A Minivan?!
Like many others, I swore that I would NEVER drive a minivan. They are so not cool, right?! Well, I am not ashamed to say that I changed my mind and I don't regret it one bit.
A little backstory: before John and I met, we had both purchased brand new cars. He has a Volkswagen Golf, and I had a Honda Civic. We both absolutely loved our cars - and his was paid off, so only having 1 car payment was fantastic. Although both cars are spacious (mine more than his), after Rosslyn was born we quickly realized that we would need more space. Her infant car seat was pretty compact, but when it was in John's car it was impossible for me to sit in the front passenger seat. I quickly got tired of riding in the back and my Civic became our primary vehicle when we were out together. Although it had more room than the Golf, it was still tight. We started talking about getting something bigger, for both comfort and utility reasons.
I started seeing commercials for the Volkswagen Atlas and thought it was great. John had such a wonderful experience buying through VW, it seemed that this might be an easy decision, even though he didn't think we needed a car that big. John was also a bit skeptical because this SUV is a brand new model and we wouldn't know if it would be reliable or not. We also discussed getting a new Honda CRV - I loved the redesigned body style and they also have tons of room. The more I thought about it, the more I tried to convince John that we needed something with 3 rows. We don't plan on having more kids, so he thought this might be overkill. My argument was that we would never NOT have enough space, and as Rosslyn gets older, we can taxi around her and her friends too. We expanded our search to include the Honda Pilot and also researched a couple of other models, which we quickly eliminated.
The thought of a minivan never really crossed my mind. John mentioned it briefly and I basically told him hell no! Well, I am in a few Mommy groups on Facebook and in one of those groups another member talked about her new Honda Odyssey minivan and how amazing the "magic slide" 2nd row seats were. This piqued my interest and I immediately headed over to the Honda website for more information. What I discovered was: starting with the EX model, the 2nd row middle seat can be removed and the outboard seats can slide side to side and forward/back! There was so much room and by sliding the outboard seat to the middle, Rosslyn would be in the safest position (in my opinion). After more research, we decided that we would probably get the most bang for our bucks by going the minivan route.
Well, last week we did it! We took the plunge and traded in my Civic for a brand new 2018 Honda Odyssey EX. I am so absolutely in love with this van, it's insane. We've only had it a short time, but it has already been so convenient and way more comfortable. There is plenty of room for both John and I, as well as Rosslyn (now in here convertible car seat!) and all of her stuff. We don't have to worry about unloading the stroller before going grocery shopping - now we can just throw down the 3rd row and have plenty of space for everything. We are also excited that there is enough room for my Parents to jump in and ride along if we all want to go to dinner. We are absolutely in love with this thing and I definitely never thought I would say that!!
As a side note - we did also look at the Honda Pilot. Although we both really liked how it looked from the outside, there was very little room in the 3rd row. I know we probably won't have people sitting in the 3rd row often, but if we do, I want them to be comfortable. There would be no way that I could've gotten back there in the Pilot, let alone my father (who is 6'5" tall). I can sit comfortably in the 3rd row of the Odyssey and it is much easier to get in and out of.
