Prius with Two Babies and Gear

I was wondering if I could get some feedback as to how well the Gen III does with two car seats, a double stroller, pack and plays, plus some luggage if we wanted to take a trip. We are expecting twins and hoping the Prius will still work for us. Anyone with a similar setup please chime in!

Not going to work out very well.

With my daughters car seat rear facing as required by law now until age 2.... (ha, yeah right.) Nobody over 5'-6' can fit in the passenger front seat without hitting the dash. I am 6'1" she can't fit behind my seat at all because I'm so far back.

As for hatch space, I have a baby jogger citi mini stroller and it's as compact as they come, it barely fits in the floor area facing either direction. I can manage about 6-8 bags of groceries in there with the stroller, but that's it.

I'd suggest looking at a V model if it offers more cargo room, but you still need to put a rear facing baby seat in a prius and attempt to sit in it and drive comfortably, if you are taller than I previously mentioned, you may want to look at larger cars.

I'm sorry that I can't answer your question, but might I make a suggestion. I would recommend that you try your reverse facing infant car seats in a gen III. Those rear facing seats take up quite a bit of space. I guess you'd have to put them behind driver and passenger seats, as you are planning for two. Congrats on the additions to your family!

Oh man this is not what I wanted to hear!

I am almost 6'2" so this might be a problem. We haven't purchased seats yet but we will have to try some out in the Prius and see what happens. I really don't want to sell this car. It has been dynamite for 47K. I am assuming that resale value is pretty high right now however.

Some people have the great idea of just cramming the car seats back there and don't consider the angle of the seat. There is a specified angle at which they need to be installed, which is where the problem comes in for us. I tried to set my daughters seat more "straight up" so that a taller passenger could fit, taller being 5'-8" and my daughter fell asleep with her head completely leaning forwards. I imagine it was hard to breathe, and in the event of an accident she would not have survived so I pulled over and set the seat correctly forcing my friends knees to be on the dash. What ever you do, don't try to squeeze the seats back there if you can't be comfortable where you normally keep your chair because the babies heads will slump over and they aren't strong enough to keep them up.

On a darker note, I was considering a 2013 Ford Fusion hybrid to gain more interior space. They look like an Aston Martin now too which is cool!



Safety first. Congratulations.

I thought car seats are supposed to go in the very middle, which wouldn't affect the seats as much.

The new Ford C-MAX might be the car for you. Supposed to have more room and power than a Prius V.

My ex wife keeps the baby car seat in the middle of the back seat, but most vehicle don't have a "bench" seat configuration, so single car seats in the middle position lean to one side or the other. She has her front seats pressed against the baby's seat holding it from rocking side to side. The prius has a relatively flat rear seat but this guy is having twins.

ya...twins is a different story for sure

In terms of fuel efficiency, I don't know what else I would buy that has decent room other than the TDI Sportwagen or Prius V that comes within or under mid 20K. I don't want to give up too much on fuel economy. I don't buy sedans either.

Would love to see some pics of some setups of baby and/or toddler car seats in a Gen III Prius!

What you should do is go ahead and buy two car seats (since you will need them anyways) then go down to the dealer and put them in the back seat and see for yourself! That way you can know for sure. I would think that if the prius, which in my opinion is big enough, seems small the V should do just fine. My sister fit two car seats in her corolla plus gear and that is a heck of a lot smaller.

We have twins, they are 9 yrs old now. We had to get a mini van due to the fact that the infant car seats that can go rear facing and then front facing when they are heavy/old enough are pretty huge, at least around the base of the seat.

At the time we found out the twins were on the way, we had a 2001.5 VW Passat sedan, a 1998 Nissan Pathfinder, and a 3 yr old son who was still in a car seat. There was no way we were getting 3 car seats in either vehicle.

Sorry to say it, but unless you are planning on definitely not having anymore children, a not so mini van might be the best vehicle for you.

We got rid of the mini van now that the kids are out of the car seats/booster seats.

As mentioned earlier, the Prius v might work, but don't expect to be able to get anyone to sit between the two rear facing car seats mounted on the outside seat positions in the back, it just isn't going to happen. So that leaves just the two front seats and the twins in back.

wait, is the Prius V bigger inside than other trim levels or something?

Yes, it is longer, wider, taller, and naturally, heavier than the Prius hatchback. That's why the EPA fuel economy figures are lower.

That is if you are talking about the v wagon, not the Prius V (level 5 hatchback).

Sorry for the confusion. I was talking about the level 5 hatchback.

That makes sense about the wagon

We are referring to the new "Prius Five", not the Prius with the Five level trim.

The you have it wrong.

The v is for "versatility", not the roman numeral V. But then again the Prius v does come in a level five trim (Prius v five)

Thanks! That makes more sense. Haha, too many mixed words these days.

I recently took a trip from boston to florida with my wife and 2 kids.We managed to fit:
me: 6'1
wife: 5'1
my 2 year old in front facing car seat
my almost 1 year old in rear facing infant seat with base attachment
small suitcase
medium suit case
large suitcase
pack n play
phil n teds stroller w/ doubles seat (removed the wheels to make it a bit smaller)
couple packages of diapers
various diaper bags and small cooler bags

We fit the small suitcase and the various small bags on floor in the back seat, and everything else fit in the hatch. I moved the cargo cover to the under floor storage so we would have a little more room. We couldn't see out of the lower rear window, but the main rear window was unobstructed. Also, it was tight, but I could slide my seat back to a comfortable position with the infant seat behind me. Not sure if this helps at all, but just wanted to share my experience.