Can you fit 3 car seats across in a Toyota Yaris? - Part 2

We checked with our local fire department about the car seats and their tight fit.  Apparently in our city you can no longer stop by any fire station and ask them to check your car seat installation.  However, they do have a car seat checker.  She works at the fire department administrative offices and part of her job duties is to ensure safe car seat installation for those who stop by and request it.  She checked out our car seats and said they like to see at least one to two inches of space between the top of the car seat and the back of the front driver seat or passenger seat when the car seats are rear-facing.  The reason for this is because, in the event of an accident, it is better to have some room for all the seats to move a little bit front-to-back to help absorb the impact.  This means the car seats move a little up and down not side-to-side.  There should not be any movement or as little as possible of the car seat moving from side-to-side.  If there is movement side-to-side or ample movement up and down, this can pose a danger to the baby and you should definitely have someone doublecheck your installation.  As a result of our visit we are comfortable that we can still use our Yaris with the car seats but only one of us should drive the car when the babies are riding along.  Me.  Since J is 5'8" the driver seat pushes up against the car seats when she drives.  With me, at 5'2" there is the one to two inches of space.  So, until it's time to turn the car seats front-facing, in about two years, or until we get a bigger car, I will be the designated family driver.  J doesn't really like my driving.  She says I drive too slow and cautious.  If she thinks I drive too slow and cautious now, I wonder what she's going to think once our three babies are on board.

Can you fit 3 car seats across in a Toyota Yaris?

Why, yes!  Yes, you can.  Great cheers were heard at our house yesterday and a huge sigh of relief.  We do not have to buy a new car this year to accommodate our triplets.  I'm sure there's a mini-van somewhere in our future but at least it doesn't have to be this year.  It's a tight fit.  The top of the car seats (rear-facing) touch the back of the driver and passenger seats.  At 5'8" and 5'2" we do not need to set the seats as far back as someone 6'.  As it is with the seats positioned where we need them for driving and riding, there is no more room if one of us were taller.  The car seats fit 3 across with a bit of room to spare!  The doors do not touch the seats when they are closed.  We will be checking with our local fire department to assure proper installation and that the tight fit does not pose any safety risks for any of us.

We have a 2009 Toyota Yaris 4-door with trunk.  The car seats are the amazing Diono Radian RXT convertible car seats.  Amazing because they fit 3 across in our compact car.  That said there are some down sides to these car seats.  I recommend reading the entire instruction booklet before attempting installation, especially if you are not familiar with car seat jargon, e.g., latch installation, harness adjuster, etc.  These seats are not designed to snap in and out of an attached base like the Graco seats.  Once in the car they stay in the car so there's no easy portable baby carrier.  They weigh 24 lbs each.  They fold up and are designed to be carried (to use them in a bus or an airplane).  They come with a carrying strap and can be carried on one shoulder or like a backpack.  They are expensive, $288 on Amazon.  But they have a 10 year warranty, are designed for kids 5-120 lbs, and convert from rear-facing to forward facing.  Much cheaper than buying a new car and probably the only seat we will have to buy, so a one-time purchase.  We won't have to buy another one for front-facing or as a booster.

We began with a quick fit test.  We took the Radians out of their boxes and seatbelted them into the back seat of the car.  It took two of us to get them in, positioned and seatbelts threaded through each seat.  If you have larger hands, you might want to find someone with smaller hands.  The path to feed the seatbelt through is similar to the Graco, though very smooth with no rough edges, roomier but still tight.  Once we knew they were going to fit we brought them back in one at a time, J attending to adjusting them for newborn infant size and me carting them in and out.  This is where the reading through the entire instruction booklet would have come in handy.  We're both pretty mechanically inclined but the jargon in the instructions had each of us with a booklet in hand trying to figure out what exactly they were talking about.  It really wasn't that complicated after we got the manual for the car out of the glove box to better understand what kind of car restraint system we have and once we got the first carseat adjustments done.  I was able to get them strapped back into the car by myself.  Our only difficulty with this was the seatbelt attachment can fall out of the path, so I recommend sticking it through as far as possible with one hand and then grasping it with your other and not letting go before you click it into place.  Though this means strategically leaning against the ever moving receding seatbelt (I used my knee) while feeding the seatbelt through.  There's a nice video on YouTube showing how to install one of the seats into a vehicle.  The best part is the suggestion about where to put pressure on the seat while snugging it down.

Here are pictures of the seats in our car.