Big SUVs/minivans and carseats

blondie10m · January 2014

We just had LO #2 and I was convinced that our Acura RDX would be fine for two kids for the majority of trips except for it being tight for luggage when we took trips. We used to have one carseat in the middle but now we have a harnessed booster behind the driver seat and a infant bucket seat (later the rear facing convertible) behind the passenger seat. It now sucks to sit in the passenger seat for me because I'm practically on the dashboard and I can't even imagine DH sitting there. So not an issue for the average day when I drive to daycare but on weekends and long trips, it could be a major annoyance. And I don't think its safe to be that far forward for the passenger in the car.

I was just wondering for those of you with infant or rear facing seats that are directly behind other seats, do they fit better in bigger SUVs or minivans? Is there more space between the front and rear seats? What kind of vehicle do you drive? Or do you just suck it up? I know there are lots of families with sedans and two carseats and I don't know how they do it now...

mae0111 · January 2014

I have a VW Touraeg, and there is plenty of room for the rear facing convertible (and the bucket before that). I'd had it behind my seat while driving and behind the passenger's seat. Both were fine. I'm 5'6" and all leg, so I keep the seat pretty far back. I've really not had any issues with the car, but when minor stuff comes it, it's extremely expensive to fix. For that reason, I won't buy another one.

DH drives a GMC Acadia. It's not huge, but does have a 3rd row. It's awesome to drive, and there is plenty of room to put the car seats in either the second or 3rd row. And no issues with the driver or passenger's seats. Before that, he had a Sierra with a crew cab. It sucked to be stuck behind the rear facing seat. There was no room at all.

I know a lot of people with the Toyota Sienna, and everyone loves it.

jf198400 · January 2014

I have a Toyota sienna and it is huge! Tons of space for RF car seats and luggage. However I kind of wish we had got the honda odyssey b/c the sienna only has 3 Latch positions for carseats and the odyssey has 6. If you are considering having more children, I would keep this in mind. The car seat lady on Facebook has a bunch of info on SUVs and minivans and how many car seats they can fit.

rockychryslerb2010 · January 2014

I have a 2010 Outback and have fit a rear-facing infant seat and rear-facing convertible behind both the driver and passenger side. I'm 5'7'' and DH is 6'3'' and neither of us have had a problem, there is so much room. We don't plan on replacing my car with #2 arrives.

thedash · January 2014

I also have a Sienna and I am so in love with my minivan! :x

The middle row seats in my Sienna slide back and forth. So right now we have one convertible and one RF infant seat in the center row. Both are pretty far back so that we have as much room as we want up front and the toddler cannot reach the back of the seat in front of him with his shoes. I hate, hate dirty footprints all over the back of the seat. I keep the third row folded away most of the time but we have used it for passengers and it's pretty comfy even with the center seats pretty far back.

mittensonkittens · January 2014

I'm not familiar with the RDX, but it is listed as a compact SUV. The leg room in the back was likely sacrificed to make it compact. A lot of 4 door sedans have more room for kids than small SUVs. We have a 3 kids in car seats, and drive a Toyota Camry and a Toyota Sienna. The Sienna is huge, and seemed excessive when we had 2 kids. The Camry was great for 2 kids, and enough room for trips as well. For 3 kids the Camry would be tight for a big trip, but it's fine for everyday driving around town.

litzo27 · January 2014

We have an Odyssey and definitely plenty of room. We had the bucket car-seat for DS2 in the middle of the second row and then had the convertible car-seat RF in the middle of the second row and it didn't even touch the front the seats. We will now have the bucket behind the passenger with two FF convertibles in the middle and behind the driver and it's still super comfortable.

*sparky* · January 2014

I have a Honda Pilot and have never had an issue with space due to the car seat. And we have the older model - I think the new ones are slightly bigger.

Lilly&Co · January 2014

I have a Yukon Denali . I love it we have enough space, the older girls have no issue sitting in their seats in the 3rd row.

mamaz27 · January 2014

Ms. Mittens, Could you tell me what 3 car seats you have that fit in the Camry? We have a minivan and a ford fusion and DH will need to have all 3 kids in the fusion at times. We will have a 5 yo, 3 yo and newborn. Thanks!

mittensonkittens · January 2014

mamaz27 said:
Ms. Mittens, Could you tell me what 3 car seats you have that fit in the Camry? We have a minivan and a ford fusion and DH will need to have all 3 kids in the fusion at times. We will have a 5 yo, 3 yo and newborn. Thanks!

The 5 year old is in a FF Radian, almost-3 year old in a FF Evenflo Triumph, and baby in a Graco Safeseat. The Radian is the critical component to fitting 3 car seats in a row. When the baby outgrows the infant seat, I think we'll put her in the Evenflo RF, and put the older kids both in Radians.

CarrieB. · January 2014

We had a VW Passat wagon that I loved and it was fine for one car seat, but not two. We got a Town and Country and I sort of hate it, but it's way more practical for car pooling and if we go out of town w my sister and there's lots of space for our big double stroller, plus groceries and whatever.

Once our kids are bigger and out of car seats, I'm getting a normal car though.

