highlander or minivan?

[skohng]

long story short, I need to hand over my beloved accord to MIL and get a new car. we will TTC soon for #3 so are thinking we should get an SUV or minivan.

we found a screaming deal on a highlander but after reading these boards i'm worried about the carseat configuration.

please tell me, is it doable? We'd be willing to buy whatever carseat necessary to make it work in the highlander. sounds like 3 across is near impossible, so could ds2 and potential #3 ride in front with ds1 in the 3rd row?

DS1 - 5.5yo, rides in graco turbobooster and/or frontier and/or nautilus
DS2 - 3yo, rides in true fit and/or MA
#3 -

[Joolsplus2]

I don't know how much leg and headroom there is in newer Highlanders, but in a 2004 the third row looked like a mini-row, I was *shocked* how little room there was back there (when you think about a head flying forward 32" in a bad crash, there was nothing like that much space, more like 20", it seemed? ouch). If it's more reasonably sized (than the 2004 I saw) and has the captain's chair option in the middle, it might be ok (having a bench will let you do 3-across, but makes the 3rd row basically inaccessable, since you're still early in your carseat usage ages....).
Minivans are just so much easier when you have three, but if the budget is what it is, I'm sure we can find something that works (word has it the newest Parkways are easier to buckle when next to another seat...and if the third row is pretty small, oldest kiddo might be in a small backless or no booster at all before you know it, but will have to clamber over the other seats to get back there, unless there's the captain's chairs...well, now I"m just rambling, I still have nightmares remembering trying to get more than 4 people into our old Rendezvous before I broke down and bought a van, lol).

[skohng]

lol thanks jools. i think it's not only the budget to contend with, but also a DH who is in minivan-denial.

I worry about that third row too. Even though it *could* work I'd rather everyone be safe and comfy. I'm pretty sure it's either an 05 or 07 highlander we're talking about.

[BabyBearsMom]

I am biased, but I have an Odyssey and absolutely love it. So easy to get everyone in and out and the back seat is comfortable and roomy. In the new 2011 Odysseys, they have latch in all three seats of the second row so you could have all your kiddos there, which is just so convenient.

[skohng]

see, i think once we have a 3rd DC we would feel more urgent about getting the minivan. but since we haven't even TTC yet (planning to soon) it feels a bit silly having a minivan for 2 DCs. Is it worth buying temporarily the highlander and waiting until we ABSOLUTELY need the minivan, or springing for it now?

[Joolsplus2]

We loved our minivan with two kids, and our surprise #3 didn't even really come along till a couple years later ;). Convince him they are both big ugly people movers, you might as well have cargo space and sliding doors to make life easier, lol.

[twowhat?]

I vote minivan. We also considered the highlander for 2 kids. IMO the flexibility of being about to take extra cargo or passengers, the sliding doors, etc make the minivan a far more practical buy, even for "just" 2 kids.

[edurnemk]

Minivan is more practical, definitely. That said I'm the same camp as your DH, I absolutely refuse to get a minivan for myself, I love driving them as long as I don't own them, :tongue5:. I told DH the other day that I don't want one when we have more kids, I may change my mind later on, but right now I'd die, :hysterical: I only want SUV's or crossovers, at least for now.

[pb&j]

Minivan is more practical with 3, but the 3rd row in the new highlanders isn't so bad - plenty of room. Certain models come with the middle seat in the second row that folds up and stows away, so it's two captain's chairs in the middle row. This makes the 3rd row is easy to access. IMO, the newer highlanders are basically minivans w/o sliding doors and just a little less headroom.

[o_mom]

Well, IME, the Highlander is not very family-friendly if you have more than two kids. Putting three carseats across the middle row is difficult to impossible. The removable center seat/console on the newer ones makes it slightly easier to access the third row, but with the third row up, the cargo room pretty pitiful. You can barely fit a few bags of groceries behind the third row, let alone anything bigger than an umbrella stroller. They have finally made the third row a split, so you could put one seat back there and fold half down for cargo room, but it makes more projectile and securing cargo issues. Older models are even worse for these issues, so if you are looking at used ones, check carefully that it will be functional.

ETA: Just now saw that it was 05 or 07.... the 05 for sure does not have the split third row... the cargo room is very, very minimal on that one. Not sure when they changed.

ETA2: I would get a minivan now if you are getting one. Trading/replacing a vehicle after just two years or less is not a wise financial move. Especially talking about essentially no difference in milage or maintanence. However, if you routinely replace every 2-3 years, you could probably do it.

[lhafer]

I have a minivan. I always say I have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate that I LOVE it!! :rotflmao:

Something else you may want to consider, especially if you keep your cars for a while is your kids' friends. They are only 5 and 3 now, but in a few years they will be in school and be getting friends who may need a ride home from school, to [sport] practice, ride to the mall, etc. Having room for a friend or 2 will be very handy! And NOTHING beats the sliding doors. Hands down a minivan's BEST feature! Especially when having to deal with infant seats, and little ones in car seats.

