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3 child car seats in the 7 seater - does it work?

59K views 36 replies 22 participants last post by  Jersey Boy 
#1 ·
Hello All!

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I found out we were expecting twins, so along with our 2 year old, we will be the parents of three children under 3. We're just about getting used to the news, but it definitely wasn't in the plan!

Anyway, obviously we are going to have to change our Mazda 3 to something a little bigger, and after a fair bit of research, I am really keen on the Skoda Kodiaq. However, the wife is more keen on the fugly MPVs like the Citroen Grand Picasso or Ford S-Max.

Is anyone in a similar position / predicament and has the Kodiaq? Can it fit 3 car seats comfortably? I would imagine that we will be going Isofix for the twins, and from what I have seen the third seat (seatbelt fastened) that my daughter is in just now, would go in the third row. I have seen some chat that the headrest here can get in the way - how much of an issue would this be for a toddler? How hard / easy would it be to get past the Isofix to the third row to put child 1 in their seat? Is there no boot space at all then?

Any help much appreciated!
 
#27 ·
So would it be possible to have a rear facing isofix seat on one side of row 2, a front facing isofix seat on the other side, with some kind of high backed booster (non-isofix) in between the two for a 6 year old? Isofix seats are Maxicosi. Also, does the middle seat in row 2 have a 3-point harness for a child seat?
 
G
#28 ·
Extracampine said:
So would it be possible to have a rear facing isofix seat on one side of row 2, a front facing isofix seat on the other side, with some kind of high backed booster (non-isofix) in between the two for a 6 year old? Isofix seats are Maxicosi. Also, does the middle seat in row 2 have a 3-point harness for a child seat?
I wouldn't think it possible, I can't get 1 isofix and the 2 high back booster seats I've got all in row 2 at one time, I have to resort to row 3, and it's a fight to who gets to sit in the rear. :lol: Once youngest granddaughter is out of isofix seat I recon 3 high back booster seats will fit no problem, it's just the way isofix seats are fixed that seems take up a lot of space.
 
#29 ·
In answer to the topic line of this thread, yes you can have 3 configurable child seats in the middle row, but it would come at a not inconsiderable cost!
Try this:
https://multimac.co.uk/p/superclub_3_seater_1200
It does in effect make the third row inaccessible and also involves tethers into the floor of the car (see the link to the fitting instructions), but would provide a system even more secure for your little ones that ISOFIX as it is tethered to the seatbelt fixing points (or directly into the floor of the car) whereas the ISOFIX points are into the frame of the seat and are therefore inherently weaker. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking ISOFIX, but with that you're only fixing a single seat and child, so it's plenty strong enough and obviously better than just using the car's own seatbelt on a single seat. With the Multimac system there's a lot of weight and the ISOFIX wouldn't be strong enough in a crash. As I said, not cheap though...!

Just food for thought - you could even have one in your Mazda 3 and save the cost of changing car at all, but from experience of twins, you'd struggle more with the lack of boot space for a double pram/buggy and all the other detritus generated by carting kids around in a 'family' car!

Don't knock the idea of a people carrier - we had a VW Touran for 5 years when our twins were born and as a family car, it was superbly practical, if a little boring (grey outside, grey inside, grey dash, grey seats - it was basically a grey car!!). I did at least win the argument with my wife that we "needed" one with the 2.0TDI 190 engine with DSG, heated leather sports seats, satnav, dynamic lights, bigger alloys, etc., etc. which we bought at just under 3 years old so all of those optional extras had depreciated to nearly no value (i.e. they almost cost me nothing!). It was basically a Golf GTD underneath...
 
#30 ·
Thanks for the reply. Disappointed to hear that you can't fit 3 child seats in the second row if one of them is isofix. It beggars belief that a big SUV family car like this Kodiaq can't do this! Sure you can put one or two kids in the 3rd row, but as previous people have mentioned, many will want all 3 kids in the 2nd row - and also putting them in the 3rd row means if you go on a family holiday you have a small boot. Even the Peugeot 5008, VW Sharan or Citroen Grand Space Tourer can do this. I had previously looked at the Multimac seats but I figured it would be better to just get a new car that has this capability built in, as my current car (2013 Kia Sportage) is getting a bit on the small side.
 
G
#31 ·
Extracampine said:
Thanks for the reply. Disappointed to hear that you can't fit 3 child seats in the second row if one of them is isofix. It beggars belief that a big SUV family car like this Kodiaq can't do this! Sure you can put one or two kids in the 3rd row, but as previous people have mentioned, many will want all 3 kids in the 2nd row - and also putting them in the 3rd row means if you go on a family holiday you have a small boot. Even the VW Sharan or Seat Alhambra can do this. I had previously looked at the Multimac seats but I figured it would be better to just get a new car that has this capability built in, as my current car (2013 Kia Sportage) is getting a bit on the small side.
You would really need to try with the seats you have. It might be possible to fit a small booster seat in the middle with 2 isofix seats in the outer seats with different seats, but the Britax Romer highback boosters I have are quite chunky.
And yes the centre seat has a 3 point belt.
 
#33 ·
Just to let you know that you can fit 3 child seats across the back. We have one child in ISOFIX Maxi Cosi Pebble and then 2 x kids (both 3.5) in Graco Junior. It's a bit of a faff if you did it every day but fine on drives when you need a full boot. Most of the time we put 2 in the back with the centre seat down to climb in and out. Or 1 in the back if we need more boot space but not the whole thing. You can make it work. Also it is very useful having them split up sometimes! :) Hope that helps.
 
#34 ·
Hia hope someone can help 😳 we went to see the Kodiaq today and tried it out with the kids full back boosters however the salesman said you can't remove any of the headrests which means the seats sit forward at an angle as the headrests push it forward ! Which is not safe or comfortable. Did the salesman get it wrong ? Seems odd that in a family car you can't fit full sized boosters. We have three children ages 4/6/8
Many thanks
 
G
#35 ·
Avc37 said:
Hia hope someone can help 😳 we went to see the Kodiaq today and tried it out with the kids full back boosters however the salesman said you can't remove any of the headrests which means the seats sit forward at an angle as the headrests push it forward ! Which is not safe or comfortable. Did the salesman get it wrong ? Seems odd that in a family car you can't fit full sized boosters. We have three children ages 4/6/8
Many thanks
Yet more of, if the salespersons lips move they're lying , I'm afraid....
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#36 ·
You can definitely remove the third row headrests and then re-install with them facing backwards to allow car seats to safely sit flat against the seat back in those third row seats. I found thatvoutvvia this forum and have had my car set up like that for the last 15 months. It would otherwise have been impossible to have car seats safely in third row. There is a Skoda 'how to' guide somewhere on this forum posted with a thread which shows how to use a flat edged screwdriver to press down a little latch on the inside of one of the collars that the headrest poles go down into...you need to push the leather or cloth down a cm or so to see the latch but thatvthen allows you to fully remove the headrest in order to turn in around.
 
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