Oh man, I think back to road tripping in our minivans as a kid 20 years ago and that recliner would have been sooooo nice.

Kids today don't know how good they have it.

 

She won’t. She will drive it until it leaves her stranded. She would never wash or maintain a car left to her own devices. Before she knew me her dad took care of her car, she wouldn’t even begin to know how to get an oil change.

I could just say “drive it broken then” but obviously I want my wife and kids in a well maintained and safe car.

 

well that's what roadside assistance is for?

if the things that you notice needing to go to the shop for don't bother her, why is it an issue? I know you said you have to drive it also though.

 

Because they aren’t safe. It’s not safe to drive a car with creaking suspension and grinding brakes, binding sliding doors that have fallen off of people’s vans. And like you said, if anything I drive it more than she does.

Its also not that they don’t bother her, she complains about them to me, she just would never deal with it.

 

We had it pretty good in our Chevy conversion van in the mid-80s. Giant sofa bed in the back row was usually laid down, and we'd be tumbling all over the place. in the mid 90's my good friend's parents got a conversion Suburban, and it had the probably like 10" TV + VCR in the center console, and we thought THAT was living.

 

Understand this 200%.

And I think it would be terrible to have my wife and child potentially on the side of the road, roadside assistance or not. Especially right now when it's super hot and humid and the car is going to heat up instantly.

 

Surround view cameras can easily turn into a MUST HAVE, especially for a large sized 3 row. I'd cut the vehicle shopping list to only cars that have that option. If the wife really does us this tech, don't regret it by moving away from it and feel 'stuck' in the lease and hate it every month way too early.

I was going to suggest the PILOT (which has 3 rows) but don't think the latest model has surround view. It may have proximity sensors. That's not the same thing. You dont need proximity sensors to fit perfectly in between two cars. Surround view cameras are a godsend for the daily task of parking at least 2x a day.

 

Pilot doesnt have the surround view, and doesnt have sliding doors.

I 100% agree with this, the issue is the only minivan that has this tech in a package that works well for us is the Pacifica. We could get another Sedona (the outgoing one) or an outgoing Sienna, but the seating setups in those vehicles don't work, its too hard to access the third row with the lounge chairs. The challenge is her desire to have a minivan that has that feature when the only one that exists we already have and has been a reliability nightmare.

So the solution would be to go to a crossover where that feature is much more common and there are lots of options, but she doesn't want to do that. So, we're kinda stuck. She's not willing to compromise between sliding doors and a surround view camera, and I think justifiably I don't want to take the risk with another Pacifica...I don't want an Odyssey either, but I would get an Odyssey over another Pacifica. She's put herself in a position where the ONLY vehicle that works for her that is available is the Pacifica.

Exactly, and we take the vehicle on long road trips...I don't want our trips to be interrupted either.

I have no problem maintaining the vehicle, getting it washed, servicing it, its the having to put it in the shop for several days EVERY MONTH I don't want to deal with anymore. Driving it through the car wash and through a JiffyLube is a different story. I want them and all of us to have a safe, reliable family vehicle.

Huge bummer that Honda doesn't seem to think this feature is important in a vehicle like a minivan. I was really surprised when the refresh didn't have it.

 

You might be in luck in finding a Lexus RX cross over with surround view. Alternatives include Volvo XC60 or XC90, or top trim for Mazda CX5 CX7 or CX9.

Surround view is really a cool feature. We did go through two Odyssey's and a Venture (long long time ago) and graduated to SUV and have not missed sliding doors one bit.

 

If I needed a minivan, the Odyssey would be the one. Powertrain is tried and true, and the interior materials were very impressive in a 2019 model I spent some time in. The Shop-Vac is kinda cool too

 

Wasn't the CX-7 dropped many years ago?

 

You may be right on that point on CX7. Either go compact with CX5 or go big in CX9.

 

haha, cx5? Waaaaay too small.

 

How about a subaru ascent?

 

No surround view on Subaru either. They give a front cam, and a rear cam, but doesn't help with parking alignment/placement.

Although Subaru does offer the digital camera mirror which is nice in long vehicles.