3 seats across in a 1990 Subaru

[Unregistered]

We recently had to switch from a luxurious car with a 3rd row to a small Subaru wagon.

Currently we have a Britax Frontier and 2 Britax Decathlons.

I would like to keep the Frontier and one of the Decathlons. The third seat that we would buy needs to be similar to the feature that the Frontier offers because it is for our 2 year old who is about 30-35 pounds and is one inch shy of outgrowing the Decathlon by height.

What seat combos could be used for this car?

Also, how does it work to have to buy a seat and hope that it fits? I've never had to worry about fit before but now it is a necessity with 3 of them. Are there any options that I don't know about?

The seat width is

[SuzaBanana]

I'm not a tech, but I am a Subaru owner & they are *very* tough to fit 3 across. I don't have many suggestions for you other than if you could clarify:
which of your seats need to be forward-facing & which are to be rear-facing?
the height, weight & ages of your kids?
This will help the techs give you the best suggestions for your situation.

As for buying seats that might not fit, if you live near a Babies R Us, they will let you try out the floor-models in your car in the parking lot to see what will & will not fit. Some stores want to send an employee with you & others will just ask to hold your license while you have their seats. Additionally, most big-box stores (like BRU, Target & Walmart) will let you return the seat if it doesn't fit, even if you buy it online - although there may be a re-stocking fee.

Hope that helps & good luck!

[lorismurph]

I have a Subaru and have 3 in there now. What I have tried that works is the following:

TB (or Big Kid booster, both high-back), Graco Cargo, RF Scenera (or SS1 or Evenflo Titan). I have put the RF seat in the center or outboard as well as the Cargo can be either center or outboard. Of course, with only a lap belt in the center, the booster has to be outboard. I know we all love the Britax seats but they may not work. The Cargo is a good narrow FF harness seat with fairly high slots.

[mytwobugs]

Until recently we had a 1990 Subaru Legacy sedan. I don't know if you have tried to install seats in yours yet, but ours was a car with tough installs. The stalks on the seat belts were incredibly long, the outboard seatbelts didn't lock and the back of the middle seating position had a rigid plastic thing to store the buckles in when the seat was folded. All this meant using every install trick I could get off of this site (how I ended up here to begin with!) and finding that many seats were just impossible to use in this car. I think it is going to take alot of trial and error to find 3 appropriate seats that will install well let alone fitting 3 across.
As the post above, I worry that the Britax seats are just going to be too wide to get 3 across (assuming you can even get good installs with them.)

I'm trying to remember back, but I think the combos I had in that car were (all installs needed the max 3 twists of the stalk):
1)snugride in the center with with seat shifted more towards driver side and FPSVD (Marathon clone) FF in the driver position with locking clip 2) Evenflo Titan V (old 40# limit one) RF and FPSVD FF in the center and passenger side (I can't remember which was in what position). With both of these set ups it was possible for a small to med size adult to ride very squished and uncomfortable behind the driver but I can't imagine getting a rigid carseat to have fit in that spot.

At the end I had a Nautilus and FF FPSVD in the outboard positions but 3 across with those 2 would have been impossible.