Which car for 3 young children? Please help!

[MummyMazzyR]

Hello wise mummies!

I have a 3 year old, 1.5 year old and 3 month old. We are looking for a new car where we can fit all three in a row. As my eldest is still in a car seat, and will later need a high backed booster for quite a few more years, so a booster cushion is not an option.

Am I missing a trick? Or are there no cars which can provide this?

The correct car seats we have are:
Maxi Cosi + isofix base
Kiddy guardian
Cyber Sirona (rotating)

We have looked at the Volvo x90 which is a bigger version of our car but even that doesn't allow our slimmest seat in the middle. I would have to put the eldest in the boot (on the 6th seat) but not sure about the logistics. Would I need to remove an isofix seat on the seat in front of her every time, just to let her in? Or would I have to put her in from the boot?

The cars which we have considered so far are:
Volvo X90
Citroen C4
Ford Smax

Any thoughts or tips on these or other suggestions please?

Many thanks

From a very confused, squished (I sit in the middle of the back seat for family journeys) mummy x

I have had 3 in the back of...

Rover 618, BMW 325 coupe and Honda accord.

2x britax freeways (for 3year olds) and a high back booster for 5 year old. No idea what (cheap) brand the hbb was!

We have an s Max. No complaints, drives fine. You'd have to take your car seats along and try them in the car though; most dealerships will happily let you do this. Previously had a Honda frv which was brilliant, but they stopped making them a few years back. They are available as used if you are interested.

You need to look for a flat back seat c4 was fine for 3 and had 3 proper seat belts

We have a Peugeot 5008 which is a 7 seater but we got it so that we could fit 2 car seats and adult in the back no problem. 3 separately controlled seats with the benefit of 2 extra seats in back if needed and mahoosive boot for buggies and assorted paraphernalia. We find it a good fit for our requirements although we do get lots of family airport run requests

Also the new slightly bigger vw Touran might work. Again 7 seats. Even if you don't need 7 seats, many of the 7 seater mpvs have individual seats in the second row rather than bench seats, which generally makes it easier to fit 3 car seats as you can often move each seat forward or backwards a smidge, giving a little more room.

We had three in our touran but two were in boosters AND we had to change one of the boosters for a narrower one when dd3 was born. Have you looked at a Sharan or a Seat Alhambra? I wonder if they are wider?

We trigged around loads of dealers with 3 car seats and just tried them all out. We ended up with a 3 yr old Toyota Verso. Its now 8 yrs old and no problems so far. Others we considered were, in no particular order:
Seat Alhambra
Vauxhall Zafira
Ford Smax
Ford Galaxy
Renault grand scenic
Mazda something, 5 maybe?

I loved the Smax best but it was several thousand more expensive for an older, higher milage one than the Toyota.
I second what Mrs tumble says re independently movable middle row seats. Certainly the zafira didn't have this when we looked so was immediately ruled out.

Very useful, thank you. We have had a (hellish) day of trying out car seats in various cars. Haven't yet tried a Toyota, Peugot 5008 or Seat. Which ones have the slightly movable middle seat please?
And those of you using 7 seats, how do you get little ones in the boot seats if you have isofix seats attached to the middle row outer seats?
Thanks again
Feeling more determined!

We have the exact same three seats and are due DC3 soon. The Kiddy seat is the problem for us as the 'wings' that make it so safe also make it so wide, particularly as the child grows. These 3 seats didn't fit across the back in the S Max, XC90 or Discovery that we tried. All three cars had three separate seats across the back.

We are going with the XC90 but have bought a narrower third seat. DC1 is 6 so can fit on the central booster so it's not such a problem for us now, but it's worth thinking abut how you'll configure it when they grow into the next stage seats too.

We got a stage 0+, stage 1 and a HBB in our Zafira but struggled when DC3 needed stage 1. We ended up with an extended rear facing seat in the middle, it goes up to 25 kg or age 6, and could then fit our existing stage 1 and HBB. With the rear facing seat in the middle, the largest part of the seat is the opposite end to the other 2 seats so it works well.

I love our Peugeot 5008. It has 3 equal-width seats in the middle row (some have a slightly narrower middle seat), all with ISOFIX. All the seats can slide back and forth and it has fitted any combination of 3 child seats (ours are mainly Britax but at the moment I have two Britax high backed boosters at the sides with a rear facing Joie Stages in the middle).

Lovely to drive, it has an automatic parking brake (so no handbrake) and 'hill assist', which means the car will hold itself on a slope for 2 seconds when you take your foot off the brake. So no more clutch control!

Thanks so much for all these suggestions. There are quite a few you've mentioned that I hadn't even considered. We will have to take our car seats (and all 3 kids!) to more dealerships to get a feel for them. Good to see there are others in our situation who have made it work! :)