What Car Fits 3 Car Seats in the 2Nd Row & Has a Fold down 3Rd Row

A van.

A Sienna.
We have that.
It fits 7 people.
2 in front.
2 in the 2nd row.
3 in the 3rd row.

The reason, that the 2nd row is often split, and not a continuous "row" and with an opening in the middle, is so that, there is an open aisle in the middle in which a person can go from the 2nd row to the back 3rd row.
That is why, you are probably finding it hard, to find a vehicle, with a 2nd row that is all just one single unit... to fit 3 car seats.

No matter what, the 2nd row in a van... NEEDS to have an open 'aisle' in between it... so that the people in the last 3rd row, can go in and out of.
If not, they would have to enter the 3rd row, from the "trunk" of the van.

We have a 2008 Honda Odyssey. It fits 2 carseats and a booster, but not 3 carseats in the second row. As mentioned before it is probably best to just use the 2 lateral seats in the second row (for the newborn and 3 year old) and fold/remove the middle seat, which is smaller than the other 2 and that I can remember might not even have a latch system, so that you have easy access t the third row where you can have the five olds'carseat and grandma when she travels with you. Even with the third row up, you still have a pretty decent trunk in the back...

Look at Radian carseats. They fit three across in a row. Much cheaper than a new car! We have a Honda Odyssey, and it fits three of those car seats in a row. We just bought some because baby #5 is due and all our kids are still in car seats. Our Britax car seats were too wide to fit three in a row. Love the Radian for that!

Our back seat folds down. Oh, but now that I think about it, the middle row only seats two in our van. Maybe newer versions seat three?

I don't have one, and am past the car seat age, but have you looked at the Mazda CX-9? They have been out for a few years now, so you could find a used one from 2008 or 2009... They have a 3rd row that is actually large enough to accommodate adults. And it does fold down to allow more cargo space as well. The vehicle and seats are fairly large feeling, but of course you'd need to take your seats and try them out to know for sure if they would fit 3 across. The 3rd row is accessed by tipping/sliding one of the outside middle seats forward. If your 5 yr old is in a booster, I would think you could keep that as an "outside" seat and move it to the 3rd row as needed ... to allow an extra person to sit 3rd row (grandma) so you wouldn't have to remove the seat to let the 3rd row person out at whatever destination you are in the car traveling to/from.
The mpgs are not great though.. I think they run around 22 ? Sweet ride, though. :)

We felt like the Honda Pilot could handle 3 car seats. Just remember, if you need to hall someone else, you will have to take out a car seat to get them to the back which isn't very handy esp. for school pick up. We have a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan and I love it. There is plenty of storage behind the back seat. We have one middle seat folded into the floor. Both of the girls sit on the back seat and our son sits in the other middle seat. We couldn't fit 3 carseats across the back. The folded seat is really easy to pop up if we need another. We like the Honda Odyssey and the Sienna too. The Suburban (and the comparable size-wise) was the only one that could handle 3 carseats and had plenty of space in the back if we went on a road trip.

Check into Volvo xc90. We bought ours used.. Take the car seats to the dealer ship.. Car drives like a dream and easy to park and maneuver good in snow too. Also the built in booster seat rocks my favorite feature and it can fold flat if an adult needs to sit.. Our car was certified used with a 5 year warranty.. We have 88000 miles owned it for 5 years and no problems. Third row seat nice to have. Park assist sensors great.. Not as big as a van or full sized suv.. But great for everyday and when we have a need for 3rd row. Also love th e rubber floor mats and cargo mats get them to give u a discount on those.. They save the carpet!
L.
L.

Take the seats with you; it's the only way to know for sure. It also depends on the set-up. We have two boosters and a skinny car seat. They barely fit in the second row of our Jeep Liberty. I think they would fit across the back row of our Grand Caravan but while it has three seatbelts in that row, it only has four latch hooks. So consider possible seating arrangements if you have extra passengers and make sure that it would work for you. Sometimes those third rows are not really sized for adults to sit comfortably in them.

I love my Toyota Sienna!

Updated

I love my Toyota Sienna!

we have a pontiac montana, but not sure if they still make them or when they quit making them, but i love the seating in it, the middle is 3 seats that make a bench, we have 3 car seats in the middle, the back is two seats that make a bench so you can fold them down or remove one or both, one seat is bigger then the other so one side is for 2 & the other is for one if that makes sense...we average 28mpg & thats a lot of in town driving...we have had very few problems mostly maintenance, belts & such, it has been very reliable & a good van for us...i'm sad to be looking for something bigger as we have 3 kids now & expecting twins in the spring oy! lol

We have a toyota Sienna minivan and LOVE it! Having the access in the center of the 2nd row instead of a 3rd seat is essential. It is such a pain to have that whole row of seats but not be able to get to it.....if you really want that 3 seater though I would try a Yukon, Tahoe, Expedition.

