The Lexus NX, or “Nimble Crossover,” is Lexus’ newest offering to the growing compact luxury crossover market, and is a small and sleek SUV with an impressive array of safety features. It features good frontal overlap scores, good side scores and roof scores, and even comes with front crash prevention systems in higher trim levels. Classified by the IIHS as a mid-sized luxury SUV, the NX competes with more established offerings in the 5-passenger luxury crossover market like the Volvo XC60, BMW X3, Acura RDX, Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class, and its larger stablemate, the Lexus RX, among families interested in transporting up to 5-passengers without the heft and length of a 3-row luxury vehicle.

Because luxury-minded parents of small children are likely to cross shop the NX with the aforementioned SUVs, I wanted to see how competitive it was from a 3 across standpoint. In other words, how easy is it to install 3 car seats across the back row of a Lexus NX? Is it even possible, given the NX’s platform similarities to the Toyota Rav4, a vehicle notorious for overlapping seat belts and impossible 3 across installations?

Unfortunately, it’s not. I’ll go into why in a moment, as well as information on which options you do have for car seat installations in the NX. Before that, however, here are some best practice recommendations regardless of how many car seats you’re installing, and which vehicles you’re installing them inside.

The safest configuration we know of when it comes to vehicle safety is rear-facing. I recommend rear-facing your children long past age 1, which is the legal requirement in most states, and going well into the preschool years (ideally until 4!), before forward-facing them in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once they outgrow their harnessed seats, it’s best to keep them restrained in high-back boosters until they’re physically and psychologically ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). We want our little ones in the safest positions we know of for as long as possible to give them the greatest advantages in 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 Lexus NX. It’s my goal to make this list the most thorough on the Internet. 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.