Three isofix car seats in the back: only five cars fit

Three isofix car seats in the back: the real list of cars that can take them

Buying a car for three young children is not a simple consumer decision. It is a geometry problem. The rear bench of most models on the market measures between 42 and 44 centimetres per seat, and a standard isofix car seat takes up exactly that: 44 centimetres. When three car seats have to share the same row, the margin disappears. The result is a list of candidates that fits on a napkin: Citroën Grand C4 Picasso, Peugeot 5008, Volkswagen Touran, Ford S-Max and little else. Everything else —Zafira, C-Max, Mazda5, Verso— is ruled out for not offering three isofix anchor points in the second row.

How many cars have three isofix points in the rear row?

The filtering process is brutal. The Grand C4 Picasso is, by common consensus, one of the few MPVs that is not ashamed to be one. The 5008 shares a platform with earlier generations and carries that stigma. The Touran is more popular, but matching the equipment costs around 6,000 euros more unless you go for a German import. And delivery times stretch out.

The Ford S-Max makes the list because of its width: it is the only one that allows three large isofix car seats to be fitted simultaneously without the doors rubbing. Its height, under 1.70 metres, saves it from many garages. The remaining candidates —Alhambra, Sharan— are ruled out because of their size: at 4.60 metres long, the typical family already has enough.

Isofix is not safer, it is more convenient

Here comes the heresy. Several analyses argue that the advantage of isofix is not safety, but ease of installation. A seat properly secured with the seat belt offers identical protection, provided it is fitted according to the instructions. The real difference appears when you have to take the seat out and put it back in every time an adult wants to sit in the back: isofix turns that operation into a mechanical gesture.

The problem is that isofix forces the seat to be centred on the seat cushion. Without it, car seats can be pushed against the doors and gain those centimetres that separate success from failure. Some people have had to give up a particular seat —a Romer, for example— because the headrest part collided with the adjacent seat. The solution was to try them out physically at the dealership before buying.

The third-row trap and the garage

Seven-seat SUVs solve nothing. Folding down a third-row seat for everyday use is a workaround, not a solution. And cars taller than 1.88 metres do not fit in conventional garages. The height of the garage door becomes as valid a buying criterion as the boot.

The alternative that is gaining ground is the rear-facing seat in the centre position. Child safety experts insist that young children should travel rear-facing until the age of four, and there are campaigns highlighting cases of spinal injuries from travelling forward-facing. Fitting a rear-facing seat in the centre position, with isofix, is the safest combination and the hardest one to find.

The import market and the real price

The prices floating around at the time of purchase: a 5008 Style for 22,000 euros without financing, a Touran Advance for 26,000 euros. The 4,000-euro difference becomes 6,000 if you compare it with the German re-import market. The question that remains: how much is it worth paying for three isofix anchor points that will only be used for six years, when the car is going to last fifteen?

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The answer is not in the catalogues. It is at the dealership, with the car seats in the boot and a tape measure.