Moms of Three - What's Your Second Car

[Kindra178]

We already have a minivan, so definitely don't want/need a big SUV type thing, like the Enclave. AWD a plus. We have three in seats, but DS1 could most likely transition into a booster in the next 6 months or so. Thinking an Outback, Crosstour? Thoughts?

[JBaxter]

Mine are almost NEVER in our 2nd car all at one time. DH's car is an Acura TL.

[crl]

My neighbor who has a five year old, a three year old and a 19 month old has a minivan and an outback. In the outback she has all three forward facing in radians (yes, I know the 19 month old at least should still be rear facing and she knows about the AAP recommendation). She tried the oldest in a booster and found it easier to keep him in the radian because it was so hard to buckle the booster. She is happy with the outback though and it is actually her everyday car even when she has all three kids.

Catherine

[KrisM]

Mine are almost NEVER in our 2nd car all at one time. DH's car is an Acura TL.

:yeahthat: our second car is a Malibu Maxx. Right now, we have 3 seats in out, but when one expires in Feb., we will leave just 2 in. That way any 2 can go in there. If all 3 go somewhere, they go in the minivan. Before the minivan, DH drive a Saturn that never had 3 seats in it. We have a Ride safer vest, so in a weird emergency, we can do it.

[ahisma]

We have 3 kids and two sedans. It's tight, but it works. I have no desire to have a car payment, so we make it work.

Thank you, Sunshine Radian:)

[Tanya]

I have 4 kids. I drive a minivan. Dh has a Toyota Corolla. We just have one carseat in his car. He can take either of the older two in it or we can move the oldest's booster to his car. The twin babies have never been in his car.

My mom has a Toyota Camry. She has one carseat that fits my 4 year old. We move the 8 year old's booster to her car if she takes both older girls. I have fit both infant seats in beside her carseat to fit my 3 youngest in her car (when we dropped off the van for maintenance while oldest was still in school).

So having work done on the van is the only time I would actually need to transport the other kids in a different vehicle. I guess if it has to be done while the oldest is out of school, we'd either have to wait in the waiting room or take the stroller and walk to a nearby Target. I joked to my mom that she needed a minivan and she actually didn't laugh at the idea which was strange. I guess she's hoping to have all 4 stay overnight some day.

[ABO Mama]

We have a Sequoia and a Civic. Occasionally, DH will take 2 kids in the car with him (in boosters), but 99% of the time they are all together. We have 2 8yo's and one 5yo, and they ride in 5pt seats in the Sequoia. The 5pt chairs are much easier to deal with in a 3 across situation, since it's really hard to click the buckle in place.

[o_mom]

We have an Accord. I can fit three across when needed, but it is rare that we need to.

[pinkmomagain]

We have two SUVs. Prior, my dh did drive an Accord and it worked for us. Of course, we only have one in a booster and the other two are riding regular.

[nfowife]

My DH has an altima. It has 2 seats for the older two kids. If we go somewhere with everyone we take my car. He hasn't taken the baby on his own yet since she's a nursing infant. He takes the older two out on the weekends on his car.

[WatchingThemGrow]

DH has an Accord, and we did have it set up with 2 Radians plus a RF Marathon. We needed an extra 5pt in the van, so we put one Radian in the van and stuck a Parkway booster in there. PITB to buckle. DH has been complaining about it all day. May switch it back soon, not sure.

Occasionally, like maybe once or twice a month, so up to 24x/year(!) we will shove everyone in the Accord. Like today, for example. We noticed a shaking in the van's braking system late last night. We ran it to the dealership early this morning, then went on to the park, REI, a Safe Kids festival, swim lessons, back to the festival, then he dropped me and the little ones off so he could take DD to a b'day party, then we'll all get back in to pick up the van so we can go pick up a large b'day present (swingset glider) for DS2 - because it wouldn't fit in the Accord with all of us in there. maybe if the trunk didn't serve as stroller storage it would...

Great to have all 3 seats so we don't have to "think" about who all he can take, and very handy we all fit so we can still run around and do all the stuff we've done today.

[m448]

we have two minivans. First we bought DH's the year before we had our first child then a year after our second child we bought the second one which is mine. We don't have two sets of carseats but knowing that if one car is in the shop we can transfer seats to another is convenient. Until this past december we've been living 900 miles away from family doing this family thing on our own.

