3 Across Car Seat Guide

3 Across Installations: A Guide To Which Car Seats Will Fit in Every Vehicle (Cars, Minivans, SUVs, and Pickups)

When it comes to car safety, you can focus on driving safely and you can focus on choosing a safe car. However, if you have children, you also need to focus on choosing a safe car seat. This is one of a series of reviews and guides I’ll write on how well some of the best car seats currently available in the United States fit (or don’t fit) particular cars. I will also include information on puzzling combinations I’ve seen, in terms of which seats fit nicely (or not so nicely) with others in particular vehicles when installed with LATCH systems or seat belts.

If you want to fit 3 car seats together in just about any vehicle, get 3 Fllos and call it a day. If you're going to mix and match, check out the customized guides below.
If you want to fit 3 car seats together in just about any vehicle, get 3 Fllos and call it a day. If you’re going to mix and match, check out the customized guides below.

You might already be familiar with the basics of best practices in car seat safety: I typically suggest keeping children rear-facing as long as possible (until 4 or 5 like the Swedes), followed by harnessing until they can safely use booster seats (until at least 5, like the Swedes), and then boostering until the 5 step test is passed (typically between 10, 11, and 12). Beyond that, I suggest keeping kids in the back seat until at least 13, and delaying teen solo driving until 18 if possible. What we want to do is keep our kids restrained in the safest positions for as long as possible to increase their odds of surviving crash forces. These are my suggestions for keeping kids restrained as well as possible during their most vulnerable years of physical development.

However, for this information to be helpful, you need to know if a particular car seat will fit in your particular vehicle. You wouldn’t buy a full-sized vacuum to clean . Here are my experiences fitting a range of seats inside various years of every car, minivan, pickup, and SUV I’ve had the chance to explore, big and small. My focus is on 3 across compatibility, but I’ll also include tips and tricks I’ve found helpful with difficult installations. I’ll periodically update each page as I try more seats in more positions.

I have also begun to review vehicles that are no longer in production; their 3 across guides are located beneath the applicable section (e.g., cars no longer in production are after the car section).

You can find reviews of the seats that I consider the best infant seats, convertibles, combinations, and boosters here. The list of Canadian recommended car seats is here.

If you’re in a hurry, here are the narrowest car seats that will fit 3 across in (almost) any vehicle. If you’re looking for infant seats in particular, here are 4 narrow infant seats that you can use for 3 across in almost any vehicle. And if you want to clean your car seats when they get dirty (because they will), get a stick vacuum with a good battery.

Jump to 3 across car seat installations in
Cars, SUVs / Crossovers, Minivans, or Pickups.

3 across car seat installations in Cars

Minicars (Subcompacts)

Small Cars (Compacts)

Midsize Cars (Luxury)

Midsize Cars (Moderately-priced)

Large Cars (Full-sized cars), Luxury and Moderately-Priced

Cars No Longer In Production

3 across car seat installations in SUVs and Crossovers

Small SUVs

Midsize SUVs (Luxury)

Midsize SUVs (Moderately-priced)

Large SUVs

Crossovers and SUVs No Longer In Production

3 across car seat installations in Minivans

3 across car seat installations in Pickups

If you’d like more information on many of the individual seats mentioned in the articles above, you can read reviews of car seats I recommend here. The truth is that there are safe car seats available at every budget and to fit every vehicle; I’ll continue to review vehicles and seats in effort to make this the most detailed list of 3 across installations available on the Internet.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

35,000 Americans will die this year on the road. You don't have to be one of them. A car seat and car safety blog to promote best practices for families.