Car Buying

3 in a Row....

I never realized how hard it was to buy a car until we were blessed with triplets! When we found out we were prego's back in 2010 we had a sedan, but figured we would need more space with all the kiddos stuff, so we decided to get a Cadillac Cross-over. Well that didn't last us too long as we had absolutely NO room in the backseat to even put grocery bags with all three car seats. So we decided it was time to buckle down and become a soccer mom. We traded our SUV in for a minivan! Not just any minivan, but the Chrysler Town and Country which has the stow and go seats. BEST FEATURE EVER!!! This is a must when you have triplets. It's so easy to flip the seats up and put them back down. When you are moving around with 3 car seats and strollers, you need to be able to make quick changes and be able to move things around. We also got the 2 DVD screen package - a total must with triplets for those long car rides or just when you need some silence in the car *granted this is only a benefit when they are front-facing! Rear-facing they shouldn't be watching movies anyway!!

Most people, I assume, have an idea of the type of car they want and the style, we did too! There are so many gadgets and colors and looks and sizes to choose from, but when you have triplets it's a whole other options game and size trumps all!

So we had the mini-van for a while and then needed to buy another car. At this time it wasn't too much of a struggle because the kids were now in front-facing car seats, but still used the 5-point harness which means they didn't have to use the car installed seat-belts. We decided to lease a Ford Fusion and were able to fit 3 car seats across. It was a tight squeeze, but we got it to work. We looked at a bunch of car seats to figure out what would fit and decided to go with the slimmest car seats on the market. Of course we had to do a variety of them because well car seats are not always super cheap unlike booster seats.

My favorite is Diono Radian, but it's $$$ and heavy. So we got 1 of these and 1 Evenflo and 1 hand me down :)! As time passed and the kids were getting older and didn't fit in a 5-point harness, we wanted them to start using the car seat belts. Well this became an impossible challenge! The car seats would barely fit and were sitting on top of the seat belt buckles. It was taking 45 mins to load and unload the kids as trying to buckle them was becoming an impossible tasks. Everyday, I would get so frustrated and finally when our lease was ending I couldn't wait to get another car.

So we were on the hunt again for a practical car. Knowing we weren't going to be able to get a sedan given the issues we were currently facing. We'd also have the same issue with an SUV unless it was a 6+ seater. And I didn't want to get another mini-van (what's the point in having 2). So we searched and searched and finally decided to buy a Volvo XC90. Why you ask?!! The Volvo XC90 is the best car on the market if you have triplets! Not only is it one of the safest cars out there, but it's got a built-in booster seat - yup, you read that correctly - a built-in booster seat!!!! This was a dream come true, because not only were we able to only need 2 booster seats, there was a third row for 2 additional passengers!! Of course now we struggle with the game/fights of "Who gets to sit in the built-in booster seat", but I'll cover that in another post!

Fast forward to today - we are looking to buy another car now as our mini-van is on it's last leg. So we went hunting for cars a few months back and there is NO sedan on the market that will fit 3 booster seats (backless and backed) in a row. We are back to square one on deciding if we should get another mini-van or another SUV! I kinda want another mini-van just because I love all the space, but Ravi doesn't want one. He wants to get an SUV, but I don't want 2 of the same type of cars. We can't seem to agree, so we are going to try to hold-out as long as we can in the hopes that the kids will soon be out of booster seats.. hearing myself write that makes me LOL.. I mean ROFL!! These days kids have to be in booster seats until they are 80 lbs and at 6.5 they are barely passing 40 lbs.. :(!! Needless to say when they try and eat an entire bowl of butter at Cheesecake Factory, I just look the other way ;)!!

I have searched and searched and searched for the slimmest backless booster and believe I have found one at Walmart, but I'm still not sure if it will fit.

If anyone else has had luck with this, please let me know and tag me!!