[shishamo]

We have Volvo S60. We can put three across in the backseat. A friend of mine with three kids have VW GTi, it's about the same size as our s60, a medium sized sedan.

[Kindra178]

We have Volvo S60. We can put three across in the backseat. A friend of mine with three kids have VW GTi, it's about the same size as our s60, a medium sized sedan.

That's awesome. What seats do you have?

[shishamo]

At the moment I only have one child in booster so things are easy,, but we used to do two boosters (parkway) and a marathon (or a roundabout) , or a parkway, a marathon and a roundabout.

It was not easy to buckle a booster but for an occasional use it worked for us.

[maestramommy]

Well, my Accord is our main car. Our other car is a Pathfinder, "Dh's" car. He drives it to work a couple of times a week, uses it to haul our trash to the dump, and we all pile in if we need to bring Shep along. He rides in the cargo area. Last weekend we brought him on an overnight road trip, and it was perfect. His crate went on the roof, our luggage in a plastic tub on one side of the cargo area, and him on the other side. He has a seatbelt harness, and we hooked it to a tie down hook with some webbing and 2 carabiners.

At the moment we have only one set of seats, so we do have to move all of them over if we want to go anywhere in the Pathfinder. It takes one person maybe 10 minutes? We have thought of going with an Outback for full versatility if something where to happen to either car. I've seen the newer models and they look pretty big. The AWD would be a plus, although we've found that snow tires work pretty well here. If we had an Outback instead of my Accord, we wouldn't have had to use the Pathfinder, which gets considerably less gas mileage.

We have a Radian, rfing MA, and rfing RA, soon to be replaced by a rfing Radian.

[belovedgandp]

I have 3 kids all in some kind of seat. My primary run around with kids car is a minivan. I always have an extra kid with me or some combination.

DH was driving a smaller sedan which worked for two kids, but no way for three. He now has a Mazda 5. It's been great for us. We now almost always use it on weekends and for short trips when it is the five of us and not a lot of stuff.

[LarsMal]

Our second car is a VW Jetta. We have two seats in there, but DH rarely has two kids with him. If he is taking two or (gasp!) all three kids then we switch cars.

[lpl47]

We have 3 kids and we drive a Hyundai Veracruz and an Outback wagon. When all three were in harnessed seats, we could fit any number of combinations in both cars, but once my son outgrew the Radian, it was much harder. We now have 2 Radians and a booster in the Hyundai and we have a Safeguard Go, Marathon (FF in center) and use a RideSafer vest in the Outback. We couldn't arrange seats in the Outback any other way to fit a booster in there! I drive the Outback each morning with all 3 kids (my son puts his vest on inside the house and mostly buckles in by himself now - I have to help with the top part) and my husband does pick-ups every day, so he gets the bigger car in case there are friends to drive home or just for more convenience if they run an errand or two after school.

[[email protected]]

DH has an Accord, and we did have it set up with 2 Radians plus a RF Marathon. We needed an extra 5pt in the van, so we put one Radian in the van and stuck a Parkway booster in there. PITB to buckle. DH has been complaining about it all day. May switch it back soon, not sure.

Occasionally, like maybe once or twice a month, so up to 24x/year(!) we will shove everyone in the Accord. Like today, for example. We noticed a shaking in the van's braking system late last night. We ran it to the dealership early this morning, then went on to the park, REI, a Safe Kids festival, swim lessons, back to the festival, then he dropped me and the little ones off so he could take DD to a b'day party, then we'll all get back in to pick up the van so we can go pick up a large b'day present (swingset glider) for DS2 - because it wouldn't fit in the Accord with all of us in there. maybe if the trunk didn't serve as stroller storage it would...

Great to have all 3 seats so we don't have to "think" about who all he can take, and very handy we all fit so we can still run around and do all the stuff we've done today.

We also have an Accord with 2 Radians and a highback booster (Recaro). It's a tight fit, but it does work.

[ilfaith]

I primarily drive a minivan. Our second car is a Toyota Avalon. We have two boosters and a Marathon in the Avalon. We do have a third car...DH's Corvette, because my husband wanted to have one car that didn't smell like sour milk.