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That's the plan, I will never buy a 1st year model car ever again. And with second kiddo on coming soon, wife wants a minivan in the near future
2 kids, my mom had us in a 1990 Civic Si...
I drove an Ody for a bit and a Routan...aside from the image, they are actually very useful...the sliding doors are a game changer and they are the easiest thing to load big shit into, Suburban included.
Coworker is on their [wife's] 3rd or 4th Sienna. They love it for kid hauling.
My wife refuses, fully recognizes the utility of it, but would rather walk.
She's pretty content with the MiniBus [Expedition Max]
Will get our first taste of vanlife this summer. We'll be borrowing a friend's PHEV Pacifica for a few days in CA while we housesit.
+1 on the van. Very practical and it’s unbelievable how much fits in it, 3rd row up or down. Ours is a 2011 Odyssey Touring Elite, bought new in 2010 just when they came out. Biggest issue is a catalytic went bad, many say it’s from the VCM. Mine has the 3.5L v6 with the 6spd transmission. Other than that some gasket leaks, but I can’t remember having any serious issues. We have 150k miles on it, I don’t want to get rid of it, but I also don’t want another van.
we did the factory tow package because the after market stuff sat below the bumper, factory has a cutout. I only pulled a tiny single axel enclosed uhaul trailer with it and one of the jetski when it needed some more service and had to be brought in to a shop.
No kids for experience but always love seeing friends panic over having one kid and needing a bigger car for some reason. Currently have a friend expecting their first and his wife is saying they need a 3 row SUV with being due in 4 months.
We had a EM2 [7G] Civic Sedan & a 2G TL with 2 carseats.
The TL gave way to the Ford Flex, which was definitely an improvement, since the J32 was not in the best of health.
Sliding doors, nuff said. Getting a car seat into a regular door is doable but a pain in the ass most of the time in parking lots. Also not having to worry about your kids swinging the door open to get out and smackin the car next to you is a plus!
No kids for experience but always love seeing friends panic over having one kid and needing a bigger car for some reason. Currently have a friend expecting their first and his wife is saying they need a 3 row SUV with being due in 4 months.
Please Ack skip the minivan world.
While where there's a will there's a way, having a big car with kids is infinitely easier than a small car with kids. We quickly found that a Subaru Outback is, while doable, not ideal even with one kid and a larger dog to travel anywhere. By the time you include our clothes, her clothes, the dog's stuff, stroller, pack n play, toys, food/snacks, etc you will definitely fill the back to the brim. Having the 3 row Ascent was life changing to have space to carry all the things anytime we want with ease.
Definitely not absolutely necessary but if you have the means, it's for sure worth it.
We just have one kid so no real reason to have a van. Content with the Subaru anyway.
We've gotten by just find for 3 years with her Forester, and plan to do so for another year or 2 before switching to a van. I just know that is what she is eyeing for the next vehicle. It's either going to be a Toyota or a Honda so at least I got her buy in on that aspect lol
No kids for experience but always love seeing friends panic over having one kid and needing a bigger car for some reason. Currently have a friend expecting their first and his wife is saying they need a 3 row SUV with being due in 4 months.
Please Ack skip the minivan world.
I have an SUV with 3 rows already lol
I have tried convincing her to get a larger SUV but she would rather have the van with sliding doors, etc. It's her vehicle so it is what it is. My mom had a minivan for 30 years or so and it was always nice to help move stuff
Small, annoying little update. When I got my wheels swapped, somehow NTB managed to break my 3D printed camera mount even though I had it tucked up into the roof. They half ass glued it and taped it together, but I knew that wouldn't last.
After driving a few times, the tape let loose and obviously the glue didn't do jack. So this was the aftermath.
Since the old one was a one off custom made arm I needed to find a suitable replacement, and given what happened to the last mount I opted for something more flush mount. Found this on Etsy.
It's designed to use the stock clip, however since I already had threaded a bolt into that hole, I opted to use the screw with some washers.
Here it is installed
Added some new 3M double-sided tape
And installed. I'll have to play with the aiming to get the angle right, but I'm just happy to not have it hanging by the wire anymore....
Overall happy with the change, I had wanted to shorten the old mount, just not by having it destroyed, oh well
If you need anything printed, I could possibly do it for you. We have a carbon fiber onyx printer at work that I can do little stuff on when it is not in use. Share a sketch of what you would like. I can make a model of it and see what the cost to print would be.