Vehicles that can handle 3 car seats

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Hand make my own baby food from vegetables I grew myself?

Don't let my kid ride in a car, ever?

Buy all foam furniture?

Don't let anyone with a cold in our house?

Only let them outside on cloudy days?

Move outside the city to decrease air pollution exposure?


Those all sound ridiculous right? Well so does putting a 6 year old in a car seat to a lot of the world.

No one does "everything I can". People do "whatever society deems acceptable, so that if anything happens to my kid no one will blame me".

You know what, don't have kids, it appears it will hurt your brain.


I have always taken the approach that parenting is about risk management.

[Sylvanfan]

I remember riding inside the steering wheel of my Dad's 67 Mercury pick up truck when I was a 4 year old living in seat belt law free Alberta.....those were the days. No wonder our kids are all obese, we're desparately trying to grow them past 80 pounds so they can just sit in the backseat like we did.

[ernie]

Double post

[ernie]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

I don't think this is correct. In Canada, child seat regulations are federal and mandated by Transport Canada.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/motorvehicle...y-index-53.htm

Here's a .pdf summary as of 2009.

www.clekinc.com/pdfs/clek_safety_seat_law_guide_EN.pdf

Transport Canada controls the regulations on the specifications car seats need to meet. They educate on the use of car and booster seats. The provinces set the specific laws from everything I can see. In BC under 9 requires a car or booster seat. In alberta it appears to be 6 and under.

[wretched34]

Alberta law is pretty slack on Carseats.
http://carsafetyandkids.ca/user_uplo...t_Jan_2013.pdf

Basically, once they hit 6, OR 40 pounds, they no longer need to be in a car seat of any kind.
My little guy is just over 4, and weighs over 40 pounds. I still have him in a forward facing full back booster, don't see the need to rush him out of it, way I see it, is so long as he's comfortable, the safer the better.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

I wasn't at all suggesting it would be feasible to do something different here, I just find the massive difference in attitude interesting.

It's the same thing with the autobahn in Germany. No speed limit is ludicrous. I don't think there is any arguing that you aren't at higher risk with people doing 250km/h in the adjacent lane.

On the other hand... some of the crazy measures that are now "normal" for child safety seem like we waste a lot of time protecting the 0.00001% case of infant danger instead of the 0.1% stuff.

I can already tell that when the time comes I'm going to find it all confusing as hell.

Oh I agree. It's ridiculous. I grew up on a farm driving tractors and running power tools as a pre-teen. My dad stuck me behind the wheel of his Bronco 2 at age 10 to learn to drive stick. This was on a road, not the farm. No seatbelt? No problem!!

I fight the fight as much as I can, but make no mistake; if you appear to be putting your kids in some type of "risk" you will be shunned HEAVILY by the soccer mom crowd. We're raising a generation of pansies IMO, but that's a different topic for a different thread.

I'm just looking for ideas from the peanut gallery on how to avoid the minivan conundrum. I would prefer to stay away from the massive cargo ships (LOVE my Touareg), but I don't think at this point there is any other alternative.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

You know what, don't have kids, it appears it will hurt your brain.


I have always taken the approach that parenting is about risk management.

Did you misread my post? It was saying of what you are implying. I agree, it's risk management. And there are some insane measures that I see people taking to avoid the 0.00001% risks, and I hope I don't fall into that course of action as a parent, but it's easy to say before the helpless thing is looking at you with its beady little lizard eyes, I'm sure.

[Dentoman]

Acadia Denali (mentioned on first page) .... with second row captain's chairs. Your six year old would have no problem getting to the third row. Third row is a 60/40 split as well so that leaves you lots of cargo options. Could do second row bench as well, but the way the sliding mechanism works, there is not enough room for a booster seat in the middle of the bench (seat belt latch is fixed and is in the way).
Denali gives you a nice package of upgrades.

[Stealth22]

There have been plenty of vehicle suggestions here, but I'll just chime in with my $0.02, and my thoughts on two SUV's that have been suggested.

I don't hate the Ford Flex as much as I used to, but I see it as just a big box. I've never seen one in person, but have read posts from people who own it and like it. It's one of those cars that you either love or hate. GMC compares the Acadia to a luxury helicopter in their TV ads, with full access to the 3rd row, etc. Never seen or driven it either one of these SUV's, but thought I'd chime in on them since people have mentioned both.

My wife and I don't have any kids, and when the time comes, I will more than likely dig up this thread and do all the comparison shopping that you have been doing. But just from my own experience, here's what I think you should do.

