Comment by maxsilver | Hacker News Reader

Comment by maxsilver | Hacker News Reader

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Part of the issue is that Minivans are really expensive, and parents with lots of kids tend to not have as much money as childless adults.

for Cars and SUVs:

- A Chevy Equinox starts at $28k MSRP.

- A Toyota RAV4 starts at $29k MSRP.

- A Toyota Prius (PHEV) starts at $33k MSRP.

but for minivans:

- A Honda Odyssey (gas only) starts at $42k MSRP.

- A Chrysler Pacifica (PHEV) starts at $51k MSRP.

Minivans are actually really popular for families in the midwest, for folks who can afford it. If you can't, the option becomes "Get a Minivan, or get an SUV and save $15,000 USD", which obviously skews a lot of families towards the SUV.

So shoving two or three kids in the back of a cheap SUV is pretty normal, event though it's less convenient in a lot of other ways.

If you have more than 2 kids the minivan is the clear winner. A two row SUV can't hold 3 car seats, and even a 3 row SUV will have trouble, plus strapping kids in is way harder.

You absolutely can put 3 car seats in two rows. Check out Diono car seats for example.

Actually SUVs often have more width interior side-to-side in bench setups, making it possible to put in 3 child car seats side-by-side (child seats are often very wide, full width of seat and wider than topical adult hip width). Minivans have less, especially in back row where wheel wells are more more likely to be involved since the minivan doesn’t sit as high as an SUV.

Yes, when I looked at minivans it seemed like the concept had lost its way. When they were popular in the 1980-90s it seemed they were bare bones and fairly affordable, and certainly the best way to cheaply move a lot of people. They'd turned into heavily featured family vehicles by the time I was shopping in the 2010s and their prices were so high I never even test drove one.

The same sort of thing happened to trucks which turned into giant impractical luxury vehicles. I think with trucks it is worse though because minivans are actually sleeper cargo haulers where as a lot of trucks its pretend or for show.

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