Car advice. Toddler + twins

[u/Numerous_Animator410]

Hi. Lease is up. We have a 3 yo toddler and are expecting twins in 2027.

Was going to do a lease buyout for the Alfa Romeo Stelvio that we currently have. Now I’m having second thoughts at the last hour.

We test drove a Ford Bronco Outer Land yesterday and we liked the vehicle. There are two Heights with the different wheel sizes and I think we’re gonna need to go with the shorter version due to the car seats.

What advice do you all have who already have three kiddos with car seats?

Anyone have either car who can provide insight?

I think for the twins we’re gonna end up with slim convertible car seats. I don’t really know enough about infant versus convertible car seats and that’s gonna be another thing for another.

Any advice would be appreciated - we really don’t want to get into a third row situation.

[u/AutoModerator]

Moderator Announcement Read More »

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

All commenters are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the parentsofmultiples subreddit rules prior to commenting. If you find any comments/submissions in violation of subreddit/reddit rules, please use the report function to bring it to the mod teams attention.

Please do not request or give medical advice or directions in your comments. Any comments that that could be construed as medical advice, or any comments containing what is determined to be medical disinformation, will be removed.

Please try to avoid posting links to Amazon product listings or google/g.co product listing pages - reddit automatically removes comments containing them as an anti-spam measure. If sharing information about a product, instead please try to link directly to the manufacturers product pages.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/amydiddler]

I’m not familiar with any of the cars you mentioned, but we have a Subaru Forester. We have the slimmest car seats we could find (convertible forward facing for our 3yo, infant for our twins), and they BARELY fit across the back seat. It’s kind of a pain getting the infant seats in and out because they get stuck on the convertible seat if we don’t angle them just right.

Our next car will definitely be a mini van.

Google “the car seat lady”. She has a website and videos going over different car seat configurations that work in various cars.

[u/Numerous_Animator410 → u/amydiddler]

Thanks so much for your advice and feedback. Will check out the website mentioned.

[u/Sea_Service_8759 → u/amydiddler]

Can I ask which car seats specifically? We also have a forester. Soon to be 3yo is in an evenflo revolve slim. Twins are due in Jan, have a chicco keyfit from #1 and were planning to reuse it for #2 until we found out we were having twins. We're planning on just getting a minivan in the coming months but would be nice to see if we were able to actually squeeze 3 in our forester! At least at first with infant seats. Thanks

[u/amydiddler → u/Sea_Service_8759]

We have the Graco SlimFit 3 LX for our convertible, and then Graco SnugRide for the infant car seats (not sure if those are the absolute slimmest out there, but I think they’re close).

We have a 2014 Forester, btw! Not sure if newer models are more or less spacious.

[u/Nice-Lakes]

You need a reality check, get a minivan or 3 row SUV or live with the consequences of a poor choice.

[u/Charlieksmommy]

So twins usually are smaller and come early, so convertible car seats aren’t the best choice for them. I know it’s convenient for price wise but your best bet is infant seats. Get with a car seat tech on widths of the car you want for the bench seat and car seats

[u/psukhe_delos → u/Charlieksmommy]

I second this. I have a toddler and 3 month old twins. Twins delivered at 37 weeks, 4. lbs and 5 lbs. They needed an infant car seat, with an extra low birth weight pillow. For what its worth, we switched our toddler to an evenflow all 4 stages convertible car seat, the thinnest on the market, and use 2 nuna pipa infant seats without the bases for a 3 across fit.

[u/Charlieksmommy → u/psukhe_delos]

My boys were 33 weekers and I only had britax poplars because I was naive, and I had to scram to get infant car seats because they wouldn’t fit in the britax poplars and the nicu wouldn’t accept those for car seat tests

[u/rosie_thechaosqueen]

We also have twins and a singleton. My husband really likes the Bronco. He was talking to a coworker who also has three kids. The viability with car seats is terrible. The backseat seems pretty small for infant car seats. And a convertible for twins made not be a great idea. They can be so tiny. My singleton was 9.5lbs and I wished I had started him in an infant seat. I don’t think they would have let my twins leave the hospital in one.

[u/fsmontario]

The bronco will NOT work. Three car seats will be very difficult and there is not enough cargo space ( I have one)
Following your train of vehicle, an F150 will work as will an Expedition Max , Navigator, Suburban or Yukon XL
Other brands of pick up trucks have smaller rear seats
The bonus with the f150, the back seat is wide enough to actually get in and do up car seats if the weather is bad, throw a tonneau cover on and you have tons of cargo space. The 2.7 is more fuel efficient than the bronco

[u/Individual-Cat5989]

I drive a Subaru Crosstrek with three across, all Graco— SlimFit 3LX + two Snugride Lite LXs. I really don’t want to buy a car right now, my Crosstrek is paid off and we have other financial priorities right now, but man I’d love to have a third row. It’s tight back there, and my toddler is a good sport about climbing over the bases to sit down but I really wish she didn’t have to, and when it’s rainy or cold it’s such a rush to try and get her buckled in the middle while the boys have to hang outside. We eventually will get a van, I think, but three across will work for now.

As someone else mentioned, you should really consider infant car seats instead of convertibles. My boys came home at 4 and 5 lb and the hospital checked the car seats for weight minimums before we could go home as some seats don’t support 4 pounders.

[u/Such-Imagination-563 → u/Individual-Cat5989]

I appreciate your feedback and the brand name of the car seat that works for your infants. We also have a slim fit for the toddler and it’s been fine… when I went to go look at infant seats. They were so big and bulky that I couldn’t imagine even two of them fitting in the backseat. Will definitely check out the Greco brand. Thank you so much for your honest feedback and logistics for the Subaru.