Have a look at my forum post further down (started by movilogo)...about Toyota imports.

Trust me...you have little to be concerned about....I've had my Estima for 5 years now...never regretted it for a minute.

Fabulous vehicles ...just go look at one and drive it...my guess is you'll SO want one.!!

IMO, you simply can't get a better MPV.

Edited by nellyjak on 27/04/2021 at 10:22

The seat belts were never an issue for me....as there is only me and my wife.

We use the Estima more as a day van..we simply love the space and the comfort.

Mine is the 7 seater with the two centre captain's chairs with the footrests..and you are right...SO comfortable....as are the driver and passenger seats with their luxury upholstery and arm rests.

It's a vehicle you can drivefor many miles without fatigue.

As for mpg. well, that was never an issue for me either, only doing around 5k miles p.a. ( it isn't our only vehicle) and I could never resist the 3 litre V6 and the enjoyment/smoothness of driving it.

Seat belt comment is interesting. I was under the impression that Estima captain seats have 3 point belts in front facing configuration and lap belt only in rear facing configuration. However, after watching few YouTube videos it it now seems it varies across models. Some models have only lap belts in both front and rear facing configurations.

Yes...the seating variations with an Estima are numerous..just depends what the original owner wanted/specified when he bought the vehicle.

We were lucky in that ours was exactly what we wanted

In this YT clip, around 2:30 mark, you can see 3-point seat belts on both 2nd and 3rd row seats.

Not in the centre though, which is what I said.

In that clip, at 2.38 you can clearly see the lap belt in the centre of the rear bench. It doesn't have a lap belt in the centre of the middle row because this is the 7 seat version with the two captains chairs. However, had it been the 8 seater version, the centre seat in the middle row bench would also be a lap belt.

Hence my comment about treating it as a 6 seater with, in this case 1 extra (2 if it were it the 8 seater) seat for use only when necessary.

If the OP is unlikely to ever have more than 6 in the Estima, no probs. But I wouldn't choose one of these if I regularly needed all 7 seats, as a lap belt is much less safe in the event of an accident.

I am confused now. I looked into the video again and I could see seat belt for middle row seats coming from top of each side.

Do you mean it is a 2-point seatbelt but going from shoulder to hip rather than 2-point seatbelt as in airlines?

I somehow assumed 2-point seatbelt = lap belt = airline style. It didn't occur to my mind that 2-point seatbelt can be just shoulder to hip belt without the lap part (as in 3-point seatbelt).

What about the 3rd row seats? Are these 2-point belts as well?

If you check this video at 08:30-09:20, then it clearly shows 3-pt belt in forward facing position and 2-pt belt in rear facing position.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRocY48P0qA

This is older Previa. I find it surprising that Toyota offered this in older Previa but not in later Estima models!

How can prestige models like Alphard/Vellfire/Estima pass Japanese regulations with 2-point seatbelts? I thought Japan takes safety more seriously than Europe!

EDIT: I read your post again and now understood. You mentioned only 2nd row centre seat where it it is a 3-seater rather than 2-seater captains seat configuration.

Imagine we are talking about an 8 seat version. This would have the two front seats, then a 3 seat bench in the middle, then another 3 seat bench at the back. The two outboard seats on each rear bench has 3 point belts, but the centre seat on each bench will just have a lap belt (like an airline).

That older Previa had an extra feature which I hadn't been aware of, which is a separate lap belt for the two captains chairs in the middle row. This is because the 3 point belts are mounted on the car rather than the seats. So if you chose to sit in the middle row facing rearwards during travel, you wouldn't be able to use the 3 point belts as they are in the wrong position relative to the seat. So the lap belt is there to use only in that situation. In the Estima video you can see that it has seatbelts built in to the captains chairs, so even facing rearwards, you can still use the 3 point belt.

Bottom line is that in all but the youngest 7 or 8 seat JDM MPV's, you will get a maximum of 6 proper 3 point belts along with 1 or 2 lap belts. Had a look on Autotrader and I saw a 2018 Vellfire (7 seater) which did have a (roof mounted) 3 point belt for the centre rear seat. On a 2013 Honda Stepwagon (8 seater), the centre seat on the middle row did have a 3 point belt, but the centre seat on the rear row still just had a lap belt. Re safety, it does surprise me too, but presumably certain aspects of car safety are not considered of similar importance to EU?. It is about the only area where the MPV's we got officially in the UK are better, as we had 3 point belts for all seats in MPV's many years ago.

Edited by badbusdriver on 27/04/2021 at 18:26