3 car seats for VW Passat Estate

[jemart]

I'd appreciate some advice on booster seats for a VW passat estate, need to fit three across the back seat.
We already have a maxicosi priori xp which will go in the middle and would like to get two new highback boosters to go either side, ideally making use of the isofix fixings (did not have these in our old car)

Can it be done?

Do I need to change all three seats to get them in?

What seats would be best?

Thankyou

please?

we have a skoda Superb which is a stretched passat and we would not be able to do that. But I am sure someone will be along in a minute to prove me wrng

do you have an old or new shape passat? we had a new shape and found the back seat too small for 3. as greyskull has said though there are always those that somehow manage (with a struggle) my friend has an old shape though and the back seat is wider (we have exactly the same car seats and she can just about squeeze them in for the occasional trip when giving friends a lift) sorry not much help!

New shape passat - we did try our existing booster seats in there before buying it and worse case scenario is we will replace the cheapy mothercare pink booster with another Graco one (slightly narrower base), which would be very tight squeeze for doing up the seatbelts and would mean not using the isofix.
I really would much rather use the isofix if possible.

An alternative solution would be getting three new seats that all have a five point harness, negating the need to reach the seat belt point. Tricky to find for the 4-12 year age group though, they all seem to rely on the car seatbelt from 4 years onwards.

We have same car, is it lap-belt only in middle in your model? not sure what 'New shape Passat' means.
The maxi-cosi is no longer recommended with lap belt only, iirc.

So I got a Britax Prince instead for the middle, which is also is quite a slim model.

On the sides we have a cheap booster for eldest DC, and a Britax highback booster (Hiliner?) on the other side. I can look at the specific model, if that helps.

Has proper seatbelt in the middle, actually was one of the features we really wanted because our old car only had a lap belt.
Specific models would be of great help.

I don't think specific model of our highback booster is going to help -- I don't think I could have squeezed 2 of them in there with the maxi-cosi priori. Maybe 2 of them with the Britax Prince.

Is your Maxi-Cosi near its expiration date (approx 5 years after you bought it?). Might be an excuse to get a slimmer seat in that class.

Might be good idea to focus your research on which high-back booster seats are the slimmest.

Sorry, I meant that with this sentence in my last post: "Maybe 2 of them with the Britax Prince." -- that maybe I could get 2 high-back boosters in, but I'm not too sure...

I am getting tired and babbling, must be time to go to bed!

expiration date? wasn't aware they had one.....seat is nearly 4 years old. Are the more recent priori xp seats made differently then?

I'm liking the look of the Recaro Monza seatfix. Or the Britax kidfdix. No idea if either of those will be suitable though.

We can get our Recaro high back together with two non-high-back booster seats bought from Halfords - they seem to be narrower. But wouldn't be able to get 3 of the high backed ones side by side.

Just been for a browse through the VW website and they do sell the recaro seats alongside the VW branded ones so presumably they will be compatible.

Of course whether I can fit three seats in a row remains to be seen.

we can't get 3 highback boosters across the back of our new shape passat estate, sorry!

I don't need three highback boosters, just two plus the maxicosi priori xp. Or similar.

that's even trickier I think, we can just about squeeze 2 highbacks and my size 12 bum in, but not for a long journey, if that's any help!

Oh heavens, there's lots of discussion on Internet about Car seat expiry or whether the very idea is actually a great big con (read here). I am not wildly concerned about it, but when I realised that my MaxiCosi which was a tight fit in our car anyway, was already 7 years old, and that I was expecting it to still perform properly up until it reached the age of 10yo, it seemed like a good excuse to replace it.

The basic idea is that the plastic on car seats eventually degrades and doesn't hold the straps in firmly. This happens faster if the seat is subject to temperature extremes or direct UV light (not just thru the car glass). Idea of carseat expiry is more widespread in USA, where modern seats actually come with a sticker on them stating the expiry date. But I've read that European car seats are subject to much higher manuf. standards so should last much longer than American ones.

Most seats have a manufacture date stamped on them, typically about 10 months before you bought it. Some manufacturers give guidance on their website on how old is too old for a carseat.

This New Zealand site seems to detail well the general idea, and suggests a 5yr lifespan for UK MaxiCosi seats... so perhaps you might want to think about replacing yours.

(Be really careful with any chat to do with carseats, or you'll attract the attentions of the evangelical children-should-be-rear-facing-until-the-end-of-time brigade).

I'd have thought that getting 3 rear facing seats to fit my car would be nigh on impossible anyway.

We have a rather wide five-point harness seat (old Klippan one) and can get two booster seats in the Passat next to it - JUST. You have to go to Halfords with a tape measure and buy the narrowest seats they have. We use a Graco Junior Maxi highback booster, and a cheap sit on booster - Graco Hi-Life I think - for the occasional 3rd passenger. If you choose narrow profile seats I should think they might fit. Doing up the seatbelts is not fun - grazed knuckles all round.

Our Passat is 52 plate though, take it yours is newer?

We also have a Recaro Young Sport seat which is relatively narrow for a harness seat.

Looks like it's time for the obligatory mention of Multimac child seats. As ever, I don't have these and can't comment on their suitability. I can however say that they are expensive.