What car can take three childrens seats?

bouli73

Hi

Would be grateful for advice
Looking at a second family car that can accomodate three childrens seats in the back. It seems to me that most cars cant, and that an mpv is the most likely option. MPV seems like overkill to me for a second car.

Bearing in mind that this is a second car, budget is limited and i dont want to be spending a fortune on tax, insurance and petrol, just wondering if there are any reasonable options out there that people can suggest that can take three booster seats in the rear?

Thanks in advance

thewintermute

Fiat Multipla.

colm_mcm

There's a multimac 4 for sale on octane.ie at the moment for €600, they're 1700 or so new.


http://www.multimac.co.uk/home

MidlandsM

Honda CRV or Nissan Almera Tino (if you want a cheap car)

ZV Yoda

bouli73 wrote: »

Hi

Would be grateful for advice
Looking at a second family car that can accomodate three childrens seats in the back. It seems to me that most cars cant, and that an mpv is the most likely option. MPV seems like overkill to me for a second car.

Bearing in mind that this is a second car, budget is limited and i dont want to be spending a fortune on tax, insurance and petrol, just wondering if there are any reasonable options out there that people can suggest that can take three booster seats in the rear?

Thanks in advance

At the risk of stating the obvious here... it's amazing how different types of booster seats vary in width. We were down this road a few years back. After looking at all sorts of cars/MPVs, we found that we couldn't get our 3x seats to fit in any car. We had 3 identical seats something like this:


The bases on these types of seats are are so wide that you'll be very hard pushed to get any car wide enough to take 3 of them. Even if they fit (width-wise) it's impossible to access the middle seat belt clip because the seat base is sitting right over it.

After a bit of headscratching, we shopped around for seats with smaller bases. In the end, we bought something like this:


Can you see the way the base on this seat is narrower at the back? That makes all the difference for accessing the middle seatbelt clip. We put this new one in the middle & 2 of the existing seats either side. Works perfectly & all the kids have full access to their belt buckles & none of the buckles rub off the sides of the booster seats. The seat cost about €15. Can't remember exactly where got ours, but they're not hard to find.

We now find that our 3 seats fit in the back of most cars.

(well, when I say most cars, I can vouch for Renault Grand Scenic, Alfa 166 and Citroen C5. I'd say if we switched the other 2 seats to the narrower version, they'd fit in almost any car).

Tea 1000

Can't understand why seat makers don't consider this when designing. Also can't figure out why more car makers don't include booster seats in the seat cushion. Some do already.

dcr22B

Interesting article from the Irish Times in relation to car seat regulations:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2012/0222/1224312164368.html

Marcusm

ZV Yoda wrote: »

:

Those Graco seats are very wide, partly due to the little drawers in them for the kids to store things. I can get three of them across the back seat of my car - or rather 2 of the booster ones (no seat backs) and one of the full one with the seat back. Not a small car though, a full fat Range Rover.

shedweller

2004 yaris d4d. Takes 3 full booster seats. Zero image but then i'm too busy/tired/broke to give a sh1t. The corrolla of the same era should have the same rear seat but with a bigger boot. There's even a few 2004 corrolla estates going around! And best of all, the 1.4d4d is extremely reliable. And frugal.

MiamiMice

Honda FRV, Skoda Superb, Puegeot 307SW all take 3.

Picked up an 08 307SW for 7.5k so pretty good value.

colm_mcm

shedweller wrote: »

2004 yaris d4d. Takes 3 full booster seats. Zero image but then i'm too busy/tired/broke to give a sh1t. The corrolla of the same era should have the same rear seat but with a bigger boot. There's even a few 2004 corrolla estates going around! And best of all, the 1.4d4d is extremely reliable. And frugal.

Flat seat is the crucial factor here. Even at that I reckon you'd be doing well to get 3 in there.

wmpdd3

I have a britax first class, a graco baby carrier (no base) and a graco booster like the one above in a suzuki swift.

graco booster in the middle seat.

shedweller

colm_mcm wrote: »

Flat seat is the crucial factor here. Even at that I reckon you'd be doing well to get 3 in there.

I am doing very well thank you! It's bigger than you think in the back of a yaris! I'll get a picture of it if you think i'm making this up.

shedweller

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I have a britax first class, a graco baby carrier (no base) and a graco booster like the one above in a suzuki swift.

graco booster in the middle seat.

You'll just have to try it, i'm afraid. I've tried to find out a way without actually fitting the seats in the car but in the end you can't beat actually fitting it yourself.

Guy:Incognito

dcr22B wrote: »

Interesting article from the Irish Times in relation to car seat regulations:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2012/0222/1224312164368.html

I only read the first couple of paragraphs (down to carrying heaps of kids in a beetle) . Those days are gone and rightly so. We dont need any more crashes like the one with the Passat in Donegal. Adults are free to choose to be idiots and drive with 6 of them in the back if they wont. Kids dont have the luxury of choice.

Tea 1000

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I only read the first couple of paragraphs (down to carrying heaps of kids in a beetle) . Those days are gone and rightly so. We dont need any more crashes like the one with the Passat in Donegal. Adults are free to choose to be idiots and drive with 6 of them in the back if they wont. Kids dont have the luxury of choice.

True. The roads are a different place now, we have to move with the times, and I'm not sad in the least that my kid has to be strapped in properly!! I'm just sad that the market seems to be unwilling to change for the benefit of everyone rather than for the profit of seat makers and MPV makers!