I love my Dodge Caravan. However, the second row will only hold 2 car seats. The third row is large enough for adults. I've ridden back there myself. And there is plenty of "trunk" room for luggage and such even with the third row up. The third row can be put down for even more cargo space. I've used the van that way several times.

In fact, I put the third row down and my granddaughter had her 9th birthday party in the back when it suddenly started raining while we were at the park. The girls loved it.

Having 3 car seats in the middle sounds good but it's actually very awkward if you plan to use the third row at all. One of those middle row seats has to be put down to get to the third row.

I have a Nissan Armada LE and it fits my 3 carseats in the second row and the third row folds down...it's an awesome vehicle! This is actually my second one..I had the SE and upgraded.

I love having them all in the 2nd row because it is easy to pass them things...wipe their noses etc :)

we have a 2004 sienna but the 2 bucket seat option in the 2nd row so i can't say for sure, but in the backseat, i have fit 2 carseats plus a booster. it was a VERY tight squeeze (booster kid had to be helped to move the seat around to get to the buckle in) but my carseats are marathons and they are big. i don't believe they've changed the sienna since 2004. if you get the one with the full 2nd row, you might have a smidgen more room but it will depend on your carseats whether or not they will fit. only way to find out is to go try.

i love my sienna. we had an accident and have been without it for awhile now. our first loaner car was a ford expedition. i'm betting you could fit 3 carseats in that one. after realizing driving an SUV is not that bad, i am leaning more SUV for our next one but i don't know if i can give up the hauling capacity, and we are not truck people. our next loaner car was a subaru, so it's more like a car. the latch on both vehicles left something to be desired. on the expedition, i had to twist the latch upside down to get it to click and on the subaru, it took a lot of maneuvering. so not all latch systems are created equal.

we love our sienna but our friends have the odyssey. they are pretty comparable but they offer different options at different price ranges. for instance, our sienna has a self-closing trunk (LOOOOOVE that when you've got an infant) that came with the mid-range sienna but you can't get that except for the top-end in an odyssey. but, they got a rearview camera in their mid-range odyssey and that only comes in the high-end sienna.

p.s. i second someone's post about putting kids close together. had to move my 2nd row bucket seats farther apart cause kids couldn't keep their hands/feet to themselves.

We just did this search, for similar reasons, and ended up with a Dodge Caravan. So far so good - i have been very happy with it. We also looked at the odyssey and sienna, and found the three vans to be extremely similar. The Honda had more flexible seating, but the Dodge had more cargo space.
Also, Honda and Toyota are having severe distribution problems, and may not have many vans available in the next four months, and when they are available they cost more.

We also really really liked the Ford Flex. Pretty much all the other cross-over type vehicles (Highlander etc.) were a disappointment in the space department, and the fuel consumption department. But the Flex was extremely competitive in both. We ended up with the Caravan because it had more cargo space, and we have common situations in which we need more storage.

FWIW, I don't know that anyone plans to have three seats in one row - in ours we have two captains chairs with latch, and a third latch in the back. Maybe the Odyssey can fit three in the second row? (but i don't think so - the third seat there is not quite as large.) Interestingly, the cars that i know of that can fit three seats in one row are station wagons - like the Volvo wagon or the new subaru models. Tight fit, though.

My Odyssey suits us well and we have 4 kids, two still in car seats. I honestly can't fathom why on earth you would want to torture yourself and your kids by cramming them into one row. We keep our car seat kids as far apart as possible because the kids are so darn irritating when they're near each other. But I digress...an Odyssey has an 8th seat option - a small seat that pops up from the floor and fits between the two seats in the middle row. With that up, you can fit two car seats and a booster in the second row.

What may be more practical is to slide the middle seats together to get the traditional 2-seat middle row with side access to the 3rd row. The 5-year-old can sit in the 3rd row (my 5-year-old can buckle his own car seat) and if you need some cargo room, you can drop the other 60% of the 3rd row into the floor. This is our usual configuration and it's great - plenty of room for groceries, bikes, hockey bags, etc.

Congrats on your pregnancy - hope you have a quick and easy labor!

People never believe that we're still driving our Ford Taurus wagon with four kids, but my husband installed the third rear-facing seat from a wagon he found at Pull-A-Part, and it's gotten us 3 extra years (and counting) to get out of debt before we buy a van. I LOVE my Taurus wagon.

Our friends have a Volvo crossover type vehicle they picked us up in once that seats 2-3-2(optional). It was very nice.

My sister drives a Ford Freestyle (not made anymore) that is basically the crossover-sized version of the Taurus. She LOVES it, and that seats 2-3-2(optional).

Blessings on your search!

