I have a 4.5 year old in a booster seat and a 2.5 year old in a carseet and triplets on the way. We'd like to buy a minivan and we love the Honda Odyssey, but aren't sure we can fit 4 carseats plus a booster in it. We could probably put our oldest daughter in the mini seat in the 2nd row of the 05 Odessey, but has anyone been able to fit 2 carseats in the 3rd row of a Honda? It looked to me like the latch and tether system was only on the middle seat, leaving no room for another carseat in the 3rd row. The Sienna has an option for 3 seats in the middle row, but is it as nice as the Odessey to drive? I've heard only one door has an automatic open. Anyone with ideas or thoughts, please help!

bbb due 4/26/05

Sorry for the late response... I don't come to the "Consumer Corner" that often though I really should.

I'm in a similar predicament except I have one toddler (2 yrs old) and triplets on the way. We are also looking at the 05 Odyssey vs 05 Sienna (see my thread "mini-vans and car seats"). As much as I love Toyotas, we're leaning more toward the Odyssey.

Yes, the 3rd row of the Odyssey has LATCH hooks for one car seat only (middle), but as people have mentioned in the other thread, you don't necessarily need LATCH if you install the car seat correctly. Also one person mentioned that you can buy the LATCH hooks(?).

Many people have said that they can fit 3 car seats in the middle row of the Sienna. However this only makes sense if you don't need to access the back row. The way the Sienna seats fold (flat, then flip forward) won't work with a car seat in the seat.

Regarding the automatic doors, I think only the Sienna XLE has them on both sides. The other have them only on the passenger side.

Hope this helps.

-edvige-

~eglennon
mom to B 11/22/02
and BBB 12/13/04 at 35w

We struggled with what vehicle to buy for several months and settled on using our older 97 Odyssey. This decision lasted a whole week, after having to take two trips from the hospital in order to carrry everything.

We have our triplets and a 4-year old. We ended up buying a new Dodge Sprinter passenger van (140-in wheel base). Now that we have had it for over a month now, we have decided that we would move out of our house into the van before we would get rid of this Sprinter. It is very odd looking, and you ALMOST get as much attention from the van as the triplets, however, it has become the perfect transport. We installed a DVD player to keep the 4-year old busy and Mom too when she has to pull over to nurse. In this beast, you have a ton of room to move around to make it easier to nurse, and has plenty of room for a triplet stroller. The best thing is that it gets between 20 30 MPG since it is a deisel....we love it. I gaurantee you will too, if you can get past the looks of it.

Even last night I had Dema, my wife, go out with here MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) group while I took care of teh triplets and teh 4-year old....it was easy. I simply loaded them up and drove until they were asleep, parked, then my son and I watched a DVD until Dema got home....you have to be resourceful.

Good Luck,
Bill
Bill & Dema

Bill & Dema