The Fiat 500L is one of the most distinctive small cars you can buy today in the United States, and also one of the safest cars for surviving side impact collisions. It competes with a bevy of small cars currently sold throughout the US, including the Mini Cooper Countryman, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Ford Focus, Nissan Sentra, Kia Soul, Kia Forte, Dodge Dart, Chevrolet Cruze, Mazda 3, Toyota Prius, Scion xB, Volkswagen Golf, and Subaru Crosstrek. It’s the larger version of its smaller cousin, the Fiat 500.

It’s a crowded market, but the 500L is slowly carving out a niche for itself. Besides its great side impact performance, it also features ESC, side airbags, a good roof, and a good moderate overlap score. Its greatest weakness as of 2015 is its poor small overlap front score, which Fiat Chrysler America needs to address, and soon. That said, it’s an increasingly popular choice among families interested in a peppy hatchback that stands out in a crowd. I wanted to find out how good of a choice it would be for families hoping to install 3 car seats across the back row. The bad news is that the fit is a tight one. The good news is that it’s possible with a surprising number of seats, particularly when you use your seat belts for the installations.

Before going into those details, though, I always like to briefly review some of what I consider to be the basics of car seat safety. It doesn’t matter what you’re driving if you don’t safely restrain your children, and the best practices of safe restraints change with the kind of seat used and the age of your child.

For me, car seat safety starts with rear-facing your kids as long as you can (ideally until 4!). That’s the safest position and is worth doing as long as possible before forward-facing your little ones in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once they outgrow their harnessed seats, I suggest keeping children in high-back boosters until they’re physically and psychologically ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids as safely restrained for as long as possible, as it’s far too late to do anything for your child’s safety in the moment before a collision.

Keeping these ideas in mind, I set to work to find which infant, convertible, combination, and booster seats would work best in 3 across combinations in the Fiat 500L. I found several good options and a few great ones. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.