Mini van and 5 car seats

[Elizabeth86]

Is there a mini van that 2 boosters and 3 car seats fit? My current van only has room for 4. I've been reading, but I keep getting confused. 😵

[SoCal_Bear]

Yes, but you won't have LATCH tether for all seats if that is what you are asking. However all carseats and boosters can be seatbelt installed. I would just choose carefully where you place seats. In any event, you probably need to plan for seat belt install across the entire 3rd row. My personal inclination would be to try to do the carseat in the middle position with boosters on the outside and the kids who can manage independently buckling or at least that one of the booster kids can help the middle carseat get buckled. I would leave youngest in the middle row for adult assistnace to buckle.

This is a list of vehicles that you do 3 across. You also have to be selective about which carseats you buy as well if you are solving for 3 across as you will want ones that have are narrower in width. 

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/great-vehicles-that-seat-three-car-seats-across#:~:text=2020 Kia Sedona&text=The Kia Sedona is the,set in its third row.

https://thecarseatlady.com/narrowest-car-seats

You can check tether and latch configuration for specific vehicles by model year on car seat lady as well. 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by calbear

[rebcoola]

I don't know.   My best friend gave up on boosters when doing 5 in her minivan and bought one of the Diono radians and put her big kids in those on the harness setting.  I remember they tried to bubble bums cause they are tiny and the kids couldn't buckle them with a car seat in.  

[Elizabeth86]

30 minutes ago, kand said:

When I was last shopping for that, the Odyssey and Sienna were the ones that could accommodate a car seat in every rear seating position. I know the Sienna no longer has the full size middle seat in the second row, though if you’re interested in used, the model years where you could get the 8 seater with a full size middle seat were fantastic for car seats. I could put three across that row without even being mindful of buying narrow seats. I could look up which years that was if you can’t find it. 

Thanks. I was specifically looking at siennas.  I 100% won't be buying new so that will be fine. I would live to know which years you were talking about. 

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, kand said:

When I was last shopping for that, the Odyssey and Sienna were the ones that could accommodate a car seat in every rear seating position. I know the Sienna no longer has the full size middle seat in the second row, though if you’re interested in used, the model years where you could get the 8 seater with a full size middle seat were fantastic for car seats. I could put three across that row without even being mindful of buying narrow seats. I could look up which years that was if you can’t find it. 

We had 5 carseats in the Odyssey.  

[SoCal_Bear]

Here is the review of Toyota Sienna. Read about all the seat configurations by model year here:

https://thecarseatlady.com/vehicles/minivan/toyota-sienna/

 

 

[SoCal_Bear]

This is a longer article about solving the 3 across puzzle.

https://thecarseatlady.com/vehicles/3-across/