Hi there, I can tell you that my husband has researched this extensively, because he doesn't want to pay the crazy rental van fees whenever we travel, which we seem to do a lot of, and we have twin two year olds and a four and a half year old. A rental car can be a fraction of the price of a van - so, that said, it mostly comes down to the car seats, not the car. In Mexico, we managed to squish ourselves (two babies and a three year old at the time) into a Volkswagen something or other hatchback. In Texas we put them all into a Kia Sportage. We have, in the past, bought car seats simply based on the fact that they are narrower than others. Of course safety is first, but narrowness is second in our books! Anyway, you probably don't want to buy a whole set of new seats, though! So, at home we drive a Kia Sedona minivan and don't put all three seats in the back because there is only one car seat anchor in the back of that car - otherwise I'd highly recommend it, though, as it is half the price of a Toyota or Honda and it runs just as well and was actually voted safer than the Sienna for the year we bought it! You could try, though, a Toyota Rav 4, with the extra row of seats, but it looked kind of cramped back there - they are wider than other cars, though. At my parents we drive their Honda CRV and put all three seats in the back of that - not sure if that one has an option of an extra row or not, but it would be worth looking into! Also, I liked that the Honda Odyssey had storage compartments in the floor - how cool is that??! Right now our set up is to have one of the twins in the back next to our four and a half year old, who is in a booster now, and one of the twins' seats in the captain's chair in the middle row - this seems to work best when grandma and grandpa come to visit. It will be great when my mother-in-law comes to visit, too, as she can sit comfortably in the middle row instead of with me or my husband while we're driving (selfish reasoning, I know! Haha). FYI, our Kia Sedona gets great gas mileage, too. So did our Rav 4 when we had one, but ours was just a four-cylinder and that was when we only had one kid. :-) . Oh, and my brother has the Grand Caravan and I also love the way the seats fold into the floor - that would work great for us when we have no visitors!
Good luck and congratulations!

I have always gone with Chevy. I started with a suburban then went to a Tahoe. I now have a Yukon XL. I absolutely love them. The Tahoe had split seats in the third row so I took one side out. I have a hitch that is a step and the kids used to get in the back. They loved that. They are very roomy. You may rethink having all three in the same row. There are times when I wish they all had their own row where they couldn't poke each other. :)

We have just done a new car search ourselves. I've driven an Odyssey van for 12 years. It drives nice, feels good inside, and you can't beat the cargo room with the 3rd row folded down. The new Oydssey is great and has seating for 3 carseats in the second row. Plus it has a more fuel efficient engine that gets 28 miles on the highway. I think the city mileage is 19. Both are great for any van or suv.

I have yet to find a car that will fit 3 car seats all in one row. The only thing tha tI have found is the Pathfinder has 3 rows and will fit 2 boosters with a carseat in the second row and the baack row folds down. I currently drive a Dodge Durango and have 2 car seats in the back and one in the second row (ages, 3.5 twins and a 2.5) I do believe that once the twins are able to fit in a booster seat they will all be able to sit in one row. Good luck!

S.

We have a 2007 Toyota Highlander. I really like it, but we only have 2 children. To access the 3rd row, you have to climb over the seats or crawl through the back. Not very convenient! It does come in handy for the occasional "extra" person, but not for everyday use. I highly recommend the Honda Odyssey. Our friends have one and they absolutely LOVE it.

We were in the same situation with a 4 year old, 2.5 year old and a newborn. After a TON of research and hauling all 3 carseats to dealer after dealer to try them in the 2nd row, we ended up with a used Toyota Sequoia. We looked at the Odyssey, Sienna, Suburban, Tahoe and Traverse. The only ones that could fit all 3 seats across the 2nd row were the Sequoia, Suburban, Tahoe (no cargo room here) and the Odyssey if you got a new one with the seats that can be moved farther apart in the 2nd row.

We don't get great mileage (a few better than the suburban, a few less than a van) but I really like the flexibility of the Sequoia (and I was anti-minivan). Right now we have my oldest in the 3rd row and the other 2 kids in the second row. The extra seat in the 2nd row is folded down so my son can easily climb into the 3rd row and I can easily reach to buckle him. That way one extra person can sit in the 2nd row if needed and I can fold down half of the 3rd row to give me plenty of cargo space. When we took it on vacation this summer we took out the 3rd row completely and had a ton of space for everything - coolers, suitcases, bikes, etc.

Based on our experiences, the Sienna was our second choice (we hated the way the Odyssey drove). Good cargo space in the back, flexible seating, good 3rd row seating space (better than the SUVs) and the ever popular sliding doors. But we could not get all 3 seats in the 2nd row because the middle seat there is so tiny so it didn't really help us right now in terms of easy access and gave us less options for travel.

Good luck! Make sure you drag all of your carseats to the vehicle and test them out before you buy!