inch wheels. That’s right, this minivan rolls on dubs.

An interior like a small apartment

Fashionable styling may boost the egos of suburban moms and dads, but when it comes to minivans, the inside is more important than the outside. The Pacifica covers all of the bases here, with a very flexible interior and an impressive array of tech.

Our top-of-the-line Limited test vehicle included virtually every tech option, including the high-end version of Chrysler’s Uconnect infotainment, with an 8.4-inch touchscreen, navigation, and app suite. While generously sized by industry standards, the screen looks pretty small ensconced in the expansive dashboard and oddly shaped dashboard top. It’s still within easy reach of the driver’s seat though. Designers flush-mounted it to clean up the presentation, although that does eliminate a place to rest your fingers while tapping.

Uconnect is fairly intuitive, although the system in our sample Pacifica wasn’t without issues. The screen was pretty laggy, and the navigation map’s gray-on-gray graphics were less than ideal. Between the screen’s sluggishness and the lack of a pinch-to-zoom feature, it’s also hard to get much of an idea of your surroundings. Trying to keyword-search a destination with voice control was an exercise in futility.

Alternatively, drivers can use the built-in Yelp app to supplement the navigation system, although this feature was also flummoxed when we tried to search for a nearby tourist attraction by name. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be added for the 2018 model year, Chrysler says.

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