3 car seats in the back

[LiamPope]

I just about manage it in a 3, so a Y should be a breeze. Mine are 5, 4 and 4, so can use boosters.

Of course the buckles are totally inaccessible for the two boosters. The Urban Kanga in the middle has it's own harness. Previously we had one of the boosters in the front and mum sat in the back. That gave enough wiggle room to push things out the way enough to just be able to manage to buckle the booster in the back, but not fun. I was umming and ahing about chopping the arm rests off the boosters and/or seat belt extenders, but all technically a bit dodgy although many use them. The game changer was seeing a video on Youtube that shows how kids can get in and out without needing to buckle/unbuckle the belt on the boosters. Looked a bit awkward but we gave it a go and it was actually super easy and the kids like it. That meant we could chuck all three in the back and they can all get themselves in and out easily without needing to touch the buckles. Happy days!

The Urban Kanga in the middle is getting a bit tight and not all that comfy, so I'll eventually squeeze another booster in the middle and use the same belt hack. But that will require chopping the arm rests off the booster, which I'm OK about really. If I happened to live in the US there seems to be more options available - like boosters that dont have the stupid arm rests and super slim seats, that at least go in a Y. Not sure if those work in a 3. But can't find those things here in Norway, so have to make do!

 

[thax1]

One thing to think about is isofix. For short journeys we’ve managed to fit a grandparent between the seats by moving them off the isofix mounting to seatbelt only (a supported option for our seats) and pushing them right out to the edges.

That’s fine if the grandparents are young enough to come with isofix. Sadly mine were manufactured before the widespread adoption of seatbelts.

 

[Pete_Nikola]

I suspect the overall width isn't enough to make a difference, but the seats are higher so not so sunken back between the wheel arches. Definitely worth a look.

Or there is the enyaq. Similar capabilities to the Y, but no SC network. Not sure I'd like to give that up, but if it's that or leave one of the kids behind...

We have looked at the Enyaq for this very purpose. We took 3 seats along for a test drive and although we could squash them all in you could not access the belts to do them up and the two outer seats were at an angle. We tried with just car seats on the outer two seats but it was difficult to access lap belt in the middle and our eldest (just 8 years old and almost 135cm) felt squashed in the middle.

We ruled out the Enyaq for this reason.

It all came down to the spacing of the belt anchors.

We were hoping the Model Y had better belt spacing.

 

[GrinchKing]

Late to this post. I’ve got 3 kids in our model Y. All 3 forward face. One booster seat, a diono radeon and a Graco 4ever. Not the best fit but it works. My biggest complaint is how the glass roof reflects and enhances their voices. A sunshade cuts down on it.