Need to Fit Three Cars Seats in Sedan Back Seat

[Belle & Ariel]

My daughter is pregnant with third baby and just bought a Volkswagen Passet 6 months ago, so doesn't want to trade for van or bigger SUV.
She has found some slim car seats on line for $450 each. She would need three for her car and three for husband's since they both drop off and pick up kids on way to work.
That's a lot of money!!
Are there other slim car seats that can have three in the seat or two and the infant carrier?

 

[georgina]

Wow, that is a lot of money! Cheaper than buying a new car though. When we were expecting the third is when we bought the minivan.

Cars.com has a list of cars they have found that will fit 3 car seats. The sedans are all the larger American ones. https://www.cars.com/articles/2014/03/which-cars-fit-three-car-seats/ Looking at the back seat of my car, I can't imagine fitting 3 in there. If she can find 3 that will fit, it will be worth paying the money for them I think.

 

[Keira1387]

Here is a list I found that has 47 different car seats that fit 3 across.
https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/...-seats-that-fit-3-across-updated-for-2016.pdf

 

[herdtoDisney]

She should look at the Cosco Scerena NEXT seats. $46 at Walmart, and they are narrow.

 

[Anthony1971]

A lot of the less expensive seats are smaller -- not baby carriers just seats. I bought one for the plane and second car for around 50.00. Truthfully this was the BEST car seat out of the ones we had and the ones friends had -- ranging all names and price points... WHY because it was the only one that was NEVER recalled. It was simple did what it was intended to do and no extra parts that seemed to always lead to injuries or worse... I had one seat that was recalled a total of 4 times before we tossed it...it was a better bulky seat that was very adjustable etc. My point do not worry about price being better I can assure they are not and at some point almost every car seat is recalled which is the reason for the ever changing names.

 

[Mouseketeers4]

I highly recommend reading this blog article from a certified car seat tech: http://thecarseatlady.com/fitting3across/
Carseatblog.com is another good resource.

 

[mjkacmom]

When my twins were born, I put ds4 and dd6 in narrow boosters, with dd1 in between. It was tight, and I drive a Honda osyssey.

 

[HM]

I hope they are able to do it.
Everyone I know that had a third moved up to a minivan.

 

[myhoney]

How old are the kids? When we had our third, we got a Bubble Bum seat. It is a backless inflatable booster that is nicely narrow. It worked well, until we were surprised with #4, and then we HAD to get a minivan!

 

[jahber]

I know of only one person who has successfully done this and she had a Honda Accord--but it was 10 years ago so car seats have changed quite a bit. When I had a rear-facing convertible and an infant carrier (the Chicco key-fit 30, which is one of the narrower ones) in my Altima, I could barely fit a kid without a car seat in the middle seat. I can't imagine three car seats. I hope she's able to figure it out! Once we had two kids I went straight for the van because I figured there would always be nieces and nephews and friends to tote around. As it turns out, we just had a surprise baby (#4!), so it was a good call.

 

[Sleepy425]

Sunshine Diono is the only one I can think of, but even that would probably only work with a full size sedan (not sure if a Passat is a larger sedan or not). How old are the other two? I'm all about extended rear facing and staying in a five point harness, so if having a smaller car meant compromising that I would be buying a new one. (I have 4 kids within 42 months, so I'm a minivan mom).

 

[HHMcG]

I recommend Radians (used to be made by Sunshine kids now Diono) to fit 3 across. Along with being super narrow they still get excellent safety ratings. In my Camry, we used two of these with an infant carrier and then two of these with a Graco backed booster with room to spare. So your daughter could get away with buying two per car. That is exactly what we did.

I bought mine ages ago, so a different model (65lb wt limit) but here is a current model.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1226NTMRCC0EPBANTQVE
More expensive than I remember at $200. But much more narrow than other suggestions.


I would recommend buying two at a store with a good return policy and trying them out now. Try different arrangements with her existing infant carrier (I assume she was one from the first two kids.) Make sure you can get a good tight fit. If not I'd suggest car shopping.

 

[quagmire0]

I had three across in a 2006 Prius using two of the Diono Radian RXT's. http://www.amazon.com/Diono-Radian-...TF8&qid=1461267000&sr=1-1&keywords=radian+rxt

They are very well built and more metal than plastic. (Thus they are not real fun to move between vehicles on a regular basis).

 

[JenzyHP]

I hear of people using Diono Radians 3 across. I doubt many others would work.

 

[cel_disney]

We are huge fans of the Diono car seats...shop around and decide if you really need the fancy trim levels (probably don't)...

Visit car-seat.org - they are awesome there and probably have someone that has tried it!

 

[Eliza's Dad]

Another vote for the Diono Radians. I had two of those pluse a bubble bum booster in the backseat of a Subaru Impreza and while it was tight, it worked. We found used ones on craigslist for <$100 and shopping around, picked up a couple new ones for just under $200.

 

[Jewel3k]

Three car seat across survivor here. I do no know if babies r us still does this, but they allowed us to install the demo models in the store into our car to see if they will fit. This was + 7 years ago. We found that different models fit better next to each other because of the arm rest locations.

 

[tvguy]

It appears the rear seat in a Passat is 56.9 inches across at the shoulder level. I don't know if arm rests encroach into that space below shoulder level. The car seats I quickly looked at are 17 to 20 inches wide. It would be a tight squeeze, but if there are armrests, it may not work.

I think even if they squeeze in, the Passat's days are numbered, just too small for a family of 5. That's tough, because the resale value of all Volkswagens.....even the gas powered ones....has tanked because of the diesel mess, so you are going to take a huge hit when you sell it.

 

[HulaHoopy]

We tried to fit three across and then gave up and bought another SUV. We could do it, but it took forever to get everyone in their seat and buckled correctly. The older kids who could buckle themselves in previously (boosters), no longer could with the tight squeeze. We ended up with a GMC Acadia with two captains chairs in the middle, so the third child can easily walk to the back. It is fabulous!

 

[cel_disney]

We tried to fit three across and then gave up and bought another SUV. We could do it, but it took forever to get everyone in their seat and buckled correctly. The older kids who could buckle themselves in previously (boosters), no longer could with the tight squeeze. We ended up with a GMC Acadia with two captains chairs in the middle, so the third child can easily walk to the back. It is fabulous!

The point about children doing their own buckles is important - it's tricky to do seat belts in this config vs 5pt harnesses. We are a family that keeps our kids in 5pt harnesses until they are atleast 6 years old but if you have different risk tolerance on these things and start earlier in a belt - this may be a problem for you.