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Car seats

Three car seats in a hire car problem

2 replies

NutellaLawson · 02/05/2016 15:46

I have 3 dc who will be aged almost 4 years, 2.5 years and 10 months when I'll be taking them to visit PIL. The issue is we have no car (so will be hiring one) and only two car seats (a Recaro Young Sport - group 1/2/3 and a Britax First Class plus - category 0+/1, each measuring 45cm wide) so I will need to buy a car seat (preferably category 1/2/3, as well) to fit into an unknown make of car with my two existing car seats. I would get another Recaro Young Sport but their new one is about 10cm wider now!

So my questions are:

Q1 - which cars are likely to fit three car seats and two adults without having to spend several hundred pounds extra for a people carrier type car. A category D hire car is a Skoda Octavia but I don't know which others. I don't want to have to hire something too big, e.g. an S MAX. We have hired a Mokka and a QashQai in the past (when we had only two dc) and we know a third will not fit in those.


Q2 - which car seats are not too wide. The ones I have are both 45cm wide. I reckon I get my eldest in the Recaro (group 1/2/3) and my youngest in the Britax First Class (group 0+/1) so I'm in the market for a group 1 seat for my two year old but preferably one that will last until he's 12, as we use a car only once or twice a year.

Hire cars all have isofix, so I don't mind belted or isofix.

It's so annoying that hire companies can't tell you which make and model car you'll get. We can't try out our car seats in a range of cars (as we don't have the car seat yet) and we can't just drive a car to shop to try out different ones as we don't have the car either.

OP posts:
Laquila · 09/05/2016 07:05

That's a tall order! There's a Joie seat that's meant to be slim-based, I think it's called the Trillo? Their Stages seat lasts until around 7, but not sure about the Trillo. The Britax Two-Way Elite is also quite slim but I think only goes up to 18kg. Is it an option to hire the car a day or so before the trip and take it to a local independent car seat shop to get one fitted? You'd have to leave the middle child behind with someone, I aippose, whilst you went!

AintNobodyHereButUsKittens · 09/05/2016 07:10

How long is the journey? Could you fit the car seat for the eldest in the front seat and sit between the younger two in the back?

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