three car seats in a saturn?

[Jster]

Hi oh wise women!

I got in an accident (without the kids, thank god!) on Thursday, and my poor little Saturn has a lot of front end damage, but not quite enough to count as "totalled." The thing is, we will need to replace my car in the next year unless I can fit three carseats in the back (baby on the way!!). I've heard the radian is good, but who actually has three in the back, and what kind of car is it? Also, I remember having a really hard time fitting a rear-facing carseat in my saturn, so fitting a rearfacing+two front facing seems impossible!! I'm still talking to the insurance company to see if they'll just give me a check for the $4000 in repairs and let me on my way. Oh, here are my current petite kiddos:

DD1, 5yo, 41.5 inches tall, 35 pounds
DD2, 2y9mo, 34.5 inches tall, 24 pounds.
baby on the way!

I'm worried the car will be hard to sell after the accident, plus I just need to replace it anyway, unless I can find some other solution. But it was already starting to feel a little cramped. Oh, and money is a concern.

TIA!!

[LizaBear]

I have 3 seats across the back of my Cavalier right now.

DS1, 4yo, 41", 40 lbs - Evenflo Generations (we're Canadian, this harnesses to 47 lbs here)

DD, 2yo, 33", 28 lbs - Safety 1st Intera (forward facing )

DS2, newborn, 9lbs - Graco Snugride

[Nicole77]

I have had (and will again come March!) two rear facing and one forward facing in my Saturn Vue.

[Jster]

Thanks ladies! Guess I should be more specific, I have a Saturn SL2. When I have two carseats back there (not purchased for narrowness, but still) there's max 12 inches or so between them, so it would take a LOT of rearranging/repurchasing and then might still not work out. I'm thinking we're just going to take the money and get another car, it won't be the max I could have gotton selling it, but it'll also be a lot less stress. Sad to say goodbye to the car I bought before dd1 was born!!

[wednesday]

I have a Saturn SL2 with a Radian in the middle in the back for my 3-yo, and two backless boosters on either side for his slightly older cousins. The Radian is about as narrow as you can get, IMO, but it is still very tight. I think you could get two rear-facing seats on either side, but FF I don't know. If it were me...given your kids' ages...I'd probably put the 5yo in a backless booster and the 3yo in a Radian, both of them on the outside, and the baby RF in the middle. But if your 3yo is still RF you could maybe try having her and baby RF on the outside and 5yo in the middle. My point is two FF seats probably won't fit next to each other, as you realize, so you're going to have to mix it up somehow.

[Justmee]

I don't have a Saturn but I do have three carseats in the back seat, two FF and one RF. Right now I have the twins on the outsides FF in Radians, and Rivka in the middle RF in an evenflo (the cheap one, titan I think? or triumph). The two Radians will not sit FF next to each other, but they will sit next to each other if one is FF and one is RF (with the RF in the middle is how I did it). When Rivka was in the bucket I had the girls in Evenflos next to each other, and Rivka behind the passenger. (but it was a different car). My girls are around 35 inches and have plenty of room in the radians (they love them) and Rivka is pretty short, *maybe* 29 inches, and she has tons of room in the evenflo RF.

HTH

[Justmee]

Forgot to add I did have all 3 of them RF for a while and the girls were RF in the evenflos next to each other, and Rivka RF in the graco bucket (the old type that goes to 26 inches, installed w/o the base).

[joensally]

We have an SL2 and I hope they'll cash you out! I think it would be very hard to get three seats across the back of the SL2 that are properly installed and stay that way (ie - that one seat isn't putting pressure on another seat that the seatbelt loosens on the second seat, thus reducing the solid fit).

I don't know if you'd be able to get a RF seat anywhere but in the middle - that's the only place ours would fit and still have the front seat occupants sufficiently far away from the airbags.

The other thing with the SL2 is the lack of rear headrests - you'll want those when the kids are in a booster, particularly if you choose a backless.

[sehbub]

Also, you might want to be careful about what kind of vehicle you upgrade to...in some states it's actually illegal (and a major fine) to have three carseats (RF or FF) on a bench seat. In the event of an accident, the seats could collide and not protect your child, as they're made to withstand crash stress on their own with room for "give" which doesn't usually happen on most bench seats if you get three in there.

Good luck! We have to get a new vehicle in the next month or so too. Not fun!

[Kundalini-Mama]

We have a 95 Saturn SL1, so not as uppity as your SL2 We had 3 carseats in the back. Behind the passenger seat we had the RA RF, in the middle we had a FF Marathon, and behind the driver's seat we had a high backed booster (don't know what kind, it was the kid we were babysitting).

hth
Amy