The Mercedes C-Class sedan is one of the safest cars you can buy these days in the United States when it comes to its ability to help you survive a side impact crash, and is also one of the safest cars on the market in terms of actual driver death rates. I’ve written about side impact ratings and ranked the best cars for surviving side collisions here, as well as the safest cars for families in terms of driver survival here, and the C-Class is one of the most side impact-resistant cars out there at the moment, as well as one of the cars drivers are least likely to die in, with a driver death rate of 7 and 10 in the 4WD and 2WD ’08-’11 models respectively. In other words, much like its bigger sibling the E-Class, it’s a safe car.

Partly due to its reputation for safety and partly due to its MB legacy , the C-Class sedan also competes well within the mid-sized luxury market (which includes vehicles like the Acura TLX, Infiniti Q50, Volvo S60, BMW 3 Series, and Audi A4) among families interested in safe and comfortable transportation for themselves and their little ones. Let’s take a look at how the C-Class sedan does in the most practical of quests: fitting 3 car seats across its back row of seats. Before doing so, however, a quick review of best practices in seating choices is always useful.

I always advocate beginning with rear-facing, and continuing to do so with young children for as long as possible (ideally until 4!). After rear-facing, next comes forward-facing in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once kids are too big for forward-facing harnessed seats, booster seats are the next step until they pass the 5-step test for using adult vehicle seats and adult seat belts (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The longer you keep your kids safely restrained, the better their odds of crash survival.

With these ideas in mind, I borrowed a few C-Class sedans and tried out a variety of convertible, infant, and combination seats to see which 3 across car seat combinations were most likely to work for most parents. The list is small, but it’s accurate. 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.