Rear seat incline of Grand Caravan / Town & Country

We are possibly in the market for a new van. We have an '08 Sienna that has a rear leak that has alluded 3 service places and is effectively driving me bonkers. It's kind of lame to have a minvan and not be able to put anything in the "trunk." We're about to cut our losses and move on.

Not loving the new Siennas so looking out for a similar vintage as ours, in good shape, no leaks. Seems we drive very little and take remarkably good car of our vehicles so everything used we have seen so far has more miles and a more beat up interior. Not really happy about stepping down like that. My van only has 34k miles.

Liking the new Odyssesys. (love the layout, love the abundance of top tethers)

The last time Ol' Leaky was in the shop I had a '12 Grand Caravan as a rental. I had one girl in the back in a Marathon and felt like, due to the angle of the bench seat, which I couldn't do anything about, she looked like she was about to become airborne. Like in a plane at takeoff. It was all right aside from that quirk. She didn't mind but she looked ridiculous. Did I imagine this? Are all Caravans like this? Are some used ones better, seat wise? Is the Town & Country the same?

I don't want to rule out Dodge based on this, but it was annoying.

I can't remember anything else about the van that annoyed me, but I only had it 2 days. I need to put 4 kids in it, 3 of whom need a tether.

I have a 2011 T&C, and yeah, the 3rd row is crazy sloped. We very rarely use it, so I'm not a lot of help there (although if you ever want to do a Burgher car seat meet up ). I can install a RF radian like a dream, and the Regent installs really nicely with LATCH too. Also to answer your question, the T&C and the caravan are the same, just different "features" seats and installs are the same.

My good friend/neighbor just got a 2012 Odyssey (as in, picking it up on Monday), so we could have a nice compare day if you ever want.

We have the '08 Grand Caravan SXT. If you need top teathers you may have an issue with the 3rd row. There is a good thread about it in here.

Hope this is the link
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=76281&highlight=Town+country+tether&page=2

And this is the photos
http://s686.photobucket.com/albums/vv227/jourdysmom/Stow and Go Retrofit TT/

I only looked at caravans because of price (odesy & siena to expensive) and it has the stow and go - I love the option of being able to fold down the 2nd row for extra space.

So is there only one tether back there? I couldn't remember WHY I only put one girl back there. I had one in the back row, one in a captain's chair, and the baby in the other captain's chair. It did seem like a remarkably large vehicle to have such limited seating capabilities.

My current van has tethers in 5 out of 6 spots and of course the spot without one is a spot I have to use for the best logical layout. So good tethers is a huge factor in whatever we buy next.

This seriously drives me bananas. How much could it POSSIBLY cost them to weld on more metal bar to each seating position? It would make the car SO MUCH more user friendly. Having enough spots for car seats isn't the same as having spots where you need them.

This is why I am lusting after the Odyssey.

Whoever designed the new Sienna clearly does not have children, or more than 2 children - and if they do have two children they must be remarkably CLEAN children. Those floor tracks are horrible.

OK so carvan lousy from tether perspective.

Heather I wouldn't mind a burgh hook up. I'd also like to know where she got the Honda if she had a good experience there! So far we have only been to Bairel (sp).

ETA - the stow and go on the Dodge is awesome.

I used to have an '09 Grand Caravan. I was the first owner. I couldn't get out of the GC fast enough, especially once I had a fulltime booster rider in the 3rd row (lots of highback booster incompatibilities back there).

I now have an '11 Sienna and have zero complaints. The floor tracks haven't been an issue for me. It always surprises me when people bring that up. After a (barely) a year and 13,700 miles, mine are still pretty much flawless. We spend a considerable amount of time in the car (traveling soccer team), too. It all boils down to how well you care for your vehicle. The "lack of" tether anchors was a non-issue for us. I have 3 kids, but my oldest is 9 (in a highback), followed by a 7 year old, whose harnessed now, but fast approaching booster use. My 2 year old is RFing. Even if we throw in a 4th, the van will still meet our needs (this was something I kept in mind when doing my test driving of new vans - which, for me, was Ody vs. Sienna).

I had a lot of brake issues with my GC, which started early on. As in, two sets of (front) pads and a set of rotors issues and they STILL didn't feel right. And it only had something like 17K on it when I traded it in. There was also something jacked with mine and I was only getting 13-14 MPG city.

That said, the floor compartments where the captains chairs go in stow n go mode are awesome for storing misc. stuff/projectiles. I miss those. And the cargo well is nice and deep and spacious.

I never had any issues with installations in the captain's chairs - that includes RF, FF, and boosters. As I said before, there are a LOT of booster incompatibilities in the 3rd row due to the slope (tipping) and the position of the shoulder belt (causes the belt to bunch in booster guides, compromising proper retracting ability). The shoulder belt placement (it's set forward) also hinders proper fit in backless boosters and many kids who should be 5-stepping. Another issue in the 3rd row is (some) FF installs, also due to the slope/angle. The angle/slope tends to work in favor of RF installs, however, especially ones not requiring a 45 degree angle (the slope tends to bring RF seats more upright).

There's 2 complete sets of LATCH in the second row; each captains chair. There's 1 set of complete LATCH off-center in the 3rd row. If you're able to get a proper install with that wonky center seatbelt, you can use the tether anchor. There is a part through Chrysler to retrofit an outboard 3rd row tether anchor (I believe a previous poster linked the thread already).

My recommendation would be - test drive, test drive, test drive. Bring all your kids, all your car seats. Borrow some kids, borrow some seats - try them out everywhere in the van. See what works, see what doesn't.

YinzerMama said:

Heather I wouldn't mind a burgh hook up. I'd also like to know where she got the Honda if she had a good experience there! So far we have only been to Bairel (sp).

ETA - the stow and go on the Dodge is awesome.

Click to expand...

They bought from the Honda dealership in Monroeville (is it just Monroeville Honda? Right off the turnpike). Honestly, I love the stow n go. I didn't realize how much I took it for granted until I went looking at odysseys and siennas.

We just got a '10 grand caravan and I love it!!! I did not like the marathon install though because like you said it looked weird with the slope of the seats. So I just put radians in there instead and they work amazing with this van!! I personally don't mind the lack of tethers because we only have 3 kids so one for each is cool with me. I really really love the stow n go. I like how it drives. Ours has 15K miles on it and I haven't noticed anything funky with the brakes or gas mileage, fingers crossed!

YinZerMama

"This seriously drives me bananas. How much could it POSSIBLY cost them to weld on more metal bar to each seating position? It would make the car SO MUCH more user friendly. Having enough spots for car seats isn't the same as having spots where you need them."

Sorry dont know how to do the quote thing

FYI the teathers for the GC in the link are not welded, they are bolt ons. They should cost approx $100 plus install (about 15mins of time).

Byron said:

FYI the teathers for the GC in the link are not welded, they are bolt ons. They should cost approx $100 plus install (about 15mins of time).

Click to expand...

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=179305
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=143337&highlight=tether+retrofit+caravan

And I think it should be a LOT less than $100 (someone in one of the threads said like $15?) I need to get around to doing this, even though it's an outside chance that I'll ever need them, I'd rather be prepared)