My family has owned a couple of minivans and CUV's over the years. You mentioned that you test drove the Odyssey. You may want to look at the Sienna as well. It will be a matter of personal choice, and who is willing to make a deal. But we have a Sienna, and as far as loading kids into it goes, you should probably go the minivan route.

You and your wife don't like minivans, but don't discount the value of having electric sliding doors. When you and/or your wife have arms full of groceries and kids, being able to just reach in your pocket with one finger and open the doors will be a godsend. Try opening the back door to an SUV and doing that. The van will give you more space to put down the 6 year old inside the van while you strap in the newborn or 1-year-old. In an SUV, you'd have to wait for the first kid to shift over, unless you have one of the larger SUV's.

The minivans also handle pretty well these days...the crossovers are pretty equal in that regard, but both will be much better than a Yukon or Expedition.

I'd give you the names of the two Toyota salesmen we've dealt with, but we haven't bought a car from them in a while, so they probably wouldn't remember me. If you do go with Toyota, go to Charlesglen if you don't live too far. We had a better overall experience there than with Heninger.

[tvp2003]

If having a third row isn't a dealbreaker, maybe consider a truck? Friend has one and it apparently fits three seats easily and is really easy to get the kids in and out due to the added height.

[killer_carlson]

I thought I would log in to post.

As someone with three young kids (6, 5, and 3) who was a strong non-mini van person, I can now say I am a strong pro mini-van person. With three car seats plus adults, don't fool yourself, you're getting a family car regardless.

We have one vehicle when my wife and I want to go out, or if we are taking one kid out.

Then we have the mini van. It's a kia. We got it just when #3 arrived. It has repeatedly had the living crap kicked out of it by my kids. I stopped counting the number of times crap has been spilled, knocked over, muddy boots, and crap of all sorts dumped on the inside. You take the seats out through the sliding door, vacuum it out, and go on. Hell, when the little ones inevitably puke in it, I've opened both doors, gone to the wand wash, and blasted it clean out the opposite side. Remarkably effective by the way.

The mini van sliding doors are also very effective when little people try to open doors in crowded parking lots. When they are in the other car, you have to be conscious of them whipping a door open (or having the wind pull it out of their hands) and slam the door of the car next to you. In the mini van, you don't have that issue. You also don't get as concerned when you get a door ding, because it is a minor detail compared to what your kids have done.

My advice - go for a test drive with the minivan. Then think about it from a convenience perspective. I test drove the van the same day I test drove a Flex, Durango, and something else (a Lincoln I believe). There was no doubt the other ones were much more fun to drive. But the peace of mind of having my hands full, pressing a button to open a sliding door, and then throwing all 3 of the kids into the open sliding door to get them out of a crowded parking lot with all sorts of distracted people backing out of their stalls ..... the van offered convenience and peace of mind.

[puckedoff]

From the description of what you are looking for, it sounds like what you want is a minivan.

Don't undervalue the convenience of automatic sliding doors and the ability to fit a sheet of drywall in the back with the seats folded down.

[TimSJ]

Like many we were dead set against ever getting a minivan.

I was in the car business so had the luxury of being able to flip vehicles regularly. We have had the following since our daughter was born in 06 and our son came along in 08 - 03 ML500, 03 yukon, 07 suburban, 08 E350 Wagon, 08 R320 Diesel, 10 ML350, 07 Suburban, 11 CX9, 08 Pathfinder and finally bought a Sienna XLE just about 2 years ago. Has been great really no complaints. First car that i have owned that i had to renew the registration on.

Cross over to the dark side you won't regret it at all

[Plett25]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

I also have a wife that has high standards, but that's a trade off because she's damn sexy.

I, on the other hand have a sexy wife with low standards... which is awesome because those low standards got her to settle for me and she was perfectly fine with a mini van for us and our 3 kids.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

I am not familiar with this "giant plastic saftey bucket", but I would be surprised if it "would stop an airbag".

Can you tell me more about it?

Now I'm sort of curious. However, I'm probably not willing to spend $300 on a new carseat, hundreds more on a new airbag, plus whatever an instrumented baby costs to try it out.

Basically, my point (said much better by others) is that we have a culture where

1) We protect our kids from everything that could possibly go wrong
2) Bitch and moan that they never want to be independent, have no problem solvings skills, and are fat.

[Madman]

We have a Ford Flex with the twin turbo EcoBoost and love it - best vehicle we've owned.

3 rows, tons of room, a total blast to drive and I personally love the styling.

We moved from a Dodge minivan, just couldn't stand driving it anymore. I think if we had one of those top end Toyotas, then it wouldn't be a problem, but our Caravan was underpowered and lacking in all aspects other than size and minivan-ness.