I used to let my children ride in the 3rd seat of our TE/4matic, but that's because they loved to. Mostly for freeway travel.

I felt that they would be safer in our E150 conversion, but that's why we bought the E150 conversion, safety.

We've been in a serious accident, hit head-on / left corner by a drunk, police estimate 85mph+. We all survived, except the 2year old van, but that's why I bought the only body-on-frame double-wall constructed full-size van in the industry. You have to make choices, be sure that you can live with the consequences of those choices, I do. The minivans are mostly paper-mache in comparison, I've met two people who lost children in minor accidents in minivans.
The T124 was/is to me the car version of the heavy-duty vancar, and what I preferred to drive. I feel very good about the collision survivability in the center and front seats of that car.
Yes it is likely that, in the unfortunate event of a rear-end collision, your children are less safe than in many minivans in a similar collision (unless it is the notorious Dodge with the self-ejecting rear seats). I wouldn't put my in-laws in a Dodge minivan.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff