Car Buying Advice

N

narcle

Guest
My current vehicle is quickly becoming too small for transporting the family (Chevy Tracker). I need a new vehicle and want to plan for a third child in the near future. With concern for gas prices as well, I have been looking at some hybrids (Toyota Highlander, Ford Escape, Saturn Vue). I prefer smaller cars but need to be able to fit a rear facing seat, front facing seat (3yr old) and a booster seat (5yr old). Is the Highlander my only option or will the other two fit three seats across in one row?
 
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jesster

New member
I am sure this has been addressed for the Highlander (and many other three-across situations) but I tried to get a booster (a Graco TB and/or a Sunshine Kids Monterey), a FF seat (a Radian and/or a Nauti) and a CCO 3-across in my husband's Jeep Laredo and the booster made it impossible! It we'd needed two 5-pt seats it would have worked. (Radian-Radian-CCO) But that booster was the wild card. We even tried it in NBB form. No go.

So I would say take all three of the seats you plan to use to the dealer and see if you could happily get your children in and out of them on a daily basis.

Otherwise, maybe considering looking at the Mazda5. It gets great gas mileage and you can get six people in it. If you are a smaller person and you don't need to take a lot of stuff with you it'll work well with three kids! (it's what we have :)
 

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
I have a 2006 Vue (although I think that's a different body style from the newer hybrids) and there are three discrete sets of LATCH in a very wide backseat. You can see three-across in my avatar.
 

ca2003

New member
My current vehicle is quickly becoming too small for transporting the family (Chevy Tracker). I need a new vehicle and want to plan for a third child in the near future. With concern for gas prices as well, I have been looking at some hybrids (Toyota Highlander, Ford Escape, Saturn Vue). I prefer smaller cars but need to be able to fit a rear facing seat, front facing seat (3yr old) and a booster seat (5yr old). Is the Highlander my only option or will the other two fit three seats across in one row?

Not sure if you are considering brand new or not but we saw a Highlander (not positive if it was a hybrid or not) at the auto show a few months ago and the middle seat just seemed really skinny which may cause an issue for 3 across. I agree with the PP that you should bring your seats to the dealership to try them out.
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
I have a new Highlander Hybrid. The second row is wide enough to do three-across, but the issue is finding one that fits correctly in the middle seat. Front facing seats will work, but they will overlap the seat behind the driver. Rear-facing seats with narrow bases (or infant seats with narrow recline feet on the base) may have issues due to the design of the structure of the outboard seats. You can put a large seat behind the passenger and two narrower seats installed with seatbelts in the center and behind the driver. Even the narrowest seat in the center will conflict with folding/moving the outboard seats at all.

All new Highlanders come standard with a third row seat. I put my booster-age child in one of the third row seats and it works nicely. I could put all three in the second row since two are out of carseats, but with my kids, that is a major driver distraction issue!
 

Guest

New member
Hybrids have a significant price premium. If you're open to that, make sure to also check out different bodystyles and even engine choices as well (like diesel, which also tends to have a price premium but also delivers far better gas mileage).

I'm mainly chiming in cuz I'm not sure you'll be thrilled with the 3 cars you listed. Your best bet is with the Highlander, by more than a country mile, but it's also quite pricey. The others... ehhhhh, not a big fan. The Escape is literally an antique pocketwatch in a digital smartphone world. Seriously, that thing is ancient. They changed the exterior looks to look modern, but underneath the thing is like an 80 yr old trying to compete in the 2012 London Olympics. The Vue was always a middle of the pack kind of vehicle.
 

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