Tip #5: What Lazy Parents Should Look For In A Car
Karl Woll| August 25, 2008 5:19 pm
Photo by Brit on Flickr.
Parents aren’t limited to minivans these days. Lots of cars, SUVs, and crossovers provide good alternatives, with many great features. Sure there are lots of important safety features such as air bags, stability control, emergency communication systems, blah, blah, blah, but what a lazy parent is really concerned about is features that make their life easier for transporting their children all over Timbuktu. Here is a list of the top ten features a lazy parent should look for when purchasing a car.
1 ) Back seat DVD player: First and foremost, the greatest feature ever introduced into a car, is the small screen DVD players. You should look for one that has wireless headphones, and a jack for connecting a gaming system such as PlayStation. You can even buy these after market from somewhere like Costco, that strap to the head rest of the front seat. Better still, you can find a dual screen system, with one screen mounted into the back of each of the front head rests. Trust me, your kids will be much happier on any lengthy trip with a DVD screen of any kind. A good example is the Chrysler Town & Country.
2 ) Sirius TV: This beautiful feature will deliver three channels to your back seat screen: Nickelodeon, Disney, and the Cartoon Network. It will also allow you to listen to Sirius radio in the front, while your kids are watching TV in the back. Its just another option of what your kids can watch after they’ve watched the Little Mermaid over 200 times. Also, having TV channels can help you remove DVD clutter from the car.
3 ) Back seat climate control: “Can you turn the heat up?… It’s too hot in here!..I’m cold, turn the heat up again! I’m still cold…oh wait I’m hot now, I mean cold..” AHHHH shut up!!! Kids can drive you crazy complaining about the interior temperature. Introducing rear seat climate control. Let the little brat control his own destiny (or a least body temperature). Some cars now even feature 3rd row climate control.
4 ) Chill zone: As far as I know the only car to have this feature is the Dodge Avenger. The chill zone is a mini fridge where your glove box used to be. Not only great for keeping your beer cold, but also your child’s juice boxes on longer trips.
5 ) Power doors: These work great when your hands are full of kids and their junk. Simply press the button on your key fob and watch the doors magically open for you. You can also open from the inside when you park. Example, Dodge Caravan.
6a ) Fold-flat third row seats: Extra seating is great when your stuck hauling your child and her playmates around, but its also nice to have extra space in the back for strollers and other stuff. This is why you will love the extra room fold-flat third row seating gives you. Example, Honda Odyssey.
6b ) Easy access third row seating: The Hyundai Veracruz is the master of this. It just makes life easier if your children can scramble into the back without a lot of fuss.
7 ) Cargo space: Lots is nice. The more cargo space, the more room you have to cram your kids’ junk in the car. A good general rule is 50 cubic feet or more with rear seats folded. Also, having storage pockets attached behind the front seats is a great place to store items for your kids, and surprisingly not all cars have them. You can also look for cars that have in-floor storage for extra goodies.
8 ) Integrated booster seat: The Volvo v70 has a cool new feature, a booster seat for children that is already integrated. It has two positions for children of different sizes. No more fussing with your regular booster seat, making sure its properly secured, and removing it make room when you don’t need it only to put it back in the next day.
9 ) Backup camera: If you have a garage, no doubt your kids have left their crap on your driveway at some point. If you have a larger vehicle, it will have fairly large blind spots. This is a bad combination. These nifty backup cameras show you on an interior dashboard monitor whats directly behind the car, whether its little Timmy’s bike, or Timmy himself. It will save you a lot of headache if you avoid hitting either of these objects.
10 ) Cup holders: Don’t laugh. Yes, these are a basic item, but not all cup holders are created equally. Do they have little corners cut out for juice boxes? Is there more than 1 in the back seat? Easily accessible? 2 or more easily accessible cup holders in the back is essential.
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