Best 3-across car seats

This popular convertible car seat is a bit wider than competitors, so parents with sub-compacts probably won't be able to install a trio of Extend2Fits side-by-side. But since the bottom of the seat is sleek and narrow, the Extend2Fit can snuggle up nicely next to seats that are wider at the base. And once you get it installed, you won't need to change it for a long time: The rear-facing capacity will easily hold most kids to age 4 or 5. Your child can sit safely and comfortably rear-facing for as long as you like (the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends rear-facing until your child outgrows the weight height limit of your car seat). 

That's one thing BabyCenter's Senior Director of Strategy and Growth Robin Hilmantel loves about this car seat: "My 4-year-old, who is admittedly on the smaller side, can still sit rear-facing in it, which we love since we know that's safest," she says, adding that she likes the seat so much, she got two, one for each child. 

Parents love the reassurance of keeping their kids rear-facing, but hate the way they pretzel up their legs to sit that way, which makes the Extend2Fit's slide-out foot rest a popular feature. Other parent-favorited features: the harness that adjusts as you slide the top of the seat up to make it taller as your child grows, and the pockets on each side of the seat to hold your harness buckles out of the way so you can get your child in the seat more easily. Robin also says that her kids love that each seat has two cup holders for water or toys. 

Heads up
The cup holders on this seat are removable but are required to be installed when your car seat is rear-facing. 

Parents say
"Rear facing is the safest so the seat that will last the longest rear facing is 'the safest.' I would get the Graco Extend2fit."

"The Extend2fit will easily rear face a smaller kid all the way to booster age. My 7 year old still fits rear facing in it, although she is in a high back booster now."

"I love that my child has somewhere to put her feet, and I love that she'll be safely rear-facing for a long time."

Specs

• Seat type: Convertible
• Dimensions: 23.5 x 19.5 x 21.5 inches
• Seat weight: 19 pounds
• Height and weight range: Rear-facing, head at least 1 inch below handle, 4-50 pounds; forward-facing, 49 inches maximum, 22-65 pounds
   

Nuna sells eight different versions of its blockbuster Pipa car seat, and truly, all of them are great for three-across installs. They're all very narrow at around 17 inches; they're all compact front-to-back; they're super sleek with no sticky-outy parts to get in the way of a seat next to it. But of all the Pipa versions, the Lite LX has the best combination of price and features. 

First of all, it's super lightweight: the car seat carrier is 5.7 pounds without its base. Alexandra Bisonó, Senior Art Director for Everyday Health Group, says this feature was important to her: "We lived in Queens, NY at that point in a small apartment, and owned a small car so it was important to us to have a car seat that we could carry by hand, place in a stroller or in the car easily," she said. The light-and-lovely Pipa proved ideal for the task, and Alexandra says snapping it into the base and the stroller was easy. She liked the magnetic buckle holders that held the harness out of the way when getting her baby in and out, too, and the lovely fabrics, free of added flame retardants. 

But by far Alexandra's favorite feature was the "Sky drape," fabric that attaches to the end of the seat's canopy with magnets and shields your baby from the sun, with a vented peek-a-boo window in the canopy so you can see your baby even when the drape is on. "During the pandemic it provided us with privacy when walking around the city and protected our baby from the sun," says Alexandra. "I covered her up and nobody would spread their germs wanting to see her!"

Heads up
The seat comes with extra infant inserts, which Alexandra says was very helpful when blowouts occurred. 

Specs

• Seat type: Infant
• Dimensions: 27.3 x 17.5 x 22.5 inches
• Seat weight: Carrier, 5.7 pounds; base, 14 pounds
• Height and weight range: Maximum 32 inches, 4 to 32 pounds

Most children outgrow most infant seats by the time they're 1 year old, which means even if you've gotten a safe three-across installation with an infant seat, you'll have to change it all too quickly. But the Chicco Fit2 is a rear-facing-only seat designed to hold children from birth to age 2, giving you more time to leave your baby in your three-across install before having to switch her to a front-facing seat and adjusting your layout. 

That's not the only thing that makes this seat great, and particularly suited to three-across: It's nice and narrow at 17 inches, as well as relatively shallow front-to-back. This means you won't have to pull the front seats in your car uncomfortably forward to make space for it. You can install this seat in the middle of your back seat, or behind the driver or passenger seat, more options to try out for challenging installs.    

From an ease-of-use perspective, this seat also ranks tops with parents (though it's not as well-known as Chicco's most popular infant car seat, the KeyFit 30, another great three-in-a-row candidate). The Fit2 hasseveral features that make it easy to instal: A built-in reclining foot that makes it easier to get the right angle, bubble indicators on each side of the seat so you'll know when that angle is just right, and the "SuperCinch" tightener that gets the seat in snugly without a lot of tugging and frustration. 

Heads up
This seat, like most infant seats, is compatible with many strollers, so you can use it as a stroller seat until age 2. 

Parents say
"Very easy to install, strap, adjust. Love the canopy and look. Very easy to clip into stroller and base. The seat cover fits snug so even after 14 months of use there were virtually NO crumbs under it when I cleaned it."

