The Volvo V60 (known as the S60 in its sedan version) is a mid-sized luxury hatchback, or station wagon, designed to compete with vehicles like the Subaru Outback, Audi A4 Avant, and at times its own stablemate the XC70. It’s stylish, safe, seats up to 5, and is frequently chosen by families interested in luxury while having access to Volvo’s reputation for safety. Features like ESC, rollover-sensing airbags, and good front, side, and roof crash test scores are present. It’s a well-designed luxury vehicle and I made it my goal to figure out which car seats were most likely to fit 3 across in a Volvo V60. The short version is that, as the V60 is essentially a clone of the S60, you’re going to have a very similar experience fitting car seats into it and puzzling them together.

Before going into the details, however, remember that whichever seats you choose, you’ll want to keep infants and very young children rear-facing as long as possible (ideally until 4!), before forward-facing them in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!), and then keeping them in high-back boosters until they’re ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep your little ones safely restrained to give them the best odds of surviving a crash, and these recommendations are designed with survival in mind.

With those guiding principles in mind, I went about testing the V60 I had access to with convertible, infant, and combination seats to see which 3 across combinations were most feasible. Fortunately, there are several combinations that will work with the V60. 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.

The initial generation of the Volvo V60 is 182 inches long and 73 inches wide, which is almost identical to the dimensions of not only the Volvo S60 but also the Volvo XC60 that shares the S60 platform. Many of the 3 across combinations that work in other luxury mid-sized sedans will also work in the V60, and as in those vehicles, you’ll want to use your seat belts instead of the LATCH anchors to make the most of side-to-side space.

Due to the shorter wheelbase of the V60, front-to-back space will be more difficult to come across here than in a comparable-width vehicle like, say, a Subaru Outback. As a result, I’d recommend going with a seat like a Fllo or a Foonf over a Radian RXT if you’ve got taller drivers or want to maximize front-to-back space.

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If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.