Question for Minivan Owners

[MrsK]

Since neither of our vehicles will hold three carseats, we are minivan shopping. We looked at several models today and found them all to have similar features. One thing surprised me about the automatic sliding doors. Each of the minivans we looked at had a very inviting button inside the door right about toddler eye-level. When the door is opened, for instance when children are entering or exiting the car, if the button is pressed the door will automatically slide shut. Once the door begins sliding shut, it does not automatically stop if something (say, a toddler's foot, arm or hand) is in the doorway. It appears to stop with relatively little force if you stop it quickly but once it is more than 1/3 closed, it continues closing forcefully. I foresee that the K Bros will be tempted to press the button causing the doors to close when we are loading and unloading the vehicle. I'm worried that this will be especially hazardous when I've got 3 kids under 5. Surely, I'm not the only parent who has thought of this. Is there a mechanism to override the button or to cause the door to be more sensitive to obstructions? How do you manage this particular issue?

[GreyhoundsRUs]

They might be able to override it via the car's computer. I know you can turn on and off auto locking features that way (lock when car is in drive, unlock in park). My parents' auto closing is broken and the doors are HEAVY to close. Think the difference between power steering and none.

[Michele]

My Sienna will stop even when more than 2/3 closed. Cause it happens regularly. But I also have a button that I can "turn off" the power doors. I figured that one out after the dealer gave me it back and my doors wouldn't work. I went back and they showed me the little button.

That said, I closed my fingers in the front locked door of my Sienna the other day and had D climb to the front to unlock it....and it wasn't that bad. My hand was sore for a couple of days but I could still use it and do surgery.

I've had the sliding door slam into me while I was buckling in kids and gathering water bottles more times than I could count. Happens daily. I think even if Phe's tiny leg was the very last thing the door contacted, it would only compress it a bit before it opened again. I can test it out on my arm tomorrow if you want. Because even if it hurts I can grab the handle and it will open again.

[spotty_dog]

Since neither of our vehicles will hold three carseats

Are you sure? I have known folks to put three across (including two rear-facing) in the back seat of a Prius. Where there's a will there's a way.

We didn't have the budget for a minivan with all the bells and whistles when we shopped for ours, so we don't have power sliding doors (the power liftgate was tempting though!) What makes are you looking at? I seem to recall we rented something domestic (T&C?) while on vacation and I could swear it had a stop-and-reverse feature.

[migirl]

FWIW, I have three car seats (Sunshine Radians ... super-skinny seats that I learned about here) across the back seat of my car (Hyundai Santa Fe). They fit fine and comfortably.

[BonBon]

We had an Odyssey (2005) and it always stopped & reversed if something was in the way. Never had a problem. I don't particularly care for minivans, but man are they convenient when you have kids. SO much easier to get everyone in and out, and they have a lot of storage.

[MrsK]

Try it with a pencil -- something the size of Phe's finger. I tried this out on the Chrysler Town & Country and on the Volvo minivan. The Sienna is too high for me and there wasn't a Honda Odessy available to test drive.

[Vanquisher]

We had a T&C and it stopped and reversed fine. Admittedly, I never tried it with a pencil.

[MrsK]

Are you sure? I have known folks to put three across (including two rear-facing) in the back seat of a Prius. Where there's a will there's a way.

We didn't have the budget for a minivan with all the bells and whistles when we shopped for ours, so we don't have power sliding doors (the power liftgate was tempting though!) What makes are you looking at? I seem to recall we rented something domestic (T&C?) while on vacation and I could swear it had a stop-and-reverse feature.

We have a 2005 Acura TSX in excellent condition with low millage. We could barely fit the two carseats we have in that one. DrK is a very large man so he cannot drive with a rear facing carseat behind him either. It's paid in full and Carmax offered us $10k for it. We also have a down payment saved up. At the end of the day, the minivan would cost us about $100/mo. So, we were planning to trade in the Acura.

FWIW, I have three car seats (Sunshine Radians ... super-skinny seats that I learned about here) across the back seat of my car (Hyundai Santa Fe). They fit fine and comfortably.

Our second car is a Rav4. I've read that in some instances, three sunshine radians can be professionally installed to fit in the back seat and i'm hoping that will work. However, I've also read that there is something unusual about the seatbelts in the particular model that we have make it impossible to install the three carseats across. We have a third row but it pulls up like a rumble seat so I'm not sure it is safe for a carseat. Also, it cannot be accessed without putting down the second row which I'd have to do every time I loaded the kids and I have zero trunk space when I put up the third row. We were thinking that DrK would use the Rav4 since it was less likely that he'd be traveling alone with all three kids. If possible, we'll put three radians in the second row with the rear facing one on the passenger side so DrK will still be able to drive. Otherwise, we'll just keep the boys' carseats in there so he can at least drive them to school. The minivan would be the mom-mobile/family car for transporting all three.

[ladymoreta]

We have an Odyssey, and it stops really reliably with my arm. I reach in to stop it all the time. I haven't tried it with something small like a pencil or finger, but a regular, non-powered door won't stop at all. I haven't looked into it, but I intuitively think that they'd be more likely to catch their fingers manually closing a door rather than waiting on it to slowly slide closed after pushing a button. Also, to ease your fears, I shut my finger in a manual door as an adult, and the bone didn't break. I lost the fingernail, but by that point it wasn't super painful and the new one was over halfway grown in by the time it came off.

[Sheherezade]

We have a 2008 Odyssey. You can disable the doors. That said, I've never had issues with them nearly closing on a kid. I was also very worried about this when we went minivan shopping for our first Odyssey (this is our second). I made sure I could disable them before we bought. They end up being terribly handy, though.

You can't beat a minivan for convenience. DH got us the Porsche Cayman to balance out the unsexiness.

[MrsK]

It's funny that the doors aren't more sensitive. I'd think they'd have a sensor like an elevator door. The salesperson and I both tried stopping the doors with our hands and arms several times and found that while they sometimes retracted, more often they did not or required quite a bit of force to retract.

I'm reading up on line and it appears that the Odyssey has a feature that causes the doors to be more sensitive to obstructions than the T&C or Sienna.

[MrsK]

BTW, if anyone has good advise about getting three carseats in the second row of a 2007 RAV4, I'm all ears. I'm reading on the carseat blogs that the 2nd row seatbelts in the 2007 RAV4 overlap in a weird way that renders it impossible to install three carseats. I wish that it was practical to use the 3rd row but we need the trunk space for the stroller. K2 will be 2.5yo when the baby arrives so we'll still be in double stroller territory.

[v-girl]

If my door hits something, it reverses and opens back up.

[v-girl]

K has tested this many times.