3 car seats in a Range Rover Evoque ??

[8weekscrossed]

Hi, I am hoping somebody may be able to help me. I have a Range Rover Evoque and currently have 2 children, but am due my third in Feb.

Eldest is nearly 6 and is in the Britax Romer HBB
Youngest is nearly 2 and is in the Joie 360 spin rear facing.
3rd will be born Feb.

We originally looked at buying the 5008, but prices of the Evoque have dropped soooo much, I would be paying around £10k more for the 5008!

There was a lady on here that managed to fit 3 in the back, but I just don’t know where to start!

I know we will need to change the boys seats for slimmer ones, but still not sure we can make it work! I want to keep our 2YO rear facing, so my eldest will have to go in the middle and be able to access the seatbelt fastening.

Any help greatly appreciated!

It is too small a car for 3 substantial seats...
you would need to go for a solution like this from multimac:
https://www.multimac.com/

alternatively - could you afford to upgrade from teh evoque to the discovery sport (basically a slightly longer evoque with 7 seats) and then your 6 yr old could go in the third row...

Thanks @akkakk ive heard the multimac’s aren’t the safest, but will look into it 🙂

I'd swap your 360 Spin for an Axkid Move or Minikid or Britax Safe Way M. That will keep your 2yo rear facing for ages yet and they are much slimmer to fit than the isofix seats.

If you can put the ERF seat in the middle with the leg there then perfect. If that's not an allowed fitting, try the high back booster in the middle.

You might even fit an Avionaut Sky on the other side for the newborn if you can't fit a carry seat with isofix base there.

If you look online for Axkid stockists near you, you'll likely find an ERF specialist who will be happy to try out different combos in your car. Fingers crossed you won't need to change the HBB!

Multimac is fine safety wise apart from the big fact that all the seats are forward facing after the baby insert which only goes up to 87cm. If you're keen to keep your 2yo RF, then I don't think it will be the right solution for you.

A tip if you end up using a belt fitted ERF on one side with the HBB in the middle - get one of these belt locks so that the eldest doesn't accidentally undo the seatbelt securing the ERF seat! https://incarsafetycentre.co.uk/products/bucklesafe-seat-buckle-cover

We have three kids and an evoque and have not been able to find three seats to fit. Looking to change to a 5008 - probably not what you wanted to hear!

If your post your issue on the "Car Seat Safety UK" Facebook they are an incredibly helpful and knowledgeable group run by admins who know everything there is to know about ERF seats and car seat safety and they would definitely be able to help you. They can also recommend where to source seats from if required.

We had a similar problem with a Nissan Xtrail and I'm afraid the outcome was that we ended up having to swap it for a 5008 but they went through lots of options with me based on our requirements and whether seats could be changed/moved around. The difficulty with three car seats is that you need three full sized seats in the back unless you are prepared to have an ERF seat in the front and the smadult passenger sits in the middle rear passenger seat. Sadly there aren't a lot of cars on the market that offer three full seats in the middle row and we fell foul (with the xtrail) of a seven seater vehicle which you could actually only have two car seats in it.

I think you would need the multimac. The middle back seat on the evoque is tiny. I can't see how 3 car seats would fit in the back

You don't always need 3 full sized seats to fit three car seats in. If the middle seat is at least 3/4 sized then it's likely you can find a combination. 3x full size makes it easier but isn't a requirement. It will mean playing around with different models, avoiding Isofix if possible and not looking too much at overall width but at the shape of the seats at the bottom. But it's really hard to advise about this online, basically you need to get into the car with different seats and play Tetris. The britax HBB pictured is good because it's a sort of opposite shape to the axkid ERF seat bases, so fits well next to them. Bear in mind the two side seats might be slightly different sizes.

I see the multi Mac has been recommended again but it's really not a good seat for safety ratings, it meets the minimum standards of what's legal and not the Swedish Plus Test (the gold standard). Legal and safest are not always the same thing.

As per a PP belted seats are often slimmer than isofix and you have a bit more flexibility for positioning the car seat on the actual seat itself.

It seems the multimac meets the latest standard according to their website, it is the only option for many 3 child families. Look into the pros and cons.

It's actually not bad compared with other forward facing seats. It's obviously not going to be as safe as a rear facing seat.

It couldn't pass the Swedish plus test because of it being a multiple child seat and also not being rear facing. However all the crash testing on it has been done at VTI, in conjunction with the crash safety experts there - the same people who developed the Plus test. There is quite a good video on Youtube on Multimac's channel which explains all the history and the safety testing and the different versions they went through. I used to be a bit sceptical about the safety of it, but I actually was quite impressed by the engineering aspect.

Most people will be better off going for 3 separate seats including at least one ERF seat, and/or a 7-seater. But I think the idea that it's totally unsafe and only just meets minimum requirements is really incorrect and not based on anything apart from the fact that it can't rear face past 13kg (~2.5 years), which is a fair criticism, so just say that. The 82cm (~18 months) limit for the R129 version of the RF insert is also too low IMO, and I don't understand why they set it so low when they say in their own video that they crash tested it with the 3yo dummy in it (which is 98.5cm tall), even if there wouldn't be much room for an actual 3yo's legs. They could have set a limit of 87cm for example, which would be much closer proportionally to the 13kg weight limit. They say they have a longer-lasting RF insert in the works but they have been saying that for well over a decade so I won't hold my breath on that front.

That said, there are certain niches where it can be a good option. I don't think OP is in that niche. But for example, sometimes in a tight 3-across situation, people are looking at some of the flimsiest supermarket type FF seats because they are narrow and belt fitted, or putting a child into a HBB too young because they can't fit a third 5 point harness seat in, or at least one child needs to both FF and extended harness e.g. due to SN - Multimac might be worth looking at. If the children are already FF, all over age 2 (preferably 3), or are small enough to fit into the RF seat for a while, and they are pretty close in age so you don't get the opposite issue where the oldest child(ren) are too big for the seat while the youngest still need a harness, then it's worth considering/comparing to other options.