Odyssey, Sienna and center seats - need some quick info please!

Hi all! We have an 08 Odyssey that the lease is up for and we are considering buying it or turning it in and buying a used Sienna or Odyssey.. We like the current one but would prefer an EX or EX-L and also interested in the Sienna as the Honda seems to have a lot of road noise.. Or if there is some new safety feature in the new models I am unaware of, we would consider to lease again. Prob. cannot afford financing to buy a new car.

What i'm trying to figure out is, in some photos of Odysseys and Siennas i am looking at it looks like there are three seats in the second row - a little mini-looking seat in some of the Ody's. My concern is, right now we like to have one of the captain's chairs moved over so it's closer to the center spot. But if you have that little mini seat which doesn't look like it could fit a car seat, does that prevent you from moving a captain's chair toward the center position?

Also are there any certain models/years I should look for among these for best safety features, and ability to make a captains chair a middle seat? Thanks!!

This is all info about used Ody's and Sienna's (not the latest versions that just came out).

The Ody's come with the mini-seat (8th seat) when you buy an EX or EX-L. You can take it out and slide the two captain's chairs together, but they will only do that on one side of the car, not either one. I think they slide toward the left. Then you must store the 8th seat somewhere. It does not slide forward. I have not been able to put a carseat there, but maybe you could if it was the only carseat in the can and no one sat next to it. It has NO latch. You can put a carseat in the middle of the way-back seat, though.

The Siennas can come with a console (I don't think it's a mini seat, but I might be wrong), OR they can come with three smaller same-size seats across the back. You can't get both leather and the three-seat option. The Sienna console slides up to go between the front seats, and you can slide the middle seats together - but I don't know if they can do it on either side of the van or just one like the Ody.

One thing that steered me away from the previous version Sienna was the really looooong brake time.

Research rear-crash test ratings for the vans. It's hard to find. I know the Ody has a goood rear-crash test rating. I'm not sure about the Sienna - I remember it as not being very good, but it's been a couple of years so I might remember wrong. I think that's really important when your most precious cargo rides in back. I, too, liked the 3-seat Sienna option, but in the end the long brake time was unacceptable. Plus, no leather with the 3 seat option.

The Ody's "plus one" isn't really useful for a carseat or booster kid. And my 8.5 year old doesn't 5-step in the seatbelt there. It's very narrow and the seatbelt is funky. You can remove it and store it or convert it to a console...but by doing that, it makes it difficult to access the 3rd row since it's elevated. If it's removed, yes, the outboard passenger seat, I believe, can move over. The EX and EX-Ls offer 8 passenger, I'm pretty sure (maybe Touring...not sure).

The Sienna's extra seat is a little better laid out and more useable. It's still not super wide, though, so I'm not sure about 3-across. I think there's LATCH in it as well. The 8 passenger Sienna only comes in the lower models...CE and LE. One of the outboard seats also moves in...it does this on all the models, though (I think).

Odys, like you said, have a lot of road noise and whistling. That drives me crazy. I also found the brake time was a little too long in the Ody...when I test drove a '10 the other day. I much preferred the brakes and overall drive in the Sienna (also drove an '10 the other day). Oddly enough, I prefer the "drive", brake time, and storage in my '09 Dodge Grand Caravan over both of them. But I hate the seats and horrid gas mileage....so I'm on the search, too.

I just went from an '08 Ody to an '11 Ody. The things you dislike about the '08 are likely solved in the '11, but other than that it's almost identical. The 8th seat (I had it in the '08 as well) in the '11 has an additional spacing option, that makes it a fully useful seat versus a useless "seat". The road noise is seriously reduced.

I had a 2005 Sienna prior to the Odysseys, and if I could've taken that Sienna interior and plunked it into an Odyssey, I would've had the perfect car... The '11 is almost there for me, but for the money difference in many ways I wish I'd just kept my '08.

-N.

The outboard seats of the middle row of the 2004?-2010 8 passenger siennas do NOT slide to the middle.

The middle seat of the older 8 passenger siennas have a full set of latch (5 full sets of latch in the vehicle). No top tether driver's side third row.

Radian driver side/ boulevard middle: 2005 8 passenger



Regent passenger side/ rf boulevard middle



Nautilus installed middle seat, middle row.

The outboard seats of the middle row of the 2004?-2010 8 passenger siennas do NOT slide to the middle.

Click to expand...

Thanks for adding that.
I knew they did on the XLE (7-pass) I test drove, so I assumed it was like that on all the models, plus seat or not - like the Ody.

Sorry to hijack your thread, OP, but - Jennifer, do you think a FR85-RF MA70-PWSG would work in the 2nd row of a Sienna 8-pass? I didn't install any seats as I knew they were all "compatible" and I didn't even think to intsall just to confirm a 3-across.

You can get the 8 passenger 2011 Sienna in the CE, SE. LE and XLE. You can not get 8 passenger seating with AWD(All wheel drive).

clov878 said:

Sorry to hijack your thread, OP, but - Jennifer, do you think a FR85-RF MA70-PWSG would work in the 2nd row of a Sienna 8-pass? I didn't install any seats as I knew they were all "compatible" and I didn't even think to intsall just to confirm a 3-across.

Click to expand...

Second row, of a 2004-2010, most likely. The regent is wider than the frontier if I recall correctly. I had had a rear facing boulevard, nautilus, rear facing radian 2 across. I forgot to get pictures at the time, silly me.

clov878 said:

Sorry to hijack your thread, OP, but - Jennifer, do you think a FR85-RF MA70-PWSG would work in the 2nd row of a Sienna 8-pass? I didn't install any seats as I knew they were all "compatible" and I didn't even think to intsall just to confirm a 3-across.

Click to expand...

Yes, that would work!

I recently had a FR85 - RF BLVD 70 - RF True Fit installed in the center row.

Currently I have a Clek Oobr, RF BLVD 70, RF True Fit

Lees said:

Research rear-crash test ratings for the vans. It's hard to find. I know the Ody has a goood rear-crash test rating. I'm not sure about the Sienna - I remember it as not being very good, but it's been a couple of years so I might remember wrong. I think that's really important when your most precious cargo rides in back. I, too, liked the 3-seat Sienna option, but in the end the long brake time was unacceptable. Plus, no leather with the 3 seat option.

Click to expand...

If you're referring to the IIHS or fed gov't ratings (I forget who does it), the rear crash rating has absolutely nothing to do with how well the vehicle protects rear seat kids. It is strictly a rating of head restraint, usually the driver. They take the vehicle seat out of the vehicle (so they aren't testing the vehicle's bumper or crumple zone performance) and then only look at whiplash protection for an average adult man.

Reading that about the rear crash tests really worried me, thanks for the explanation. Here is a site that explains all the crash tests:

http://www.edmunds.com/car-safety/what-crash-test-scores-mean.html?articleid=43804

Both of our cars have poor rear crash tests but I'm not too concerned after reading more into it. I LOVE our 2006 Sienna. We have a 7 passenger and it's just right (though an 8th seat would have been a nice plus!)

Becca

Right, there is no actual crash test done for the IIHS rear safety rating. It is strictly a subjective evaluation of the design and geometry of the vehicle seat and head restraints. Plus, it may not apply to all trim levels, seats and sizes of occupants. The important thing is whether or not you can obtain a good fit of the seat, such that your head and back are supported very close or touching, rather than many inches away.