Pre third child we had a Toyota C-hr. This car was so cheap to run. But it was also small.
We kept it for the first month, planning to get by. I just really didn’t want a Picasso. I decided I’d sit in the back with the kids when we all went out.
Turns out sitting in the back between two car seats in a tiny gap is far from ideal.
Not good when you’re already touched out and have the postnatal mum sweats. The Toyota also has really small windows so the back is quite claustrophobic, too. Oh and it was child locked so I had to wait for Matt to get out the car, sort himself out etc before I was set free.
Backseat life isn’t for me. Also Matt kept taking the wrong turning without his navigation sitting in the front.
Car seats and cars for three across the back
The car seats we have are:
With four seats and three kids under five I had a few options but I couldn’t make three across the back in the Toyota chr.
Car shopping for three across the back.
After reading lots of articles online about three across the back, lots of people point out the Picasso, SEAT Alabama, and Ford C Max.
Personally, I don’t like this style of car.
Other options were 7 seater SUVs like Kia Sorento, Land Rover, Skoda.
These seven seater SUVs came at a high price. also, we didn’t really need to pay the extra for two seats we’d use a few times a year, if that.
We went to our local car dealership and had a look around the cars to fit three under five across one row.
We tested the Kia Niro (too small), Skoda karoq, and Nissan Qashqai.
After test driving both, we decided to have a good try of car seat configurations in the Nissan Qashqai.
The Joie Ispin 360 was an isofix and gave us less flex. We swapped this out for the Joie Stages which is seatbelt attached.
Our high back booster (Joie Trillo) is 48cm wide. Which fits across the back but it can be tricky to access belts. Even harder in the dark with a crying three year old, screaming baby, and five year old chomping an apple in your ear. This is a real life story.
I decided to find a narrower high back booster. I went for the Graco high back booster which is 40 cm wide. Eight centimetres is a lot in the back to a car!
I also had to work out the configurations for when the baby is out the baby car seat and rear facing while the girls will be old enough to be in high back boosters.
It was a real game of jenga. I tried forward and rear facing for the future. I tested different configurations as someone always wants to swap where they sit in the car (usually the 3 year old. They can be pretty unreasonable.)
Our final choice for car seats and a car with three under five was:
Nissan Qashqai, 22 plate.
- Joie Stages
- Graco high back booster
- Maxi Cosy
When the baby is in a bigger seat and the three year old is big enough for a high back, we will do this:
- Graco high back booster
- Graco high back booster
- Joie Stages (rear facing)
Boom.
Hope this helps someone else who is frantically googling “how to fit three under five in a car.”
Fromthemotherside 
Leave a comment