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.

The Mitsubishi Outlander is, on paper, one of the safest small SUVs you can buy. It has good small overlap, moderate overlap, side, and roof scores, as well as a decent amount of front crash prevention technology available in optional trim packages. It’s also one of the few small SUVs on the market with a 3rd row option. It competes with a bevy of small and compact crossovers in the US market, including the Kia Sportage, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester, Ford Escape, Jeep Compass, Hyundai Tucson, and Jeep Patriot. In other words, it’s got company, which is part of why a number of parents might not know about it. But those who do tend to be quite loyal fans of the Outlander.

As a result, when I had the opportunity to look into the Outlander’s performance in puzzling 3 car seats across the back row (and a few extra in the 3rd row), I couldn’t pass it up. This 3 across guide covers several generations of the Outlander, and while it’s not as large of a list as I’d like it to be, it’s already the largest on the Internet. Before going into the car seats I was and wan’t able to squeeze into that back rows, let’s take a quick look at some basic elements of car seat safety, in terms of which seats to use and when in order to keep your kids as safe as possible while on the road.

The safest configuration we know of when it comes to vehicle safety is rear-facing. This goes for adults as well! Rear-face your infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for as long as possible (ideally until 4!), before forward-facing them in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until at least 5 or 6!). 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 Mitsubishi Outlander. 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.

The Audi A6 is one of the safest cars you can buy today in the US in two very important areas: side impact crash protection and driver death rates. To put it another way, nearly every other car on the road will crush more when t-boned than a current generation Audi A6, and the Audi A6 is also one of only four cars (along with its stablemate the Audi A4, the Mercedes E-Class sedan and Subaru Legacy) to have ever been estimated to have had zero driver deaths in a three year period by the IIHS. In other words, this is one of the safest cars you can buy.

With that said, it’s no surprise that the A6 competes favorably with other large luxury cars sold in the US, including the aforementioned Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5-Series and 7-series, and Volvo S80. It’s also chosen by a surprising number of families interested in luxury, style, and safety for spouses and little ones. To that end, I borrowed one from a friend to figure out how well it does when it comes to the practical and often frustrating task of fitting 3 car seats safely across the back seat. Before we go into which seats worked and which seats didn’t, it’s worth reviewing what kinds of seats are best for certain ages of kids.

First of all, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are safest when rear-facing. I recommend rear-facing as long as you can (ideally until 4!), before forward-facing them in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once they outgrow their harnessed seats, I suggest keeping them in high-back boosters until they’re physically and psychologically ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). 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.

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 Audi A6. 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.

The Jeep Compass is a small, peppy, and rather popular (at least in the Midwest) SUV-crossover buggy sold throughout the United States. It goes head to head with the ever-growing small SUV market, which features luminaries such as the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester, Ford Escape, and its Jeep twin the Patriot. It has a range of good safety scores, with the exception of its small overlap score, which remains poor, and was surprisingly one of the small SUVs with the lowest driver death rates measured in the most recent IIHS survey, which I wrote about extensively here.

Given my fondness of the Compass, I had to see if it were as viable of a 3 across vehicle as the other small crossovers in its class. The good news is that it’s basically the same as the Patriot on the inside in terms of the back seat, which means you’ll be able to fit several seats there when using the seat belts. Before looking at the seats, here are a few best practice readings on why it’s worth using certain seats at certain ages.

The safest configuration we know of when it comes to vehicle safety is rear-facing. This goes for adults as well! Rear-face your infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for as long as possible (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 Jeep Compass. 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.

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Jeep Compass

Guaranteed 3 across installations:

Clek Fllo (x3).

Clek Foonf (x3).

Diono Radian RXT (x3).

Diono Radian R120 (x3).

Diono Radian R100 (x3).

Combi Coccoro (x3).

Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT, Diono Radian / RXT.

Clek Fllo, Graco Size4Me 65, Diono Radian / RXT.

Chicco KeyFit 30, Clek Fllo, Chicco KeyFit 30.

There is only one generation of the Jeep Compass so far, and it’s 173 inches long and slightly more than 69 inches wide. In other words, it’s about the width and length of a small car, although it sits significantly higher than one. That said, despite its size, you’ll still be able to stuff a range of car seats into it if you’re willing to take your time and use the seat belts. Using LATCH will only frustrate you when working with a vehicle this narrow side-to-side.

Because of the length of the vehicle, if you want to make the most of your money, I’d strongly recommend Radians due to the minimal amount of space they take up with angle adjusters; your legs and front-row passengers will thank you.

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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.