Advice – Small car that will fit 3 rear child seats

We currently have a Hyundai i10 as a cheap local runabout/Wife’s work car. It suits us currently as it will fit two car seats in the rear, but a third child is on its way. It would be handy to still fit all five of us in the small car for local trips as our main family bus is a Tourneo Custom and not great for this.

My requirements might not be realistic so I’m after suggestions/real experience of people who have a small car that can fit 3 kids seats in the rear. These would be 2x high back boosters (Graco Nautilus) and one baby seat (Maxicosi Pebble), these would be on belts. Ideally the car will be Petrol, low tax, 5 star NCAP, 5 doors, 2013 or newer, around £5k to spend but obviously less would be good.

My initial thoughts are Ford B-Max (sliding doors are good), Citroen C3 Picasso, Renault Modus, Nissan Note.

Any real world experience from people in a similar position would be appreciated.

Not got kids any more, but my Berlingo was perfect for this. Added bonus was rear sliding doors.

Thanks Kayak23, I have no problems with a Berlingo but its not really a small car, closer to our other van than the i10. Plus other than the brand new model they haven’t made petrols since 2009, so they’re getting a bit leggy now.

Honda Jazz would be my shout. Very versatile and reliable.

Whether you’d get something i10 size that would fit 3 full child seats is questionable.

3 car seats and small car are , in my experience, mutually incompatible.

It’ll need to be something with individual rear seats rather than a bench. The smallest car we found that fits the bill is a Renault Scenic.

Multimac is the only way you’ll get 3 kids safely across a single bench these days. Modern seats are too big.

Only cars that will do 3 properly are bigger MPVs (Smax/Galaxy, Sharan, Grand C4 Picasso) or the huge SUVs like the Q7.

Or just put one child in the front of the small car, and move seats to the bigger car if you all need to travel together.

dannybgoode
Subscriber

Whether you’d get something i10 size that would fit 3 full child seats is questionable.

I wasn’t expecting to get something as small as the i10. I just wondered if there were smaller/cleverer cars available than the standard MPV’s (Scenic/Berlingo/3008/S-Max etc). I appreciate i’m probably not being realistic so this feedback is appreciated.

We just squeezed 3 into a passat estate when we gave alift to anothers kid, so i think you are struggling.

You might get 2 in back with an adult and 3rd in front passanger seat better, although not 100% on the legality of this?

How old is the oldest? If you can’t fit three in, and the oldest is over 3, they can just sit in the middle with the normal belt. Whether or not that works for you is a different matter of course.

You could just taser one and put it in the boot.

Ten replies and no one has launched into you about raping the planet with three kids and two cars.

STW is obviously distracted.

STW is obviously distracted.

…or they realise that I’m packing heat.

I’d agree with the above, reckon you will struggle simply because of the width of any car you look at. Our old Kuga couldn’t really manage it with one being Isofix. Think you’ll either need to do some research and buy 3 new seats as slim as you can get or look at different car options.

My sister in-law used to fit her three in the back of a Suzuki swift but I suspect that may involve you making some compromises on your booster seat choice as yours look a fair bit bigger than the ones I’ve seen her fit in there.

We just about managed this with a Honda Civic, which was astoundingly roomy inside. Worth a look.

I asked this a month or so ago about fitting 3 across the back of my Octavia as we also have #3 due soon. Our second car is an i10 but that will be wife driving, eldest (4.5 yo) in the front and the other 2 in the back. Any journey with the 5 of us would be me driving the real car. I asked here, I trawled the web, I found the narrowest high back boosters are some sold by Asda and aren’t costly at £33 iirc, and since swapping seats between cars is a bit of a faff anyway I bought 3 more of the Asda seats. Tried various combinations of the 3, and 2 plus our Joie infant carrier….no. the wife is even more determined not to change cars then I so at 6 months pregnant clambered in to prove she could fit between the 2 seats, either of 2 boosters or one plus they infant carrier, and swore she could manage. She didn’t look comfy to me but she has been in the back between our 2 large Joie toddler seats for a journey of 4 hours a couple of times and not complained…. She would complain if it were not ok!
I have however found myself reading mpv and SUV reviews and even spent a weekend considering a deal on a new q7. 25% discount was very tempting…. But it still left £45k to pay and in the end I couldn’t justify it. However I expect living with the Octavia will get harder quickly, so have accepted a change is likely in a year. Pug 5008 is looking a decent option

Yep we had to move from an Accord to an S-Max for this very reason about 5 years ago. As someone else above mentioned you need to find the smallest car/vehicle that has individual rear seats. A quick google indicates that aToyota Prius plus is the smallest car with three individual rear seats. Doubt you’ll find one for 5k, although it would be ideal for short journeys around town.

Someone also mentioned MultiMac, not sure how that works with rear facing baby seats.

In answer to your original question, no.The best I can come up with is a VW Touran, MPV I know, but one of the smaller ones, and the footprint isn’t any bigger than a Golf.

