Question which minivan with 5 kids?

MamanMag

New member
Hello!

We have 5 girls and have had our T&C '09 for the last 4 years. But it is not easy to fit everyone in there... We are looking into getting either a new to us minivan that offers more room for 3 across or go for the Nissan NV.

I don't really feel comfortable driving a full size van but if it's the best for a family of 7 I'm willing to try!

We would have 4 CS in it: 2 RFing (ideally my OB toddler seat and either an RN or a chicco NF*) for our 3yo twins, 1Frontier 85 harness mode for our 5 yo, 1HBB for our 10 yo. Hopefully our 12 yo will be able to 5 step in the car we choose...

Please let me know if there is a minivan that would work great for our family or if we should go for the full size?

Thank you!!

Mag

* right now my twins are FF in their CCO's but I really don't feel comfortable with that!! I know they would be safer RF... I have an Orbit Baby Toddler Seat that I can use on the 3rd or 2nd row seat outboard of a minivan (depending on the van) with a HBB in the middle and I have to buy another narrow RF with high height limit seat...
 
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ed_tricia

New member
Love my 8 passenger toyota sienna. The 2004-10 is great for fitting carseats. I have had five kids, with three large harnessed seats and two boosters, in there several times. The second row in this version will fit pretty much anything three across. I usually do three in the second row and two in the back. You could fit three in the back with the right combo, I just own wide seats and don't transport older kids that five step yet.
The middle seat in the second row is a bit shallower than the outboard seats, so the 12, and maybe 10, year old may five step there even if they wouldnt in standard captains chairs.
 

MamanMag

New member
Thank you very much for your quick answer!! I forgot to mention that we are looking at a 2012-2014 minivan with very low mileage if possible (<20,000)... Would you recommend the newer years for the Sienna? I think I read somewhere that the newer Sienna's have less TA's than older models... Is that correct?

Also we mainly use our minivan for short trips if this matters...

Thanks again!!
 

ed_tricia

New member
I think they went from five to three TAs and made the 8th seat smaller and less carseat friendly. I don't know how much the seven passenger changed, so the newer version of that might work.
I have heard the newer odyssey received several improvements so post-2011 they may be better.
 

MamanMag

New member
Thanks again!! I think I will go and take a look at the Odyssey IRL and see if it would be a good fit for us.

From what I've read and seen it seems that this would be the minivan that would fit us the best but I would love to hear from people who have one and see what they think!

Hopefully others will chime in and let me know what they think about minivan vs Nissan NV ;-)
 

jordansmom

New member
We just picked up our new 2014 Ody over the weekend and I am loving it so far! We have one FF in a FR85, one RF in a Peg Convertible, and will be adding an infant seat in July. There are top tethers in all seating locations, and the only spot without lower anchors is the second row, plus one seat. With the seats in wide mode, it seems like just about anything can fit there. Right now, I have the Peg rearfacing driver side and the FR85 outboard passenger side. I have read on here that Honda just revised their LATCH limit to be 65 lb, child and car seat combined weight, so I have our seat installed via LATCH because it allows me to still tilt the seat up for access to the third row. I love the extra safety features like backup camera, side-view camera for changing lanes, all the side airbags, etc. The 2014 Ody is also an IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus recipient and was the only minivan to do so.

Hope that helps some!
 

MamanMag

New member
We just picked up our new 2014 Ody over the weekend and I am loving it so far! We have one FF in a FR85, one RF in a Peg Convertible, and will be adding an infant seat in July. There are top tethers in all seating locations, and the only spot without lower anchors is the second row, plus one seat. With the seats in wide mode, it seems like just about anything can fit there. Right now, I have the Peg rearfacing driver side and the FR85 outboard passenger side. I have read on here that Honda just revised their LATCH limit to be 65 lb, child and car seat combined weight, so I have our seat installed via LATCH because it allows me to still tilt the seat up for access to the third row. I love the extra safety features like backup camera, side-view camera for changing lanes, all the side airbags, etc. The 2014 Ody is also an IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus recipient and was the only minivan to do so.

Hope that helps some!