"I had it for my first and it is a great seat, easy install and easy to adjust but it is heavy."

Specs

• Seat type: Infant
• Dimensions: 28 x 17 x 24 inches
• Seat weight: 19.5 pounds
• Height and weight range: 35 inches maximum; 4-35 pounds
   

Unlike infant or convertible seats that use harness straps to keep your child in place, booster seats “boost” your child up to the right height to use your car's seat belt. They come in high-backed and backless varieties, and many CPSTs think high-backed boosters do a better job of positioning children safely. 

The TurboBooster is known among CPSTs as a high-backed booster that will fit when other boosters won't. (And, when needed, the back to this booster comes off to make it a backless model, making it even more versatile.) It's nice and narrow at 15 inches wide, and sleek from top to bottom: No big curves to make it harder to fit next to other seats. Plus, the cup holders on either side of the seat's base can be pushed into the seat so nothing's sticking out, or pulled out if you have the space. This gives you more options to fit seats beside the TurboBooster, and parents say kids love having cup holders for their stuff (most boosters do not have them). 

The headrest is perfectly designed to cradle your child's head, and won't let it loll to one side, even if your child falls asleep. And kids find this booster very comfortable, so they're more likely to doze off in the car. 

Heads up
The minimum weight for this seat has been increased in this newest edition, from 30 to 40 pounds, but children should only use a booster after they've outgrown their convertible seat. 

Parents say
"Graco Turbobooster is great for smaller kiddos."

"As for comfort, my DD traveled 8 hrs in a TurboBooster… and she did just fine."

Specs

• Seat type: Booster
• Dimensions: 15 x 15 x 26.5 inches
• Seat weight: 9 pounds
• Height and weight range: High-back and backless booster modes, 43-57 inches, 40-100 pounds, age 4 and up
   

The Clek Fllo car seat is narrow with an even narrower base: just 13 inches, which can make it a lot easier to buckle in a booster seat next to it. And the seat itself is perfectly narrow and even up and down, nothing protruding to spoil your three-across install. 

The Fllo is on the pricey side, but the moment you touch its fabric, you'll know why. Not only is it velvety soft, this seat is made to be odor-, bacteria-, and stain-resistant, so it wipes clean like a breeze. The Fllo's safety features are superior, too: The seat's built with a steel frame and comes with an anti-rebound bar. When the seat is installed rear-facing, the anti-rebound bar fits against the back of your car's seat and limits the seat's back-and-forth movement in a collision.

The height and weight limits are high, but the Fllo can only be used from birth if you shell out an extra $42 for an insert called – wait for it – Infant Thingy).

Heads up
Parents like that the Fllo is available in two fabrics with no added flame retardants.

Parents say
"Clek Fllo is just as slim as Foonf, but not as huge."

"We have been using a Clek Fllo in mammoth since DD’s birth with the infant insert. She absolutely loves it! The mammoth (wool fabric) is a bit more expensive, but totally worth it because there are no flame retardants of any kind in the car seat! It also looks classy and is very soft."

"The fabric cover of the Fllo is made of Crypton odor, bacteria, and stain repelling fabric; making it easy to wipe down in case of everyday spills."

Specs

• Seat type: Convertible
• Dimensions: 22 x 17 x 26 inches
• Seat weight: 25 pounds
• Height and weight range: Rear-facing, 25-43 inches and 4-50 pounds; forward-facing, 30-49 inches and 22-65 pounds

The Travel Vest is an unconventional (and child safety expert-approved) alternative to the traditional booster seat that can make even the tightest three-across situation work. This small and light (2.4 pounds) device looks like a zipline harness, and, like a booster seat, it positions your child correctly so they can use your car's seat belts. Since you adjust it to your child's body, there's nothing sticking out to mess up another car seat's install, and parents can get three kids three-across when absolutely nothing else will work. 

Since the Ride Safer Travel Vest weighs so little and rolls up into a package about the size of a two-liter bottle, it's fantastic for travel, car pools, and taxis. Parents of children who have low tone or who simply have a hard time sitting up also appreciate this vest, which basically anchors your child safely in place, and will fit a child of up to 110 pounds, long after they've outgrown a convertible car seat harness. 

Heads up
Ride Safer says that the extra-small will fit some 2-year-olds, but that parents should only use this option when strapped for any other workable solutions. 

Parents say
"We used a ride safer travel vest - the seat belt is threaded through the vest, so it holds it in the appropriate place on their bodies. Way easier to travel with, although not usable on airplanes."

"I am eyeing the Ride Safer Travel Vest, it’s a belt positioning vest. It can’t be used on the plane, though. But if you had that, you would only have to drag one car seat through the airport."

"If you can't fit 3 radians nothing will go three across except maybe a ride safer travel vest."

Specs

• Seat type: Belt-positioning vest (front-facing only)
• Dimensions: 15 x 9.5 x 3.5 inches
• Seat weight: 2.4 pounds
• Height and weight range: Extra small, 35-40 inches, 22-40 pounds; small, 35-50 inches, 30-60 pounds; large, 45-57 inches, 50-80 pounds; extra large, 47-62 inches, 80-110 pounds; ages 3-14