I plan on having the van for a quite a few more years. Then when the kids are big enough and don't need a mom mobile to tote them around I will finally get *my* car!!

[3blackcats]

I have a Honda Ody for 1 kid and love it! My father in law drove an 04 highlander. There was no easy access to the 3rd row, IMO.

You won't regret the minivan. Power doors and power tailgate so worth it. You can walk up to your van and have the doors already open and set your kid/all the stuff we carry to the car so we don't have to make more then one trip down. In an SUV, you would have to fight the door open. DD knows when the door to the van is open to walk and try to get in.

[HannaAddict]

I wouldn't go with the Highlander. Check out www.motherproof.com. Fun site where moms review cars and they do car seat tests. They just did a review of installing car seats in the Highlander. So far, about 25 cars. I've liked the site for a couple of years now, wish I'd thought of it.

[WatchingThemGrow]

You won't regret the minivan. Power doors and power tailgate so worth it. You can walk up to your van and have the doors already open
:yeahthat: I did 3 across in CR-V and shortly thereafter got the minivan. Worlds of difference.

[Pbl427]

I guess I will be the lone voice in support of a highlander, although ours is a 2009. It definitely depends on individual circumstances as to whether or not this will work for you. In our case, I have a 3.5yo DS and 1yo twins. I realize we will likely need a minivan eventually, which is why we chose to lease this car. Once the kiddos are bigger and there are carpools, etc we will need more flexibility. I just did not want more car than I needed to start with and most importantly, I would need to have 3 across in the middle row of any vehicle - minivan or SUV - as older DS (2.5 when the twins were born) can't buckle himself in. If I used the 3rd row, I would need to crawl back to the 3rd row every time to buckle him in, which is not practical for everyday.

Until recently, we had two infant seats and a radian 80 in the 2nd row of our highlander and we now have 2 coccoro's and a radian back there. While the infant seats were a tight but effective fit, the coccoro's and Radian fit comfortably and the coccoro's are short enough rear facing to allow older DS to climb behind them to get into the center position. When we have guests visiting, we have had the Radian in the 3rd row along with an adult and another adult sitting with the twins in the 2nd row. All in all, it works for us and we have no regrets about our choice.

As a side note, I had the opportunity to use a friend's Odyssey for a few days and I HATED it! The sliding doors actually made loading with twins much more difficult. Since the doors, when open, make the vehicle much wider, it makes it next to impossible to pull the stroller close to the door to load a baby or carseat - meaning I would need to leave the stroller towards the back of the car during loading, which always made me nervous, particularly in high traffic parking lots. That fact alone, validated our choice of vehicle for me.

[twowhat?]

I guess I will be the lone voice in support of a highlander, although ours is a 2009. It definitely depends on individual circumstances as to whether or not this will work for you. In our case, I have a 3.5yo DS and 1yo twins. I realize we will likely need a minivan eventually, which is why we chose to lease this car. Once the kiddos are bigger and there are carpools, etc we will need more flexibility. I just did not want more car than I needed to start with and most importantly, I would need to have 3 across in the middle row of any vehicle - minivan or SUV - as older DS (2.5 when the twins were born) can't buckle himself in. If I used the 3rd row, I would need to crawl back to the 3rd row every time to buckle him in, which is not practical for everyday.

Until recently, we had two infant seats and a radian 80 in the 2nd row of our highlander and we now have 2 coccoro's and a radian back there. While the infant seats were a tight but effective fit, the coccoro's and Radian fit comfortably and the coccoro's are short enough rear facing to allow older DS to climb behind them to get into the center position. When we have guests visiting, we have had the Radian in the 3rd row along with an adult and another adult sitting with the twins in the 2nd row. All in all, it works for us and we have no regrets about our choice.

As a side note, I had the opportunity to use a friend's Odyssey for a few days and I HATED it! The sliding doors actually made loading with twins much more difficult. Since the doors, when open, make the vehicle much wider, it makes it next to impossible to pull the stroller close to the door to load a baby or carseat - meaning I would need to leave the stroller towards the back of the car during loading, which always made me nervous, particularly in high traffic parking lots. That fact alone, validated our choice of vehicle for me.

Interesting that you point this out. Here's how we get around it (we have twins and an Odyssey) - I always pull the stroller around to the front side of the car, THEN open the sliding doors. Then the stroller is parked as close to the car as you want while the sliding doors open away from you. IMO, it's easier to load twins (or any baby) with the sliding door, esp in tight parking lots (which was have a lot of here) - the sliding doors take up much less side-to-side space when open than an SUV door would. And when my kids were in infant seats, we'd have to open an SUV door ALL the way open in order to wrangle the seat into the car, and it wasn't practical when a lot of our parking spaces here are "compact car only".