Thank you Jordansmom! It does help!! I will go and take a look at the Ody. We really wanted to stay in the mid $20,000 but I realize now, after reading a lot on this very helpful website, that it won't be possible if we don't want to compromise safety... And we don't! We were going to buy another T&C but I realized that it is very difficult to have all 5 kids in there without struggling a lot with car seats and plus, it only has on TA in the back which isn't enough!! So now we are looking at either the Ody or the Nissan NV but I don't know about the safety rating of the NV so the Ody would probably be a safer choice... the NV would accommodate us better but there is nothing about their safety ratings :eek::eek::eek:

Thanks again!

Mag
 

jordansmom

New member
Thank you Jordansmom! It does help!! I will go and take a look at the Ody. We really wanted to stay in the mid $20,000 but I realize now, after reading a lot on this very helpful website, that it won't be possible if we don't want to compromise safety... And we don't! We were going to buy another T&C but I realized that it is very difficult to have all 5 kids in there without struggling a lot with car seats and plus, it only has on TA in the back which isn't enough!! So now we are looking at either the Ody or the Nissan NV but I don't know about the safety rating of the NV so the Ody would probably be a safer choice... the NV would accommodate us better but there is nothing about their safety ratings :eek::eek::eek:

Thanks again!

Mag

We were originally looking at a used Ody in the 2011-2013 range because we thought that was where we wanted to be price point wise. After looking at a bunch of dealerships, we found that the used vehicles with under 20,000 miles were only a few thousand dollars less expensive than a brand new 2014. They really hold their resale value. We weren't in a rush to purchase either, so we used truecar.com to see what the lowest price others had recently paid was, and then challenged a couple dealerships to go lower than that. After two weeks, one of them got back to us, and made the deal. We paid WAY LESS than MSRP for exactly what we wanted and brand new. :D

ETA: I believe there is at least one member here who has a NV and loves it. Do you plan on any more children or needing to transport others? If you answer yes to either of those, then I would certainly look into the NV. My grandfather actually went and looked at one for us and although he said it was really big, he loved everything else about it.

Ooh, here is the NV thread I was thinking about:
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=220414
 

MamanMag

New member
Thank you soooo much again!! This is really helpful!! I didn't know about the truecar.com and that will help us save, hopefully!!

I was looking for that thread about the NV (I stumbled on it once and couldn't find it anymore), thanks for finding it for me!! I think I am "search" impaired or something ;) I have asked about its safety so hopefully someone will chime in!! Yes, sometimes we have my in-laws but I don't know if it's worth buying such a big van for a few months out of the year... The NV has poor MPG :(

I can't wait to see the Honda Ody IRL!!

Thanks again!!!

Mag
 

YinzerMama

New member
So I'm an oddball here but there was one other member who is on my team... having traded in an old style 8 passenger sienna for a new 8 passenger Ody... I really don't like my odyssey. OK actually I love it from the driver's seat, it drives great, love my back up cam, seat it comfy, love that I control the DVD player - but I just don't find the layout of the van works as well as our old van did. I can see making it work with 5 kids but I'd seriously suggest looking at a used sienna (2004-2010) as well. Even a 7 passenger, which will be much easier to find than an 8. The back seat was the widest of all the minivans which really opens up 3 across possibilities (I think the ody is the narrowest). With the old 7 passenger siennas you also had the option of moving a captains chair to the middle so you had a side aisle, which would allow you to put any 2 rear facing seats you like in the middle and still access the back. In theory you can do this with a new ody, putting one in the middle and one outboard, but I have not found the middle seat of the ody to be as car seat friendly as my old sienna.

If my odyssey were to explode right now in my driveway, getting me off the hook for having to make the choice to take a financial hit on a new car by trading in and buying an older one, I would without a doubt look for a used sienna. You really can't beat the old 8 passenger sienna for lots of kids and daily 3rd row access but barring that the 7 passenger would be pretty sweet, too, due to how wide the 3rd row was.

Also the 3rd row windows of the ody don't open, which is something I didn't realize until I bought it, and my kids back there STILL ask me to open their windows and then complain that I can't like the old car.

Oh and the trunk was huge, too, which you will need with lots of kids.

