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2 infant car seats rear facing in 3rd row?

22K views 33 replies 14 participants last post by  Trey T 
#1 ·
Has anyone installed 2 rear facing infant car seats in the third row? I only see one set of anchors and we need to get two rear facing seats back there.
 
#3 ·
If you look at the illustration at the bottom of page 79 in the owners manual, it shows 2 child seat anchor bars. These are on the driver's side. So it looks like you can only put 1 child seat in the 3rd row. There are 3 top tether points on the back of the 3rd row, which seems inconsistent.
 
#8 ·
What I'm about to say is likely a side-bar conversation, but it's relevant to the overall car safety for both driver and passenger:

There's a systemic flaw in the word "safety" when it comes to infant or toddler. From what I experience from my own children and observations of others (online and offline), the mother or father roll-up everything they know about the protection of the kid, while forgetting other variables, and called it safe. The safety of the children should not be prioritized @ 100% over the driver or other passenger. This univariate analysis is obviously not the most effective method for critical thinking.

There should be a long-format conversation about the "other variables" to understand what I'm gonna conclude: I suggest, in most cases, not to place your NB, infant, or toddler (0-3yrs of age) in the middle-seat of the 2nd row or at all in 3rd row.
 
#9 ·
What I'm about to say is likely a side-bar conversation, but it's relevant to the overall car safety for both driver and passenger:

There's a systemic flaw in the word "safety" when it comes to infant or toddler. From what I experience from my own children and observations of others (online and offline), the mother or father roll-up everything they know about the protection of the kid, while forgetting other variables, and called it safe. The safety of the children should not be prioritized @ 100% over the driver or other passenger. This univariate analysis is obviously not the most effective method for critical thinking.

There should be a long-format conversation about the "other variables" to understand what I'm gonna conclude: I suggest, in most cases, not to place your NB, infant, or toddler (0-3yrs of age) in the middle-seat of the 2nd row or at all in 3rd row.
Can I ask why? This defeats the purposes of 3rd row SUV's for families of kids under 3 years of age, which is one of the target areas that Subaru is trying to reach with the Ascent.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I'm not suggesting it to be absolute, but in most cases. If any proposed seating configuration makes the parents feeling safe, then they should trust themselves. However, I'm not here to debate about how people feel because the information that they received, likely from Google, are result of a univariate analysis.

To square-out the numbers/ages, it's unlikely that you have a family w/ three kids under 3yrs old. Therefore, the 3rd row serves its purpose well for vast majority of the families, if not all in our country.

The objective should be about risk tolerance; how one tolerate the risk of being injured while the car is in motion and not in motion. The risk tolerance should always be consistent, and to unpack or reach the said objective, I think it will be a long conversation. To make it effective, let's trigger some of your thoughts thru the following scenario and question (assuming kids under 3yrs old):

-when the first child arrived, we tend to put them in the middle-seat of the 2nd row of these mid-size or compact CUV/SUV. When the second kid comes out, we have to place them by the windows (or at least one of them), assuming that this configuration is less safe. Why is the first kid more important, in terms of safety, than the second kid?
 
#14 ·
I'm not suggesting it to be absolute, but in most cases. If any proposed seating configuration makes the parents feeling safe, then they should trust themselves. However, I'm not here to debate about how people feel because the information that they received, likely from Google, are result of a univariate analysis.

To square-out the numbers/ages, it's unlikely that you have a family w/ three kids under 3yrs old. Therefore, the 3rd row serves its purpose well for vast majority of the families, if not all in our country.

The objective should be about risk tolerance; how one tolerate the risk of being injured while the car is in motion and not in motion. The risk tolerance should always be consistent, and to unpack or reach the said objective, I think it will be a long conversation. To make it effective, let's trigger some of your thoughts thru the following scenario and question (assuming kids under 3yrs old):

-when the first child arrived, we tend to put them in the middle-seat of the 2nd row of these mid-size or compact CUV/SUV. When the second kid comes out, we have to place them by the windows (or at least one of them), assuming that this configuration is less safe. Why is the first kid more important, in terms of safety, than the second kid?
Both kids are equally important, but one is more fragile
 
#17 ·
For us, when #1 came, I put the car seat in the middle of the rear seat of our sedans. As others mentioned, my rationale was that this location provided the maximum safety in terms of crumple zone spacing. Plus one of us could still sit next to the seat and keep an eye on the baby to make sure everything was going alright.

Also as others have noted, my personal preference would be NOT to put an infant car seat in the third row *if possible*, but of course you have to take the unique individual seating needs of the family in question into account. If you look at the IIHS crash videos, the Ascent seems to do remarkably well during the side impact tests, so I don’t think it’s the end of the world if that’s what needs to be done.

Once #2 came, we moved #1 over to the passenger side of the rear seat and placed the new infant car seat in the middle. This still allowed one of us to sit next to the infant seat to monitor the youngling. And that worked just fine.. until #2 got big enough to reach over and start grabbing #1’s toys. Then we shifted #1 over to behind the driver’s seat and left a gap in between the two...for sanity’s sake ?
 
#21 ·
These guys are bashing Subaru again, but the reason for the post is when they mention "you cannot latch the car seat in the second row and still get into the third row." Evidently, that is possible in a couple other SUV's. They start talking about the Ascent at 10:26.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHT9TJ7CUKQ
You can get to the third row if you have the captain’s chairs.
 
#26 ·
From the Sorento video...

That's quite an interesting take, that there's a sub-category to the 3-row mid-size CUVs. What's more interesting is that the Ascent is in between the two sub-categories because of the accessibility (a limitation) to the 3-row (w/ car seats).

It's quite interesting assessment but it's something I'll have to ponder about to agree with his evaluation.
 
#34 · (Edited)
I had two goals when I first responded:

1. To point out the way we make decision - or lack of, and I don't mean it a finger-wagging way; there's something going on, like wrong, in our society that forces us to lose our critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the ability to make decisions based on multi-variable (or multi-dimensional, multivariate) criteria when it's warranted. I see this problem around me, people my age and a large group of teens I've interfaced weekly in the last decade+; and
2. To actually recommend infant seat to be behind the driver w/ a mirror, for easy access when loading and unloading of kid. I'm a CHL holder and I think it's beneficial from a tactical POV because my approach would minimize the exposure to attacks during loading and unloading.

Again, there's not a one-rule fits all, but as long you're responsible for your own decision, that's all it matters.
 
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