Best minivan for 3 car seats

CARS.COM — Parents often are searching for the automotive holy grail: a car that's not a minivan and can fit three child-safety seats across the backseat.

In the more than five years that Cars.com editors have been installing car seats into test vehicles, we've come across many vehicles that can hold three car seats across a backseat. The latest addition is the 2016 GMC Sierra crew cab. This full-size pickup easily handled three car seats across its backseat. It joins a number of crew-cab pickup trucks that can handle family duty.

About Cars.com's Car Seat Checks

For Car Seat Checks, the front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats — a high-back booster seat, convertible car seat and rear-facing infant-safety seat — are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver's seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row's middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

Editors Jennifer Geiger, Jennifer Newman and Matt Schmitz are certified child safety seat installation technicians. To learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks, go here.