Diono - Radian®

It’s definitely not a feature I’d normally look for in a car seat for a Civic, unless there were a confounding situation that would make it worth the extra space. If your child is tall or heavy for his age, you’ll need to be more careful to pick out a seat that will last. Petite kids can have more options that will work. For a Civic, I’d probably look at a Graco Extend2Fit. It’s a bit wide but it’s fairly compact front-to-back and should be a good fit. A downside is that the door opening in a Civic is a little tight and the Graco has kind of high sides which can be annoying until the child can climb in with assistance. On the other hand, with the new side impact standards I’m having a hard time thinking of a current seat that will fit well in a Civic and *doesn’t* have high sides. Diono is the only one that comes to mind that hasn’t been discontinued yet, but it’s too much of a space hog to use in a side seat in a Civic. It *might* fit in the center, but the last time I used one in a Civic it was a 2005 model year and the back seats have changed a lot since then so I’m not sure how well it would work. It can be a kinda finicky car seat for installation.

There's a Diono model that's approved for air travel that folds and isn't awful to carry. We had one, both my son and I loved it. We only replaced it due to an accident and needing a new one immediately.

Yes. Diono radian 3 across Did it for years thank me later

I’ll second this! I had three Diono seats in the back row of a Subaru outback for a few years. It worked rather well!

I have 3 of these across the back of my 2015 Outback. They are a little tight to go in but sit perfectly once in place.

We had 3 Diono Radian car seats fitting in the backseat of a Subaru crosstrek. What’s tricky is when you need some to be rear facing because they lean back far. For that situation they sell a piece of foam that slides under the seat to safely adjust the angle.

We bought a Diono Radian with a backpack travel bag. It folds up and is relatively portable. It’s definitely not lightweight or cheap, but it’s substantial enough to feel safe and we use it in our second car as an every day car seat. There’s cheaper and lighter options, but we’re semi regular travelers so having something solid and comfortable for the kid is worth the extra money and weight. The car seat is a lifesaver on the plane. It’s not explicitly required but strapping her into a familiar seat makes the experience way less stressful. There’s no chance she’d sit still without it.

Background: We have a minivan and a second car on its last leg, mazda 3. We have 3 kids, one in a forward facing and two in boosters. We want to find a mid size car that will fit everyone plus some cargo space for a hockey bag. Every newer car we look at we can't seem to get the car seat in the middle seat. The issue is the distance between the center seat belt bases. On my mazda is 14" between them so we can get a forward facing car seat buckled and the other two kids in booster seats can still buckle thier seat belts. The Kia Ev6 and the new Ionic 5 only have 9" between them. Nobody's ass can fit in that. Combines this with the new seat belt bases are rigid with no flexibility. First image is the mazda 3 center seat. Second image is all new cars, it seems. Question: if you have 3 kids with car seats, what second row car fits 3 across?

It works in the mazda3 since the center seat belts are 14" apart and the seat belt bases are flexible. New cars seem to have very skinny widths, 8" between belts and the bases are rigid so the car seat covers the seat belt bases part. The Dino is still 14"wide. Thanks

Thanks. All the cars we looked at are at least 51" at the hips. The issue is the location of the seat belt bases plus on newer cars the seat belt base is rigid and not flexible. Literally the seat belt bases were only 9" apart on the center seat. No car seat would fit between that.

I believe the Diono Radian is narrow enough to fit three across in most cars. We used to do it in the middle of a Honda civic hatch with a booster on one side.

Yeah, we ran a Radian in the middle with a Civic hatch and it had room for a booster next to it.

We have a Chicco and a Diono radian and I think the diono is much easier unless you’re installing it RF because the extra strap (required in US) is hard. Now my 4.5 is FF it’s the easiest seat all around.