Best HBB for three across?

[littleturtledove]

We have a very average family car with the usual "2.5" seats in the back, but all have three point seatbelts and the car manual says the middle seat is approved to take a car seat. We currently have an Axkid Minikid 2 and an Avionaut Cosmo baby seat, but need to add a HBB. I was looking at Black Friday deals and wondering which seat to get. Does anyone have any useful experience with fitting three across in an ordinary car? I was looking at the BeSafe Easy Flex Fix 2 or the Axkid Nextkid but no real idea! Any advice or experience much appreciated.

Measure the space you have between the seats, both at the seat level and shoulder level, remembering you will need space to fit yyou habd to do up the buckle.

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This is not one to do on Black Friday deals IME - did you get your Minikid/Cosmo from an ERF specialist locally? I would go back there and try everything out in every possible configuration to see what fits the best. Sometimes the Minikid is the best one to go in the centre, if you're allowed to fit a leg on the hump. Or the Cosmo is really easy to fit with a seatbelt so you could have flexibility that way as well. A rear facing child is also a safe choice in the front if you can disable the passenger side airbag. (If you need to fit a second adult in the back regularly, you can still fit the second child seat into the middle)

The problem with fitting 3 across in a standard car without the full sized middle seat is that a lot of it is to do with how well the seats physically tesellate together and where the seatbelts lie. And you can't work that out online, because the overall dimensions of the seat are absolutely no use at all. The only way to do it is to book an appointment somewhere they will let you spend an hour or two trying different seats in the car. Preferably somewhere they are familiar with tethered seats like the Minikid.