Another question about renting a car - 3 carseats now!

M

mrscakes

New member
I posted before about needing to rent a car, but the situation has changed and we'll now be sharing a vehicle with my in-laws... so that's a total of 4 adults and 3 in carseats. My son is 10 mos, rear-facing in a True Fit (w/o the headrest). My older niece is 4, forward-facing in a Marathon and my younger niece is 2, also forward-facing in a Marathon (but could obviously still be rear-facing). We're looking at renting a minivan, but all the info I can get is it'll be a "Dodge Grand Caravan, Chevy Uplander or similar" and I'm told it has the middle row with captain's chairs and the 3rd row bench seat.

Phew, that was a lot of details! So here are my questions:
1. do you think we'll be okay with the 3 seats in one of these minivans? I have a 4runner and no experience with vans at all
2. what's our best bet for a configuration? My SIL and I were talking and thought maybe the 2 Marathons in the captains seats and the TF in the middle of the 3rd row (with us on either side and our tall DHs in the front)

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated!
 
ADS
wendytthomas

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
With the tall Marathons on their bases and the True Fit not on a base, I'd bet they'd puzzle well together. I'd put them across the back row. I wouldn't want to sit next to a carseat in that back row. It's tight. With a Wizard in the middle I can get Radians on either side (third row of a Grand Caravan) and that's it. It'd be tight to put an adult back there.

Wendy
 
M

mrscakes

New member
Hmm, so you suggest Marathon-TF-Marathon in the 3rd row? I wonder if they're all sandwiched in right next to each other if they'll mess with each other too much :)
 
capeKO71

capeKO71

New member
If you want a little more room, try for the Toyota Sienna with the 8 passenger capabilities (that was the only 8 passenger I could find for rent)... you might have a little more room then - you could do the two marathons in the back, and the True fit rear facing in the middle with the two of you in the middle... we did that in FL and it worked out well... and we had a full 8 people too - so we actually had two carseats in the way back with my older nephew between them.
 
my2kidsSafe

my2kidsSafe

New member
i have an 06 town and country and you are probably going to have problems getting some people into the back row if you have carseats there especially if they are older.
 
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