Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Larger families

Find out all about large family cars, holidays and more right here.

3 isofix Car seats in back

36 replies

Zok · 29/01/2024 13:50

Anyone have a list of car seats that can fit in back of a 5 seater compact SUV

we have 2 rear outer isofix points and car dealer installed a third in middle seat though he had to cut the isofix adapter he told me to get

it needs to be a newborn seat and 2 older car seats (4-12y)

Minnie Mouse isofix seat , recaro and cosatto currently

would a nania seat be narrower

When we install the older seat in middle space it’s hard to see the seatbelt buckle as it’s a tight squeeze

The Hyundai car dealer told us he had a customer with 3 seats at the back but I think he’s not done a great job of installing the third isofix point

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Zok · 31/01/2024 17:47

Hi Hyundai kona

I almost got the Skoda enyaq ev it has one isofix in the front seat

I also wonder are isofix seats with straps at the back as safe as the non strap ones I attach a pic of a britax romer seat

3 isofix Car seats in back
OP posts:
Butterdishy · 31/01/2024 18:38

Zok · 31/01/2024 17:47

Hi Hyundai kona

I almost got the Skoda enyaq ev it has one isofix in the front seat

I also wonder are isofix seats with straps at the back as safe as the non strap ones I attach a pic of a britax romer seat

Both of those cars the middle seat looks pretty narrow, tbh I doubt you'd get 3 across safely. Go to a car seat shop and try different configurations.
Alternatively, airbag off, rear facing child in the front seat. You don't need isofix, a seatbelt install is just as safe.

BertieBotts · 02/02/2024 11:55

That adapter you've bought doesn't meet any safety standard, please don't attach anything to it that is supposed to hold your child in an accident. The middle seat also isn't structurally designed to take an isofix bracket. I'm astonished that a Hyundai salesman would recommend this, it's absolutely crazy and sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen - hopefully not, as you're not going to use it, but potentially if he's advising multiple people that this is OK. Speak to Hyundai customer services and ask for their engineering or safety department's take on this, but I bet they would be absolutely horrified.

I also don't really understand how he's cut it - it looks like the brackets go right to the edges of the adapter, so how has it been cut? If he's cut a section out of the middle, then it will be totally useless anyway because they won't be the right distance apart so it won't be compatible with any isofix child seats. If he's cut the edges, then the brackets are thinner so how are they supposed to be strong enough to hold the child seat in a crash?

Before you sell the car, make sure you take it out so nobody else uses it. It's a danger to life.

Isofix is not necessary, anyway. Isofix is supposed to provide a plug and play easy installation option, it doesn't have a safety benefit in and of itself except for making installation easier so that errors are less common.

The type of bracket in your picture as on the Britax seat is not true isofix, Britax call it Softlatch, some other brands call it things like Isoclick or Isosafe or Isofit. It is similar in design to how LATCH works in America - still attaches to ISOfix points but in European cars, these brackets are not allowed to be the sole method of installation. So Britax have these connectors on some of their high backed booster seats, for example, where the seat (and child) are secured by the seatbelt. In this case, the latch connector is just to prevent the seat from sliding around the car as the child climbs in.

I agree that you would be best off going to a local car seat specialist. Not Halfords, their training is totally minimal - the in car safety centre is a good suggestion or if you can give a rough geographical area, I can look to see what else is near you.

Nania and Minnie Mouse (which are all team tex anyway) are not great brands but they are at least certified to safety standards which your isofix installation is not. Likewise some people will do Shock at the Multimac, but Multimac is a tested safe option. If you have two kids over four and will have a newborn, this is not a terrible solution because your older two can go into the forward facing, harnessed seats and the baby can go into the Minimac baby seat until 13kg and they can fit into this for a fair while - I have seen pictures of 2 year olds in it (and one small 3 year old). It's best not to rush children into forward facing if you can help it. Once the baby is outgrowing the baby seat, then you can reevaluate whether you want to keep the multimac and have them all forward facing or get rid of the multimac at that point to put the baby in a rear facing seat, perhaps if one child is old enough to go without a booster by then.

In terms of getting 3 seats across your usual best solution is just lots of trial and error. Cosatto (assuming an all-stages?) and Recaro (assuming a booster seat?) aren't very narrow seats. The i-size booster seats are pretty slimline. Maxi Cosi tend to be narrow. Baby carry type seats are all typically around the same width, because of many of them having the same pram compatability. I think if I were you, I'd look at a solution which has two high backed boosters side by side on the side where the two buckles are facing each other, and then a belt fitted seat for the baby on the other side of this. This is so the older kids don't unclip the baby's seat by mistake. You can get some baby seats which have a belt fitted base, so you don't need to reinstall every time.

In terms of isofix vs seatbelt, it's normally easier to fit three seats across if you avoid the isofix entirely and go for three belt fitted seats. You just get a bit more flexibility this way. Ultimately, we needed to fit 2x car seats + a teenager and we decided not to go for Hyundai - we have a Peugeot 5008. With this we can use isofix seats, no problem. When we had a Peugeot 3008, we needed to use one belt fitted seat to get them all comfortably in at once.

BertieBotts · 02/02/2024 11:55

Zok · 31/01/2024 11:34

Does anyone know if it’s normal for the isofix base of newborn seat to rattle around it doesn’t sound secure and there are numbers 1-8 on the side of the seat currently it’s on number 3/4

Which car seat and base is this? Can you post a photo of the installation?

Zok · 02/02/2024 11:59

It’s Cosatto giggle 2 infant car seat

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 02/02/2024 12:14

OK, so basically those numbers are so that you can tell if it's evenly pushed in on both sides. To fit it you should make them as long as they'll go (number 1) then connect both arms onto the isofix points, then push the base itself into the back of the vehicle seat until it's tight against the seat.

The numbers are there so e.g. if you've got it set to number 4 on one side and 5 on the other side, you can tell it's uneven and you'd then want to wiggle and push it a bit more to get it to retract to 5 on both sides.

You have different numbers to account for the fact that isofix points are deeper in some cars than others and some cars have more padding on the seat etc. You want to get it to as high a number as it will go while still being attached.

Rattling can be normal but I'd try to get it as snug as you can, this should reduce any rattling.

Garman · 02/02/2024 13:23

Did you ever read up on the seats you have to understand their safety testing and how to use/fit them, like the numbers in the sides? Isofix means nothing if you’ve the seats wrongly installed or using a bar some mechanic has cut to fit and rendered it unsafe.

Zok · 04/02/2024 17:30

Hi the seatbelt adaptor we bought to extend the Hyundai seatbelt doesn’t fit ( the cars seatbelt won’t plug in) as my child can’t reach the belt buckle sometimes

does anyone know another adaptor ? This was supposed to be universal ! Thx

3 isofix Car seats in back
OP posts:
Butterdishy · 04/02/2024 17:58

Zok · 04/02/2024 17:30

Hi the seatbelt adaptor we bought to extend the Hyundai seatbelt doesn’t fit ( the cars seatbelt won’t plug in) as my child can’t reach the belt buckle sometimes

does anyone know another adaptor ? This was supposed to be universal ! Thx

A seatbelt extender is not safe to use with a car seat as it will interfere with the fit. In fact, they are not usually safe to use at all. You need to seek some proper advice from a car seat retailer, or at least engage with the advice you have been given here. If your car seats do not fit in your car, you cannot DIY a safe solution.

Garman · 04/02/2024 18:30

You don’t seem to be listening to any of the good advice you’ve been given here tbh.

Zok · 04/02/2024 19:21

I have consulted the Facebook group car seats

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread