We are possibly getting an older renault megane scenic but was wandering what other cars have 3 ‘proper’ seats in the back? This is the only requirement by my wife so it can house 2/3 car seats easily without being too squashed like in previous cars. Second hand not new cars.

Any suggestions?

top gear did one with a wing backed chair in the back? maybe worth a look

Honda FRV. Great car too. Had mine over 6 years and it’s been faultless

Most cars will take 3 child seats. You simply need to find he right child seats

We have an ’06 Renault Megane Grand Scenic.
It is utterly joyless.

We have three kids (triplets) who are now out of car seats but for a while we had two booster seats in the outside seats of the Scenic. You would not be able to get another seat in the middle. The middle chair is narrower.

Before the (hateful) Megane we had a Ford Galaxy which easily took three seats. Before that we had a Volvo V70 which also swallowed seats.

Old Renault? Rather you than me…..Wife has got a Nissan Almera Tino family wagon. 3 proper seats in the back, Japanese reliabilty, decent amount of toys (reversing camera, wheel mount stereo controls, climate, half leather etc), 1.8 petrol returns low 30s (but no more), high tax but chain cam. Bought it 2 years ago, 2005, 1 owner, 30k, FSH, paid £3300. Done nothing to it other than an oil change and new mid and back exhaust last month. Drives well, only criticism is that the seats aren’t height adjustable, I’m 6’3″ and my hair brushes the roof if I’m due a trim. Honestly can’t think of a better wagon for the money.

Fiat Multipla

@Bregante – I’d like to replace it with an FRV when it wears out. Had an Accord CDi tourer a few years ago, that was a great car
@OP – If your budget is higher that would be my choice.

Some, maybe not all models of the new style berlingo.
Ours which is essentially the xtr model has 3 independent rear seats all quickly removeable. Also sliding doors makes it easy easier putting kids in and out.

But if you are like many people you won’t listen because it’s a ‘noddy shaped car thing’!

Most cars will take 3 child seats. You simply need to find he right child seats

This. Buy (cheaper) new kids car seats that are smaller, rather than the oversize ones that many companies sell.
As above, most people carriers and larger estates would then work.
We have had three seats (2x ‘baby’ + booster & back) in the back of a Passat and now a Touran that takes 3x booster seats.
As above though, FRV and Multipla definitely have a few more cm’s than most cars across the back.

Really depends on the car seats. My mondeo will take 3 adults easily but its a struggle to get our two child seats plus 1 adult in the back. our seats are probably average for bulk – 1 forward, 1 rearward facing. I would suggest tino, multipla or frv as worth a look as noted above. Friends have a tino and can get 3 kids out back.

Hmmmm. Maybe our seats are bulky then….

Lots of cars are capable of this.

Vw touran,
Vw sharan,
Seat alahambra,
Ford galaxy,
Ford s-max,
Land rover discovery 3 (I’ve got one.. Oodles of space).
Range rover sport,
Range rover,

On a seperate note my wife currently has a 2006 Audi a3 and that comfortably fits one child seat and two booster seats in the back.

Worth checking – but even then we had a couple of months with a ‘tight fit’ shoving hand down to clip up one of the seat belts.

FFS! A fiesta is capable of what you/she wants.

GW – Member
FFS! A fiesta is capable of what you/she wants.
POSTED 5 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

There’s not a hope in hell that you’d get three seats across the back of my Leon, unless I put the youngest in the wrong type of car seat, but then, you wouldn’t really get three adults in there either.

Oh, Multipla is fab by the way. We had a face lift one which isn’t that ugly.

Most cars will take 3 child seats. You simply need to find he right child seats

And the kids. Forward facing ones mesh with rear facing ones sometimes, but your kids have to be the right ages for that.

And I quite like the side bits on wider car seats too. More protection.

FFS! A fiesta is capable of what you/she wants.

Pics or you’re wrong.

4 in a Fiesta?

On a seperate note my wife currently has a 2006 Audi a3 and that comfortably fits one child seat and two booster seats in the back.

Yeah that works if you use boosters with no back.

Ford C MAX Has 3 full size seats.

And the kids. Forward facing ones mesh with rear facing ones sometimes, but your kids have to be the right ages for that.

Clueless ^^

Pics or you’re wrong.

Trust me I’m right, I have a selection of no less than 12 childseats to choose from and 12 kids ranging in age from 12mths to 21 years if you want to bring almost any small family car round and be proven wrong on every count. Bring a case of beer with you while you’re at it for my time.

Clueless?

Don’t be so bloody abrasive, it’s not necessary and it’s not nice.

I’ve had a rear facing maxi cosi things in the middle, and one of those small booster seats on one side of the back of my Passat. They did not fit very well, they had to be pushed out of their proper positions slightly and ended up being quite loose and insecure. Not satisfactory.

I dunno if a fiesta is bigger in the back than a Passat, but I suspect that the left and right seats are closer to the doors.

I don’t want to come to your house as you don’t sound very nice, but I would be interested in pics. Or at least explain exactly which car seats fit and what age kids.

All cars are different and sometimes a large car does not have as much space for fitting car seats in the back than a smaller one.

We had a vauxhall omega estate, this very large car did fit 3 car seats in the back (the ones we had at the time).

