fit three in saturn VUE with latch

Hello. I know my view has latch in all seats. Currently I have a high back buckle in booster (Graceo I think) for my 5 yr old and a Britax Marathon for my 3 yr old. I have had a forward facing Roundabout in there and it worked (not sure about rear facing). We are expecting to have another baby in aabout a month and I want a convertible seat for him. Would the fisher price delux seat (the britax made one) fit rear facing in this set up?

I was thinking about putting the 5 yr old on the end, the forward facing marathon in the center and the rear facing on the other side. (I can't put the rear facing in the middle or driver side because my husband is really tall and needs the seat pulled back all the way).

Thank you so much for you help with this. I am pretty stressed out about it since I found out the Roundabout I was going to use is now expired.
Jolene

I think your best bet would be 3yr old ff'ing driver outboard, 5 yr booster in middle and then baby rf'ing passenger outboard.

As for if it will fit or not, I'm not sure how wide the backseat is. Do a test of putting the 2 seats center (booster) & driver outboard (marathon,) and then move the outboard driver seat to the outboard passenger & see how it works.

The fisher price seat is the same width as the marathon except it doesn't have the LATCH bars, so putting the booster in the middle and testing if you can install the MA on each side will tell you how it'll fit. Also check for accessiblity of the buckle at the same time and that your 5yr old will be able to buckle without difficulties from the neighboring carseat.

You'll probably have to install the outboard seats with the seatbelt in order to get the maximum usable backseat space, but you never know - try LATCH first if you want and then go from there.

You may want to put the baby in the MA and 3yr old in the fisher price seat - provided he's under 55lbs still, if you're not able to use LATCH, just so you can use the rf'ing lock offs. They definitely come in handy for rf'ing seatbelt installs because you don't have to worry about the seat tilting over time from a locked seatbelt. :thumbsup:

(assuming a lap/shoulder belt in the center anyways - I think most saturns have had l/s belts in center for awhile now?)

Thank you. I will try that. The 3 yr old is only 30 lbs so it would work to switch her into the "new seat" (what ever that is fisher price or britax) and put the baby in the ma
Jolene

Something to consider---the Britax convertibles don't fit most newborns very well...so the FP one wouldn't either.

Susan

How do you know if the seat isn't fitting a newborn very well? I used them for both girls with some rolled up recieving blankets on the sides. They were 8lbs 13 oz and 8 lbs 2 oz at birth.

Thank you
Jolene

It depends on the newborn and your preference. With newborns, the manufacturers allow the straps to be a bit above the baby's shoulders, but many parents are not comfortable with this (the "rule" for RF is at or below the shoulders).

Personally, I was pleased with the way my dd fit in a RA as a 7 & 1/2 pound newborn, but it really depends. Newborns vary a lot in size!

Ok. So we tried with the booster in the center and the armrests prevented it from fitting there. Darn. So we next tried the MA in the FF in center but the rear facing roundabout did not fit (this is the one that is expired and I have to replace it). So I think our only option is to get the radian and put it in the center FF with the booster on the drivers side and the RF MA on the other side.
Thoughts?
Jolene

Should work like a charm. On our vacation last week, I had dd's Radian FF in the center of a Saturn Vue, and there was plenty of space on the sides for the boosters (one was a backless Graco TB). The RF MA should have plenty of room as well. :thumbsup: