Small cars that fit 3 carseats in?

[Mens]

Hi

I have a 7 seater but want to get a smaller (second hand) car.

Does anyone know which cars will fit 3 carseats in the back? Any experience of the nissan almera?

Thanks

M

[etta166]

I was looking into this about 2 years ago, and the answer then was that no smaller (5 seat) cars fit 3 seats if the children are all under 4. We ended up buying a VW Touran as that was one of the smallest 7 seaters. It fits 3 forward facing group 1 seats in the middle row, or one group 0 (backwards facing) and 2 Group 1 (forwards facing) seats. At the moment, we have 2 Maxi-Cosi PrioriFix and 1 Britax Evolva 123.

My sister-in-law uses a Citroen Xara Picasso, but she has one child that is only on a Group 2-3 booster and two children in Group 1 forwards facing seats. My neighbour has a Toyota FRV which has a 3rd seat with Isofix between the front passenger and driver seats, but they are pretty hard to find now.

Most manufactures of cars and car seats will tell you what conbinations of the car/car seats have been crash-tested and found to be safe.

Another option is to shop around for narrow car seats. There's a huge variation in size on the market. Failing that, there is a seat called the multimac that seat 3/4 children and can fit into most cars. It's very expensive, tho.

Feel free to pm for more info if you like. I'm abit out of date, but must have spent days researching this!

[Mens]

Wow! Thank you so much for the info.

[Carbonara]

Double check this before parting with cash, but I have seen a Ford Focus and Fiat Multipla with 3 car seats in the back.

[KatsuQueen]

I'm sure my neighbour had 3 under 4 at one point, and they have their 3 carseats in a row at the back. It's a Honda 5 seater, sorry don't know the name but equivalent to Ford Focus in terms of size. However I only moved next door when the youngest was nearly two, so it could be that they had to have a different car before. Just worth a double check as Carbonara suggests.

[sharls]

My new corsa fits 3 seats in the back.

[Mens]

which corsa is it?

[Saila]

Fiat multipla - 3x seats in front and back. You can have a baby seat in front cos you can disable the air bag.

You can also remove the seats at the back, and just have the front seat.

We moved house using this 'van' approach.

They're v cheap to run (ours is diesel)

It's a great car and was voted 'ugliest vehicle' by jeremy clarkson! So it's got my vote :)

I love it

[Mens]

I keep going back and forth about the multipla (the pope mobil...). Going to look at a almera tino later.

Very useful to know about the multimac though (incase baby number 4 decides to join us...not the plan tho).

[sharls]

The corsa is a 1.4 5 doors

[etta166]

Sharls - what car seats do you use? I would love to have a smaller car...

Could you let me know if Vauxhall receommend that you can use 3 seats in the back of the new Corsa?

Thanks!

editing this to note that sadly none of my car seats (Maxi-Cosi Priori XP (x2) and Britax Evolva 123) have been safety tested in the middle back seat of a corsa. :(

[etta166]

http://www.which.co.uk/baby-and-child/baby-transport/reviews-ns/child-car-seat-fitting-problems-explored/child-seats-in-medium-cars/

This is where I got most of my information from, then from car seat manufacturers' and car manufacturers' websites

Hope you get waht you are looking for.