Best vehicle for 6 carseats

Hi ladies! My son starts Kindergarden in the fall and I'm in the market for a new vehicle so I can drive him (and therefore all the dayhome kids as well). I'll have 6 kids in the vehicle - one rear facing, 4 forward facing in harnessed seats, and one in a belt positioning booster.

What vehicles do people drive? We have narrowed it down to the Honda Odyssey or a Chevy Yukon. Any advice or suggestions on these would be great. I'd love to know what seats people use, particularly in the back rows of these vehicles. Is it possible to do 3 radians across the very back??? Should mention I am buying the carseats ;)

Also consider that whatever seats you buy may have to fit in both directions as the group you have will get older, or change so at any given time the configuration could be different. I don't take the kids in a vehicle so no help there.

I don't transport any kids in my van, but we have the Honda Odyssey and LOVE IT!

The Odyssey is a big contender because it is the ONLY minivan we saw with 6 tether points. But we currently own a Ford Explorer and can't give it up because we need something that is designed for towing. If we don't want to have 2 vehicles, trading up to an 8 passenger SUV seems to be the better financial choice. I really like the Honda Pilot (also has 6 tether points - Honda is smart!!!) but it will come down to wether or not we can get all the carseats in. Decisions, decisions!!!

Did you ever find a solution to the car seats? We just tried putting 2 car seats and a booster in the back of our dodge caravan and it won't work. My daughter starts playschool next week so I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. A vehicle for 4 car seats and one booster.

I'm not not sure car seat wise causes had the cars eats already and just took them to every SUV I liked and tried it. The only SUV that will do 3 carseats in the back that I found is a ford explorer, expedition, or the max.

If you are looking for a used vehicle then without a doubt go for the Chevy venture 8 seater. I had one for 3 years while doing daycare and I had 6 Eddie bauers which worked perfectly.

Now I have a Honda Odyssey 8 seater, the 2013 and it is a tight squeeze but when I needed to replace one of the seats I bought a slimmer one for the middle back seat. In addition the middle row seats are designed to move apart to give extra space to fit 3 car seats in. Sometimes a vehicle may seem to not fit the car seats in but it takes just a bit of nack to put them in a certain way to make them fit. It also helps if they can stay in permanently.

If you can find an older model Dodge Caravan ( I think they changed the model around 2007, so a model 2007 or older) you can get another rear seat and put it in the middle position. That model of Caravan comes with a two-seat bench in the middle and a three-seat bench in the rear. BUT, the benches are interchangeable in those models so you can go to the scrap yard, buy another rear seat and put it in the middle. Voila! Now you have SIX seats to hold daycare kids.

I did this many moons ago when I had to do school runs. I think the scrapyard bench seat cost me around $75 at the time. AND, you can pick up a 2007 model Dodge Caravan for around $2000-$5000 depending on mileage and the shape it's in. AND, if you are using for daycare you can write off the payments as a capital cost.

If the whole purpose of this is to drive your son to school it seems to me he would be in the zone for bussing if it is too far to walk. This seems like an awful expense and hassle for the cost of a runabout stroller instead to walk to the bus stop.

That is a lot of buckling kids in and out of carseats if you have to put them in to get there, get them out to take son to his class/door/area etc, then back in for the trip home.

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Originally Posted by playfelt

If the whole purpose of this is to drive your son to school it seems to me he would be in the zone for bussing if it is too far to walk. This seems like an awful expense and hassle for the cost of a runabout stroller instead to walk to the bus stop.

That is a lot of buckling kids in and out of carseats if you have to put them in to get there, get them out to take son to his class/door/area etc, then back in for the trip home.

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Not necessarily. In my city you have to be 1.6 kilometers away from the school to get bussing. We are 1.2 kms away and when my kids were in school I had to walk with all the dckids that distance. And that is a LONG way for little kids back and forth at least twice a day.

Yup what Judy said... we were 1.5 km (as in about 4 houses to close) from the school. So that was 3km per drop off and 3km per pick up, that is 6km in toatal... WAY to far for dckids to walk every day and that doesnt even account for snow or rain.

I would be inclined to hire parent/student to walk my kid. By the time you pay for the vehicle, car seats, insurance this would be cheaper and way less of a hassle.

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Originally Posted by glarkley

The Odyssey is a big contender because it is the ONLY minivan we saw with 6 tether points. But we currently own a Ford Explorer and can't give it up because we need something that is designed for towing. If we don't want to have 2 vehicles, trading up to an 8 passenger SUV seems to be the better financial choice. I really like the Honda Pilot (also has 6 tether points - Honda is smart!!!) but it will come down to wether or not we can get all the carseats in. Decisions, decisions!!!

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I love my Honda odyssey! Love love love. I have the 8th seat (jump seat, the middle seat in the second row). I also wanted the Pilot but the very back row is kinda tight, not sure that you could get 3 car seats back there. As for the towing, we have no problem towing our utility trailer full of dirt, scrap metal, camper trailer, etc.

As for car seats, at one time, both of my children were in Cosco Sceneras, (now Safety First Sceneras I think) and I was still able to put a booster seat in the middle. My 5 foot tall mom was able to sit in between them. Best part about those car seats-they go rear facing to 20 lbs (Or 22?) and forward facing until 40 lbs. Also, they are the cheapest ones at Walmart! Extra bonus!

No one has mentioned this yet, but it's going to be so hard to get the back row children in and out of their car seats! That's just my opinion though, because I have tried it myself. Don't forget that once the car seats in the middle row are positioned, the seats cannot over, how will you access the children in the very back seat? Unless you put them in thru the trunk and fasten them in like that. Personally, I dont usually transport kids that often, but when i do, only transport children who are old enough to be in boosters or old enough not to be in a booster at all. thats' because its so hard to access the kids in the very back. My oldest kids sit in the very back because they can do their own seat belts.

Let us know what you en up doing because I am curious to know :)

I live in a small town that has a terrible playschool so I am choosing to drive her the 15km into the next town for school, no busing or walking options. I ended up going into sears last night and bought a Radian car seat. With that I can use my regular size car seat and booster in the middle of the back row. It's still tricky to buckle the booster so I might just leave it buckled all the time and loosen and unloosen it by the shoulder strap. Then the middle seat has 2 bucket seats so it's a tight fit but will work. (I can squeeze between the bucket seats to get to the back) :thumbsup:

I assume you have gotten parents to sign permission for the trips. That is 60 km a day they will be just sitting in the van. Hopefully it isn't every day school and only some days or that is a lot of downtime for them.

I have full permission from all parents ( I can't imagine that someone wouldn't do that) and plans for fun things to do while in the other town. The play school is in a rec centre. That is why I chose it. And it is only twice per week.

Walmart sells a very skinny booster seat that I can fit in my Grand Caravan between 2 car seats. It is super tight but do-able.

You can fit three seats in the back of the the odyssey. I have it set up like that in my. I pull the door side middle row seat forward and the back flips forward. If the kids are able to then they go in and climb into their seat one at a time and when they are all seated, I climb in and fasten them all in and I'm not small by any means. It's not glamorous but not the end of the world by any means. It's doable and worth it if you've got to go out.