A call for anyone with integrated child seats in an E Class

[Storm]

Has anyone got these? What sort of space is left in the middle seat once.. umm.. erected?

I'm seriously considering an E-Class, but I'm really struggling to fit my 3 children into one. I've had a demo car for the past 4 days, and this weekend I really struggled.

Children are aged:

7 (booster seat)
3 (fwd facing seat, verging on a booster)
2 (fwd facing seat)

The only way I could make it work this weekend, was to put the youngest in his rear facing seat, but that's not a long term solution. With two front facing seats plugged into the isofix system my 7 year old couldn't even squeeze in (and he's skinny!).

My only hope is the integrated car seats - looking at photos it they appear less bulky and to take up much less room than standard fwd facing car seats. My plan would be to have the two eldest in this, with the youngest strapped in to a fwd facing seat in the middle seat position - but I've no way of telling whether this is physically possible.

Has anyone else managed to cram 3 kids into an E Class? I'd appreciate any tips/advice, as I'd really rather not venture down the French bus/S Max road.

Oh, I know the E-Class estate does have the option for 2 rear facing seats, but I've ruled this out for 1 reason, price. This would be a company car, and when you factor in the additional cost of an Estate, plus the £800+ for rear seats the price jumps up. Even more so when you consider that the rear seats aren't compatible with the hybrid (which is the one I'm looking at) - so the tax just goes through the roof for any non-hybrid model.

Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[swannymere]

There's a product called multimac which might help but it's very expensive.

multimac

 

[Troon]

We fit our three kids in (12, 9 and 4), but only the young'un's in a seat any more, which I put in the centre. When I first got the car, I needed to fit two seats in, which was only practical by using seat belt extenders. I have a couple of high quality ones, but there appear to be cheap and nasty ones available so take care choosing. I don't use the ISOFIX fittings, which are no safer than correctly-fitted conventional seats, so I had a bit more latitude for moving the seats about.

The E isn't ideal for three kids: they fit much better across the back of our '04 C-MAX. The problem is the rear seat sculpting — if I had time and the skills I'd be tempted to have a shot at sculpting some replacement seat cushions with the three seats more evenly distributed; and a seat back without the armrest.

 

[Storm]

Hi Troon,

Thanks for the reply. I actually saw your original post in this forum when you were facing the same challenge. Can you advise which type of seat you're using in the middle as my current one is way too bulky!

 

[kingdave]

I have 3 kids (4, 2 and 0) and fit them into my e-class estate - though it is an older model 1996 124.
The car has no isofix (due to age) so I use the seatbelts, which as troon says are just as safe as isofix when used properly. Perhaps it's the use of the seatbelts which allows the seats to fit in because there's no wasted space. We don't use especially slender seats:-
2 x rear facing britax multi-tech imported from sweden for the older kids
1 x the standard maxicosi cabriofix rearfacing for the baby.

My wife has a 2010 w169 a-class and they all fit into that too, it has an unusually wide rear bench which easily takes a 4-seater multimac. They are quite expensive, but we found one 2nd hand for £800 including all the minimac and other accessories we needed. So if you buy one new you know you can get a high proportion of the cash back. We saw a few come and go on ebay and pre-loved - they don't hang about and seem to be very popular.

 

[Troon]

A Graco Maxi is the boy's usual "proper" throne. We have another seat — don't know what it is without looking — which needed a bit of non-essential trim cutting away to allow seat belt access. Obviously, I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you're certain what you're doing.

For short local journeys where he's not going to fall asleep, he sometimes goes on a cheapy Halfords polystyrene booster seat as that's narrow enough to make access easier.

A lot depends on the child. My lad is strong and stocky for his age and sits how he is told to, so we can get away with the booster only for local trips, particularly surrounded by siblings. If there's any risk of sleep (returning from a long walk for example), I fit the full seat.

 

[Storm]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm just nervous about pulling the trigger on the car unless I can be absolutely certain I can fit everyone in.

Looking at the photos of the integrated seats I *expect* I won't have a problem if I use both of those had have a fwd facing seat in the middle, but I just can't be sure.

I've tried speaking to MB, but they've not been particularly helpful - they're unable to find any cars which have that as an option, and they can't provide any details regarding measurements of the integrated seats (i.e. size of the booster seats themselves, and width of the gap between them when raised).

 

[Tinytots]

I have them and I think there's plenty of room with them up

 

[Londonscottish]

I'll try and have a quick look today - won't have time to try fitting a proper seat in the middle but can try a booster.

FWIW an adult can sit in the centre seat OK when the integrated boosters are in use.