Anyway, it's interesting to see how individual experiences differ!!

[lhafer]

I guess I will be the lone voice in support of a highlander, although ours is a 2009. It definitely depends on individual circumstances as to whether or not this will work for you. In our case, I have a 3.5yo DS and 1yo twins. I realize we will likely need a minivan eventually, which is why we chose to lease this car. Once the kiddos are bigger and there are carpools, etc we will need more flexibility. I just did not want more car than I needed to start with and most importantly, I would need to have 3 across in the middle row of any vehicle - minivan or SUV - as older DS (2.5 when the twins were born) can't buckle himself in. If I used the 3rd row, I would need to crawl back to the 3rd row every time to buckle him in, which is not practical for everyday.

Until recently, we had two infant seats and a radian 80 in the 2nd row of our highlander and we now have 2 coccoro's and a radian back there. While the infant seats were a tight but effective fit, the coccoro's and Radian fit comfortably and the coccoro's are short enough rear facing to allow older DS to climb behind them to get into the center position. When we have guests visiting, we have had the Radian in the 3rd row along with an adult and another adult sitting with the twins in the 2nd row. All in all, it works for us and we have no regrets about our choice.

As a side note, I had the opportunity to use a friend's Odyssey for a few days and I HATED it! The sliding doors actually made loading with twins much more difficult. Since the doors, when open, make the vehicle much wider, it makes it next to impossible to pull the stroller close to the door to load a baby or carseat - meaning I would need to leave the stroller towards the back of the car during loading, which always made me nervous, particularly in high traffic parking lots. That fact alone, validated our choice of vehicle for me.

Not necessarily true. In a minivan (many of them at least), you have the option of having the second row chairs together (one on the outboard side, and one in the middle) thus leaving the other outboard side open. This makes for easy access to the 3rd row, where you could have your older child sit. You wouldn't have to be crawling all over the seats in order to get to him. At least this makes the 3rd row accessible.

And I also pull the stroller up to the side door first, then open the door. I creates a lot more room if the space is tight.

[hellokitty]

Hands down a minivan. We had a ford explorer when it was just DS1 and it was NOT roomy compared to the minivan and b/c it was higher up (and I am short), I found it more difficult to get my son in and out of his carseat.

[DebbieJ]

Minivan. Sliding doors. "nuff said.

[DebbieJ]

see, i think once we have a 3rd DC we would feel more urgent about getting the minivan. but since we haven't even TTC yet (planning to soon) it feels a bit silly having a minivan for 2 DCs. Is it worth buying temporarily the highlander and waiting until we ABSOLUTELY need the minivan, or springing for it now?

Uh, I have a minivan with two DCs. I LOVE it! I have any Ody. My sister bought a Sienna when she only had ONE child. Now #2 is on the way for her.

Right now I have DS2 in the captain's chair behind me in his RF MA70. I took out the 2nd captain's chair and the Plus One seat and DS1 is in his Nautilus in the 3rd row on the passenger side. It's great for keeping them separated. :D

As noted, you can slide one captain's chair over to create easy access to the third row without having to walk between the seats.

Last week I had the other captains chair in and had my two nieces (and their car seats) with me. I am not a small girl and I was still able to walk between the two captain's chairs to help one of my nieces in the 3rd row. Lots and lots of room in that van! I also fit my sister's BOB Duallie in the cargo area without having to remove any wheels.

LOVE the versatility, it drives beautifully, very user friendly.

[kam]

I vote minivan (or other larger car). You're going to need it eventually, it sounds like, and it would stink to have a relatively new car that doesn't meet your needs. I don't find the highlander to be all that sizeable, either for storage or for more than 4 passengers.

Note: I'm biased. We've got a sedan, and are seriously considering trading it in for a sequoia. So BIG.

[AnnieW625]

My mom has an 05 Highlander (old style) so I know only of that model but the nice thing with that Highlander is that you can have oodles of leg room in the middle row or not as much and have more leg room in the third row.

Besides a van, have you considered something like a Tahoe? That might give you more leg room to get from the second to the third row.

I highly recommend going to an auto show if one is in your area to see how ease of use will be.

[lhafer]

Another vehicle to consider is the Chevy Traverse. It has the space of a minivan, but doesn't have the minivan look.

[carolinamama]

We had to replace a car earlier in the year. We looked at midsized SUVs and minivans. The Odyssey won out because we think we will have a third. I drove an SUV with 2 kids before the Ody and I can tell you - nothing beats the convenience of a minivan. Now I sometimes feel like I drive a frump mobile, especially when I park next to a mom in a sleek SUV or something but ask me how I feel about it after our LONG roadtrip next week and I can guarantee I will be feeling nothing but :love-retry: for my Odyssey. I like the safety of it too.