First off, congratulations on the birth of your son!! It's such an awesome experience (for the dad anyways). It's hard to explain how much life changes in that one moment.
I can't think of any reviews I've read where the Venture scored very well. Even the Kia van might be a better buy. One thing to consider, some vans are sold with child seats built in. Our Grand Caravan has two child seats built into the front bench seat. When I saw that feature, I wanted the van. They're not infant seats, but when your kid gets a little older, say two years old you can move him into these seats. They work great. When he outgrows them, you just flip up the bottom of the seat and the straps and it's a regular bench seat.
Yes the P5 is a great performer and can take corners really well, but that's not an emergency manuever. When you get out on the freeway and you have to dodge a flying piece of tire or something, you'll crap your pants trying to do this in a minivan. Also, the P5 scored well in crash tests. My wife would not let me buy it if it had not. We have two girls and safety is big for us too.
I have to say, and please don't take offense, that I find it hilarious that we have to have fire departments certified to install a car seat. Trust me, by the time you get to your second or third child, you'll think it's funny too. As long as you can get the kid in the car seat, that's the biggest safety feature right there. I saw on the news one time about a guy who had his infant in the car seat, and sat the seat on top of the roof of the car while he was doing something. He forgot that the child was up there, he got in his car and drove off. Well naturally at one point the seat came off the car onto the road and skidded along upside down. Guess what? The kid was fine. The parent was an idiot, but the kid was fine.
If you do end up getting a van, I think the MPV is the best performer of the group though not the most spacious. The new stow and go seat option on some of the new vans is pretty cool too. The Windstar and Grand Caravan have them as options. The Toyota may have it also but you would have to check. I love having a minivan. When I take out all the seats, I can fit things like a full size couch or full 8' sheets of plywood and still close the hatch. It's so handy, I can't imagine not having one. Sir Nuke mentioned that he saw an ad where they put a Harley inside a Grand Caravan and used the floor latches as tie downs. Try doing that in a P5!
Good luck and happy shopping. I love car shopping. It's like pulling teeth to my wife, but I love getting out and looking.
