Center Consoles

Kellyr2

New member
Are the center consoles that you can buy to put between two seats - like for a minivan - safe? Do any of them attach to the car in any way or do they all just sit there? I was just thinking that if we could get one, and it wouldn't become a large projectile itself, then that would be a good way to get a handle on all the stuff I like to keep in the car with me - sunglasses, lotion, a pen or two, etc.
 
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joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
As long as they are installed firmly, I don't see a huge problem. Sometimes, ironically, the large consoles that come in cars/vans can be hip crushers in side impacts. They are so solid that your hip slams into it and.... ouch. Flip down armrests don't pose any injury hazards, and I love the low table in my Honda that's well below hip level.

Anyway, just make sure it's either low enough or soft enough to not pose an injury hazard to you, and strapped in enough not to be a projectile.

:)
 

lovinwaves

New member
As long as they are installed firmly, I don't see a huge problem. Sometimes, ironically, the large consoles that come in cars/vans can be hip crushers in side impacts. They are so solid that your hip slams into it and.... ouch. Flip down armrests don't pose any injury hazards, and I love the low table in my Honda that's well below hip level.

Anyway, just make sure it's either low enough or soft enough to not pose an injury hazard to you, and strapped in enough not to be a projectile.

:)

When Dh and I were test driving vans I really really liked the center console in the Sienna. I liked how big it was and that you could move it from the front to in between the captains chairs in the second row. I was pretty bummed out that the Odyssey didn't have that. They just had this "flip down" tray. That might be what you are talking about. Anyways, boy am I glad I didn't have a big fixed center console. I love being able to just flip down the handy tray for walking between or just placing things on the floor. I never really thought about the one in the Sienna being an "ouch". I would imagine more aftermarket console would be dangerous in that sense since they aren't specifically crash tested with that model (or maybe they are:confused: ).
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
It's not so much whether they are crash tested with each model or not, it's that people just show up in emergency rooms with those injuries (and door armrest imprints...ouch again...)...one of those things that just gets slowly designed out of cars, like metal flip down glove compartment doors that used to decapitate little kids, or metal radio knobs that implanted in people's faces...
Yeah, I had a Buick Rendezvous with a huge console (to fit your laptop, of course!) and I actually rubbed the sole of my shoe on it so hard when climbing over it to get to the kids in the back seat, that I never got the scuff off... that's when I went with the Ody and that flip down tray...love it! (My old CR-v had that, too... )

Of COURSE the car was parked when I was climbing around in it, lol (though people love that flip down tray and will write in reviews, "oh, we just walk back to the kids when we are on the freeway, doesn't everybody? I mean, who can sit still that long?"...ack)
 

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