Comments on: There were three in the back…

By: siefert10

siefert10 — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:22:52 +0000

We fit 3 car seats into honda civic four door in US and into Opel Astra in Europe. Trick is not to use the bulky bases and just use the seatbelts. My suggestion is take your car to a store with lots of car seats and mix and match until they all fit.

By: Western Dave

Western Dave — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 14:27:34 +0000

Loren,
Thanks for the bit of advice. (HK your system doesn’t allow for someone transporting kids). I have a pretty sturdy intermal frame pack that I took on week-long backpacks. It can probably hold a decent percentage of groceries. But not everything. We do walk to a local fruit and vegetable stand in the summer. Our biggest problem is the closest non-disgusting supermarket is three miles away and the local mass transit agency doesn’t take kindly to wagons on the bus. Indeed, they don’t even like strollers on the bus, which is super-annoying. To be carless with a family in my city unless you live in one of the few ritzy neighborhoods, is to be condemned to eating near-rotten, over-priced, and overprocessed food. There are some very good organizations working on food equity issues but they have a long row to hoe.

By: harry b

harry b — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:20:55 +0000

Thanks for all the helpful (and in some cases unhelpful) suggestions—we think we’ve got it sorted out but won’t know for a while. IF so, I’ll post.

My resistance to the minivan is completely about trasnition costs/expense. In fact my elder girl is 9, my younger 5, so they are not tiny, but the recommendations are that the 9 year old remain in a booster till she’s 4 foot 9 which is not for at least a couple more years. Part of the resistance to switching is irritation that it will only be a problem for a relatively brief period.

We’re also a one-car family, and have been so since before our second was born (in fact we went through a 9 month period of being a no car family, but that was in the UK —I can’t imagine organising our lives around not having a car here, at least while we both have jobs and the bus service is as bad as it is).

If we do go the van route (which I think now we shan’t have to) I’ll review all the van suggestions here—very useful.

I’m inspired now to discuss the car seat law issue raised by Levitt, in a separate post.

By: loren king

loren king — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:13:41 +0000

Western Dave: “I’m wondering: how do you get a week’s worth of groceries home for four people without a car?

Like HK, we usually walk the half-mile or so to the local grocer (often with both kids: one in a stroller or wagon, the other in his backback). We pack the groceries in a big backback for one of us to carry, and the rest get packed in the bottom of the stroller or the other side of the wagon (depending which we brought).

By: Helen

Helen — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:49:47 +0000

Sorry for coming in late – once children get to the booster seat stage, they simultaneously acheive the “must bring a friend along stage”. You can hold out against it as long as you want, but life becomes easier when you give in…

Yep. The fact that all three of your children require car seats tells me you have three children who are all still very young. You aren’t prepared for what will happen when the kids reach kinder / school age. It makes it easier for YOU if you can bring friends along (1) to keep your own kids out of your hair, and (2) to reciprocate when other people have entertained your kids, and/or to amass brownie points to get your kids entertained later so you can do something.

If you can’t do this, you and they will be pretty much socially stymied.

I don’t really get this idea of the van as a suburban and bourgeois vehicle. Having played in bands for many years, to me they are redolent of my wilder years. Ah-me. Back to the corporate grind.

By: Emma

Emma — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:45:02 +0000

I’m shocked at the level of support for the idea that a mini-van is required once you have children you want to drive around. My family used to do long road trips, including lots of camping, with 2 adults and 3 children in a sedan. It wasn’t that long ago, but maybe people think they need more space now than they used to? After all, a sedan still has a boot/trunk and if pressed the floor of the car before your children’s legs are long enough to touch the floor.

But I think one car seat and one booster was the most we had at one time, so can’t help you there Harry.

By: Cala

Cala — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 02:27:33 +0000

My parents, with four kids, did fine with a large family station wagon and an assortment of large sedans. If you’re deadset against a minivan, a station wagon would be a good choice.

My mother would have loved a minivan, though. They were the vehicles of choice among the mommy set in the late 80s.

By: Spoon

Spoon — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:27:19 +0000

Car Talk had a question on this subject a couple months back. Click and Clack told the woman to buy a minivan.

My mom often bemoans the fact that, though our minivan is useful lots of the time, it gets bad gas mileage when she’s driving (by herself) to work. My suggestion is that you and yours grab the first hybrid minivan that comes down the road and don’t look back.

By: alan

alan — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 21:34:09 +0000

“I think the anti-SUV folks just don’t realize what it is like to travel with a dog, two kids and luggage long distances.”
Must be the dog that takes up the space. We manage to travel quite long distances with two kids and camping gear – Ottawa to Nova Scotia last year, Ottawa to Newfoundland the year before – in a Subaru Impreza. Bigger than a Civic but quite a bit smaller than a big SUV. A dog of any size would have been a bit of a squeeze though. Actually the SUVs I’ve been in, although large on the outside, didn’t seem to be particularly roomy.

By: serial catowner

serial catowner — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 18:22:22 +0000

Maybe the saddest thing here would be the kids, imprinted like ducklings with automobile travel, but doomed to watch the private car disappear like the dinosaurs in their lifetimes.

Well, at least the decision-making process of buying a car (and believe me, I understand that your requirements are entirely unique) will serve as a handy guide in later life.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:41:58 +0000

get rid of the car if you dare (and if you think convincing your wife of "Reginald" is hard, try to say a car's unnecessary!).

By: HK

HK — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:02:44 +0000

“HK – we are a one car family. I suspect many people on this list are the same. I’m wondering: how do you get a week’s worth of groceries home for four people without a car?”

Two people, backpack each, bag in each hand if necessary. I did this for a year for a house of six adults. Very rarely we would get home delivery for items too large to carry.

By: No Nym

No Nym — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:34:00 +0000

teppo said: “Our solution when we hit three kids was to buy a van”

I take it the sedan was totaled?

By: SamChevre

SamChevre — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:05:20 +0000

You could always go with a classic—an early 80’s Chevy Impala (or Caprice—pretty much the same car.) You can fit 6 adults in, easily; any mechanic can work on it, and any junkyard has parts; and with a 350 and a 4-barrel carb, it will fly (these were common street drag cars in my old neighborhood).

If you want something newer, I’ll second the “don’t rule out the mini-van” group—my Toyota pickup gets better gas mileage than a Camry, and I think the minivans are built on the same frame and engine.

By: Christy the librarian

Christy the librarian — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:14:24 +0000

Whatever you decide, do your homework and check Consumer Reports, edmunds.com, or the Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com). My family needed cargo space, headroom, comfortable seating for 5-7 adults/kids, safety, and good fuel economy. We replaced our van and bought a Toyota Highlander Hybrid.