I think you might be trying the impossible here, particularly with infant’s seat in the equation. Having said that, take the 3 seats along to a car supermarket and try fitting them in a bunch of small cars (no obligation to buy of course). We did that hoping for an estate to work. We’ve just changed our s max for a van.

We have a polo which is great for when there 4 or fewer of us having to go somewhere local, which is quite often so don’t write off the small car because you don’t all fit.

Multimac do their own rear-facing seat for babies that fits in one of the bays.

It’s a really expensive system but still cheaper than buying an unnecessary car just to fit a third child in.

3 car seats and small car are , in my experience, mutually incompatible

+1

How long do you keep cars for?
We found there is this odd thing where as a small child they need huge space, then as a between booster and tweens they don’t need as much space.
Then suddenly they are all big and you need a huge space again.

If you keep cars a long time, I would look to leap to a bigger one now.

Our 2013 Skoda Roomster has 3 individual rear seats, and the 2 main/outer ones slide fore/aft.
Whether this is enough to solve your problem I don’t know, as our child seats are ridiculously bulky.

I think Honda FRV or Fiat Multipla both have 2 rows of 3 seats which would make things easier?

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/121230-can-you-fit-3-car-seats/

“I know this is quite an old thread but this is the reason I have just ordered a Roomster, 1 Britax ISOFix and 2 standard boosters with backs fit in with no problems. Tried them in a Yeti and it was impossible. Also tried and failed in a Pug 3008, MitsubishiASX, Any Vauxhall (apart from Zafira). The only other 5 seat cars that managed to fit the seats were the Pug 308 SW, Citroen C4 Picasso and Pug Partner Tepee.
I am sure there are other cars that could do the job but my other criteria was the car had to be smaller and more efficient than my current (7 seat) Toyota Verso and the only 5 seater I could find that did that job was the Roomster.”

It’s the placement of the seat belts that’s usually the problem rather than the width of the car.

You can’t get three child seats across the back of a 7 series BMW or an Audi A8. They’re plenty wide enough but the anchor points are just in the wrong places.

Get an MPV. It’s the right tool for the job.

You can’t get three child seats across the back of a 7 series BMW or an Audi A8

Nice humblebrag sir!

I seem to remember there being something that said you were allowed to have a child in the middle seat without a booster, if you couldn’t fit? mibbe I was drunk though. Or Perchy had tasered me.

As mentioned, it’s all about the location of the belts and the shape of the bench.

You either want 3 individual seats, or a flat bench with the seatbelts positioned as far outboard as possible.

Not tried it but my sister has a 2014 golf that looks like it could work on that basis.

Note that middle seat on s Renault scenic is narrower than the outer two, and that.you are not allowed to fit any kind of child seat I the middle seat of a zafira, according to the manual…

If you find combination that works, please let the world know!

We had s 3008 that, despite its size, can’t fit 3 in the back…

I ended up buying a Citroen C4 Picasso for the same reason, three individual seats that I could fit three full car seats for the kids. I replaced it with a C4 Spacetourer, (re-named Picasso), after the Picasso died.
No car seats anymore, but loads of room for three older kids and all thier stuff!
We looked at loads of different cars when replacing the Picasso, however didn’t find one that had the seating layout the Citroen had.

Really depends on the ages of the kids. Mine are 6, 4 and nearly 2. I can get three across the back of my Giulia using two of Volvo’s amazing, narrow high back boosters and a maxi cosi two way pearl. It’s a squeeze but doable.

small car – 3 seats.. Not possible without a multi-mac.

I bought a grand-scenic 2nd hand when number 3 arrived, when the eldest was tall enough to come out of a booster seat we swapped to a Mondeo, the kids complained about the lack of space for the 6 years we had it and when it was written off after getting rear ended last year we up-sized to an S-Max not heard a complaint about room since then.

This is a problem in general. I had an E class that would fit three kids across the back but only because one was in a tiny, narrow booster. It’s a big car and won’t take three kids properly. Refused to get a people carrier so have gone full mid life crisis and bought a T6. Suits our lifestyle

Wife’s runaround, when we get one after the crisis, will be something small for local trips. Similar requirements to you. If there was would that could fit 3 across the back it would be great but in practice I reckon it’ll be two in the back and one in the front. Then take my car when we travel anywhere as a family

I’ll keep an eye on this thread. A friend has a multimac for his C class, seems to work OK for him. Don’t know how well it would fit in a small car

Have a look on the Facebook group Car Seat Advice UK. I think they have a list of 3 across compatible car and seat combinations. Otherwise you can post and ask in the group, but I’m sure it’s been asked a lot before. New posts are queued and posting isn’t always open though, as each post is reviewed and commented on by a moderator first. That’s so people don’t get duff or unsafe advice.

Don’t know how well it would fit in a small car

I know of people who use them in fiat 500s and minis. Does the the baby seat module fit in the narrow one though (super club junior)?

There are a handful of cars that have isofix in the front passenger seat – ie 2 in the back and 1 in front. An adult could possibly fit in the middle seat at the rear. BMW X2 is one example IIRC.