If I were to buy new right now, I would probably lean Sienna as well, because while the 8th seat isn't as nice, you can remove it and stow it and still have it with you, and still have 2 real captain's chairs, which is not the case with the ody. We went ody partly for more latch/tethers, but that won't be as big a deal for you - but in your case, with a new one, 3rd row access with two center rear facers might be tough. In a year or two, you won't have them rf though, so you might not want that to be the limiting factor.

I'm not gonna say one way or the other what you should do but make sure to take and try every car seat and seating scenerio and really think through how it will work long term - we did not. We just figured everything seemed to be there and it would work just like the old van and oh boy does it not. Coming from a Dodge, though, you might love it. You'll just have to try it and see.
 
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Keeanh

Well-known member
I just want to say that I have both. An 8-passenger Astro/Safari van, and a 15-passenger full-size van. Get the 8-passenger. Unless the only driving you do is long road trips or something. The automobile world is designed for regular-sized vehicles. It's just so much easier driving, parking, turning around, etc. with a vehicle that has a normal length and turning radius. We only use the 15-p for road trips.
 

MamanMag

New member
So I'm an oddball here but there was one other member who is on my team... having traded in an old style 8 passenger sienna for a new 8 passenger Ody... I really don't like my odyssey. OK actually I love it from the driver's seat, it drives great, love my back up cam, seat it comfy, love that I control the DVD player - but I just don't find the layout of the van works as well as our old van did. I can see making it work with 5 kids but I'd seriously suggest looking at a used sienna (2004-2010) as well. Even a 7 passenger, which will be much easier to find than an 8. The back seat was the widest of all the minivans which really opens up 3 across possibilities (I think the ody is the narrowest). With the old 7 passenger siennas you also had the option of moving a captains chair to the middle so you had a side aisle, which would allow you to put any 2 rear facing seats you like in the middle and still access the back. In theory you can do this with a new ody, putting one in the middle and one outboard, but I have not found the middle seat of the ody to be as car seat friendly as my old sienna.

If my odyssey were to explode right now in my driveway, getting me off the hook for having to make the choice to take a financial hit on a new car by trading in and buying an older one, I would without a doubt look for a used sienna. You really can't beat the old 8 passenger sienna for lots of kids and daily 3rd row access but barring that the 7 passenger would be pretty sweet, too, due to how wide the 3rd row was.

Also the 3rd row windows of the ody don't open, which is something I didn't realize until I bought it, and my kids back there STILL ask me to open their windows and then complain that I can't like the old car.

Oh and the trunk was huge, too, which you will need with lots of kids.

If I were to buy new right now, I would probably lean Sienna as well, because while the 8th seat isn't as nice, you can remove it and stow it and still have it with you, and still have 2 real captain's chairs, which is not the case with the ody. We went ody partly for more latch/tethers, but that won't be as big a deal for you - but in your case, with a new one, 3rd row access with two center rear facers might be tough. In a year or two, you won't have them rf though, so you might not want that to be the limiting factor.

I'm not gonna say one way or the other what you should do but make sure to take and try every car seat and seating scenerio and really think through how it will work long term - we did not. We just figured everything seemed to be there and it would work just like the old van and oh boy does it not. Coming from a Dodge, though, you might love it. You'll just have to try it and see.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience!! I know that DH doesn't want to look at an older car because he wants something with low mileage but you are definitely bringing up some great points that I can't ignore so I'll look at the Sienna too :) I wasn't going to but I now understand that I should!!

I am pretty sure though that the narrowest 3rd row is probably the T&C, no way that the Ody is narrower!! That T&C is impossible to work with when you want to do 3 across!!! It got on my nerves again today!!!!

Thanks again for sharing your experience with both cars!!
 

MamanMag

New member
I just want to say that I have both. An 8-passenger Astro/Safari van, and a 15-passenger full-size van. Get the 8-passenger. Unless the only driving you do is long road trips or something. The automobile world is designed for regular-sized vehicles. It's just so much easier driving, parking, turning around, etc. with a vehicle that has a normal length and turning radius. We only use the 15-p for road trips.

That's kind of the feeling that I had but you confirmed it!! Thank you very much!!! Especially since we'll be using the car mainly for short trips!!
 

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