However, so did our honda jazz!! This car is very small on the oustide, but a bit like a tardis. Also, the rear seat is one flat bench (not fancy moulded seats that can make fitting seats more difficult). I do suspect the inside of the door was much more “space saving” than on the omega. I was very surprised this fitted when we tried.

We now have a zafira, not bad and may fit 3 car seats in the back, depending on the seats.

Make sure you dont squeeze in too many seats and get one seat potentially interfering with the buckle on the one next to it.

Had three in our Mondeo, (2 Britax Isofix but mounted with belts, & a non Isofix Britax). All “stage 2” seats.
Was a bloody pain though.

Currently have a Galaxy that obviously does, but before that a Toyota Verso that was not far off the width of the Galaxy.

And I’m with Molgrips…GW you sounded like a right tool.

Yes, clueless. By your own admission you seem to have the vast experience of 2 car seats presumably chosen without first trying them together in your car to go on.
Me calling you clueless is no more “abrasive” or “not nice” than you calling me wrong, the difference here is I’m right.

of course I’m not going to list every car seat I have ever used and every combination that works (it’s a lot) and even if I owned a camera I wouildn’t be running around taking pics to satisfy your need for proof. Go to any store that has a wide range of baby/child car seats and boosters and you will see they are not all the same size or shape. if you want 3 in the rear row of a normal family car fitted securely you simply need to take time in choosing 3 seats apropriate for your childrens size/age of a size and shape that fit side by side nicely. there will def be 3 that fit nicely in your Passat (the Fiesta was just an example to illustrate size of car)..

Another vote for the Multipla. 3+3 so you can put the kids in the back and the centre front seat will fold down to a table so you can lean through the middle to attend to them. I think the rear centre seat can also slide back and forth which may give more wiggle room to fit bulky child seats.

I was going to suggest one child seat in the middle front seat but this is probably not allowed due to the dual person passenger airbag…although the front centre seat is several inches further back than the others so there is a chance its permitted.

Citroen C4 Piccasso is pretty massive in the back.

I was going to suggest one child seat in the middle front seat but this is probably not allowed due to the dual person passenger airbag…although the front centre seat is several inches further back than the others so there is a chance its permitted.

I do carry my child in the front middle seat, I have the airbags turned off, and as far as I know there isnt any bag for the centre seat anyhow.

Wether this is legal I have no idea, but I have never been stopped for it!!

The cars are Great, but if I could I would like to have the FRV as it should be better quality. But that said the Multipla does exacly as it says on the tin and is cheap enough to run.

You can pop all the rear seats on in 2 mins and it makes a van for going down the dump, pop just one side rear seat out and fold the others forward and it takes a bike whole too. 🙂

What GW said. With a wee bit of thought, pretty much any car with rear seats will take three kids in the back in proper car seats.

Renault Scenics are great for kids in the back, loads of room, low windows for them to see out, built in sun shades, massive boot and we have had three seats in ours, however, rubbish to drive. Makes a good second car for general family duty.

We had the pre-facelift ugly one, and the airbag for the passengers was oval so covered both front seats (according to the manual)

If you have it turned off there is nothing to worry about though 🙂

With a wee bit of thought, pretty much any car with rear seats will take three kids in the back in proper car seats.

No, it depends what car seats you have.

Only 2 of these will fit in the back of a Focus/Mondeo/Altea. Where as I am sure you could get 3 more basic, less safe seats in.

We have an S-Max… and the seats are all movable (back/forward) and can take the three big car seats our 3 little ones need, they are also fully recline-able which is great for maintaing the preferred sleeping state for children.

With the last row unused, you get loads of leg room for the second row seats too.

They can also take all the rubbish we take in tow – which is alot.

We had three kids under the age of 4 when we got our S-Max. Was a great care, completely faultless. Drove well, tonnes of room, flexible seating, a really good car which I very much regret selling.

we had 2 Scenics – good for sitting in, just as well ‘cos they were the most unreliable cars I have ever known – never again….

I had a company Peugeot 307SW a few years ago
That had 3 proper rear seats all with separate 3 point seat belts, fore-aft and reclining capabilities

The youngest boy used to sit in the middle with the seat as far forward as it would go with the 2 older girls either side as far back as they could go.
This worked very well and as a bonus kept them far enough from each other to prevent the elbow digging and minimise bickering etc. 🙂

Me calling you clueless is no more “abrasive” or “not nice” than you calling me wrong, the difference here is I’m right.

Yes, it is. Clueless implies general stupidity, being wrong is a one-time thing and, since we’re all wrong from time to time, not that bad. Plus it was light-hearted.

Are you suggesting that one should throw out all previous car seats when changing car or having a new kid? That’s not very appealing to most people I don’t think.

And as above, it depends on the car. Moulded seats do not help, like bigger cars tend to have. I have only tried two seats, but if two do not fit together nicely then I don’t see how adding another on the other side will help.

As above – the two I tried were small, not overstuffed things like above. So it’s not true that ANY car will fit three easily. Hence the OP’s perfectly reasonable question.

We have a C4 Grand Picasso which has 3 full seats in the back that are all indpendent and 2 smaller seats in the boot that fold flush with the floor line

…and 12 kids ranging in age from 12mths to 21 years…

And thus we learn why GW is quite so pissed off and angry all the time…