QueSrah · January 2014

ms.mittens said:

I'm not familiar with the RDX, but it is listed as a compact SUV. The leg room in the back was likely sacrificed to make it compact. A lot of 4 door sedans have more room for kids than small SUVs. We have a 3 kids in car seats, and drive a Toyota Camry and a Toyota Sienna. The Sienna is huge, and seemed excessive when we had 2 kids. The Camry was great for 2 kids, and enough room for trips as well. For 3 kids the Camry would be tight for a big trip, but it's fine for everyday driving around town.

I agree it's the size of the back seat - not the size of the car overall. I drive an Acura TL (so a sedan) and had plenty of room in the front passenger seat with a bucket installed behind it. But I bought the car in part because it had a roomy back seat. I compared it at the time to a TSX, which has much less legroom in the backseat. I bet the RDX is similar in legroom to the TSX.

kmh2201 · January 2014

I have a Saturn Outlook (same as GMC Acadia/Chevy Traverse/Buick Enclave) with a third row and I love it. Lots of room, and we can put the third seat down and have ample room for when we travel. (Our German Shepherd still has enough room to lay down back there, even with all of our stuff.) When it's time for me to get a different car, I'm going to get the Chevy or GMC version in a newer year. (I think the last year they made the Outlook was 2010.)

VegasGal1978 · February 2014

We have an MDX and have the same issue. We only have one LO, so only the front passenger is uncomfortable. Can't wait for a new car even though we love our MDX.

mommaoftrips · February 2014

Another vote for the Yukon, but we have the XL model (extra long) - so much room. 3 RF convertible seats on the bench behind the driver and passenger and the seats don't even touch eachother or the front seats! And the trunk space is AMAZING! Once the LOs get bigger and need to be separated we have the 3rd row as our go to!

MammaBear81 · February 2014

Estwd2 said:

I have a rear facing Foonf behind the passenger seat in our Subaru Outback. We had a Graco Snugride 35 before that. There's always been plenty of room for us.

This, I would look into more compact combination seats. The chicco nextfit is pretty compact, as well as the graco mysize/headwise/size4me. The foonf is a beast, but very compact if you have sloped seats, but it is on the pricey side. All of these seats will get you to 4 rear facing, if you want to do ERF (safety wise).

New car seats are definitely cheaper than a new car!

ETA: Diono radians (with the angle adjuster) is very compact as well, and slim, you could fit them next to each other and do driver/ middle, or middle/passenger without a problem

drcolleen · February 2014

Mazda Protege- had to push the passenger seat WAY up to fit an infant seat, got rid of it before #2

Ford Escape- tight fit but we can fit the infant seat, a radian FF and a backed booster, it's more of an issue side to side than between rows at this point for us but we wouldn't be able to easily buckle in a kid to a rear facing seat in the middle seat.

Sienna- got it before #2 and now we have infant seat behind driver, rear facing convertible behind passenger and a backed booster in the single 3rd row seat. I can climb into the back from the front to get all kids unbuckled/infant in carrier before even opening a door.

Subaru- my mother's car has a HUGE backseat so fits carseats wonderfully.

FWIW I think that the number of latches is less important since the weight of the seat + kid can't exceed 60# ie a 2.5y/o, so you'll have to use a seat belt anyway.

snicksnack · February 2014

I have a Forrester and DH has a 4 runner. We both had rear facing seats behind each seat. It was fine but I feel like my car always seems crowded or messy because of the look of the seats taking up so much room also you can’t fit person in-between, but the passagener is safe. In DHs car I can fit in-between the two seats if we are diving his mom somewhere with us. While my car feels crowded we fit so I kept it can’t see buying another car with payment etc.. Once my DD went to forward a little after age three it felt less crowded but in the 4 runner it was not an issue at all. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

daisy662 · February 2014

My husband and I had the "maybe we need a bigger car" convo on Saturday as we were buying our double stroller. I drive a BMW X3 and it is small. I have 2 kids - 1 1/2 and 5 weeks and the backseat is filled with their car seats. We can't fit another person back there and there is no 3rd row. My mom often comes with us out to dinner or shopping or whatever and now we have to take two cars. I'd like something with a 3rd row.

roo1oo · February 2014

DH just got a different SUV because his Xterra was just totally inadequate to be the "family vehicle". We got a Subaru Forester. We looked at a LOT of SUVs, and our #1 criteria was it had to fit our carseat (Britax B-Safe). The ones that fit it easily with tons of room were the GMC Terrain, Ford Edge, Chevy Equinox, Honda Pilot. Basically all of those mid-sized SUVs were great. But most of them suck on fuel efficiency (the Terrain being one of the few that got decent gas mileage but it was just too pricey for a used car). For the small ones, the Toyota Rav-4 was a huge car and would have fit us just fine but DH didn't like the look of it. The Forester is just big enough for the carseat to be behind the passenger seat and DH can sit in the front passenger seat (He's 6'2"). Small SUVs that didn't work were the Ford Escape, Mazda CX-5, Honda CRV.

Out of all the cars we looked at, I liked the Terrain, Edge and Forester the best. I also loved loved loved the CX-5 but it was just too small for a family vehicle. I have a Mazda 3 that's 10 years old and is the best car I've ever owned so I really wanted the CX-5 to work out.

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