First of all, let me say THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE. I appreciate your responses, and I appreciate the lack of "you're turning your kids into millennial weaklings by not letting them bounce through the car". Thank you.
With regards to buying a van; yes. I am absolutely IN LOVE with the Chrysler Pacifica, it would fit all of our kids very well, including my 3 year old nephew that I will be watching occasionally after baby#4 is born. It's awesome. The storage. The gimmics, the bells and whistles, holy moly. I could go on forever and love the van to death. However, friends of ours with 3 kids got rear-ended at a high speed a few weeks ago. By freak chance, my friend had taken the kids on an outing in her husband's truck, and while she was sitting at in intersection waiting to turn, the guy behind her was busy on his phone, did not see that she was at a full stop (there was a stop sign there and busy traffic going the other direction!) and though he saw her at the last minute and tried to swerve, the rear end of the truck bed was dented in passed the rear tire. My friend and the kids were totally fine, but had they been in the van, in the third row, those kids would not have been fine.
So while my husband and I have looked at cars, and I have sang the glory of a minivan, we feel the sturdy (truck)frame of a large SUV will offer our children and ourselves more protection than a van built on a carframe will.
(Example: The fuel system passes. The third row does not.)
Also, I don't trust my daughter to stay in a booster seat properly. I've done "tests" with her, and with the fullest kindness in her heart, she quietly slips out of the booster to pick up a toy for her brothers. This does not happen in the car seat.
Being a father of 5 (oldest is 5 years old) I have to agree
@jkayca, the expedition isn't exactly suited for car seats and a double stroller, a minivan is so much more practical and convenient especially if you're not taller than 6ft too.
Behind the 3rd row seats there is two tie downs strap in my 2005, i would latch each seat to one, but the no child seat anchors is annoying.
Also it would make it so much easier for the kids to access the 3rd row if the center seat in the 2nd row is removed
I am hopeful that our double stroller will fit in the trunk of the EL. We're looking at "the one" on Saturday, and hopefully it will work out. I dislike the height of the car, I dislike not being able to walk to the back, but we're looking for safety over (so very much) convenience and comfort.
Good point. Maybe I will be able to fit two car seats in the 2/3 part of the 3rd row. I will bring our Dionos.
I Could not get out of the mini van fast enough.
Hated every minute of it.
A 6 year old should be well tall enough for a high back booster using the seat belt. I too am keeping my kiddos in a car seat as long as possible. But do have a high back belt positioning booster for a 5 year old in the Wife’s Highlander 3rd row as a car seat just is not good back there
There are some really good high back boosters that are going to be as equally as safe as a car seat utilizing a seatbelt and not the latch system.
Really? That's hopeful! Do you have any names of these super safe boosters? Are there any boosters that have the chest clip and the crotch strap or really only the seatbelt ones? If that's the case, then the one tether in the 3rd row might not be an issue with me. I am sure a great booster like you are referring to will be cheaper than asking our mechanic to weld in a second tether.
We bought a Sienna when wife was about to have the 3rd thinking it would be a great family mover. Nope, nope, and nope. What a terrible riding vehicle seats were no where near as comfortable as my EL.
Torque steer and handled awful on the 2 lane country roads we traverse.
Double BOB stroller barely fit in the rear cargo section, had to be bungee strapped to the rear head rest to stay in place.
Kids constantly closing and opening the sliding doors.
EL has far more room both for people and cargo. Drives much better than the Sienna.
So glad we got rid of that thing.
So here was our selling point of SUV vs. Minivan. We test drove the Pacifica and I fell in love. We test drove a Tahoe (not XL) and my husband fell in love on my behalf. To get back to the dealership, we had to take a left on a busy intersection/highway. As we waited to go in both cars, we felt the Pacifica "move" as the semis and small cars flew by us. The same scenario in the Tahoe, we did not feel a thing. I also had no illusions of fitting our huge double (jogging) stroller in the Pacifica/Sienna/Ody. I brought it to our car shopping trip, but when I saw the cargo space, I just kind of gave up of laying that thing down flat.