The Kia Sportage is one of the least expensive small SUV-style crossovers you can buy today in the United States. It competes with a range of more expensive alternatives like the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Forester, Ford Escape, Jeep Compass, and Jeep Patriot. The modern Sportage is equipped with several notable safety features, including good moderate overlap front and side impact scores, a good roof strength score, and side airbags and electronic stability control, or ESC. However, the Sportage continues to be dogged by a poor small overlap score, which Kia will need to address in the redesign of the Sportage, and soon.
That said, the Sportage is still frequently chosen by families interested in an SUV or crossover-type vehicle in a short and nimble package, which meant I was interested in finding out how friendly of a vehicle it would be in terms of 3 across car seat installations.
The bad news is that there’s not very much room for car seats in terms of front-to-back space in any generation of the Sportage. The good news is that it’s a surprisingly wide crossover that’ll give you plenty of options for 3 across installations in terms of width. Before going into the details, here are some suggestions about when to use various types of car seats, whether you’re driving a Sportage or behind the wheel of any other kind of vehicle.
The safest configuration we know of when it comes to vehicle safety is rear-facing. This goes for adults as well! Rear-face your infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for as long as possible (ideally until 4!), before forward-facing them in harnessed convertible or combination seats (ideally until 8!). Once they outgrow their harnessed seats, it’s best to keep them restrained in high-back boosters until they’re physically and psychologically ready to use adult seat belt systems (which typically happens between 10 and 12). We want our little ones in the safest positions we know of for as long as possible to give them the greatest advantages in a collision.
Keeping these ideas in mind, I set to work to find which infant, convertible, combination, and booster seats would work best in 3 across combinations in the Kia Sportage. It’s my goal to make this list the most thorough on the Internet. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.
You can access the complete 3 across guide for every vehicle here and the complete list of recommended seats here. The Canadian car seat guide is here. 3 across car seat images are courtesy of Wikipedia.
2017 Kia Sportage (QL)
Guaranteed 3 across installations:
Clek Fllo (x3).
Clek Foonf (x3).
Diono Radian RXT (x3).
Diono Radian R120 (x3).
Diono Radian R100 (x3).
Combi Coccoro (x3).
Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT, Diono Radian / RXT.
Clek Fllo, Graco Size4Me 65, Diono Radian / RXT.
Chicco KeyFit 30, Clek Fllo, Chicco KeyFit 30.
Tips and Tricks:
The current generation of the Kia Sportage is just over 176 inches long and 73 inches wide. As with prior generations, the length means you’re going to struggle with front-to-back space with a lot of the car seats you install if you’ve got taller drivers or longer car seats; you’ll want to check out the guide to short convertibles if you’ve already got a seat that you’d like to compare to the ones on this list. That said, the good news is that at 73 inches across, the Sportage is as wide as a number of mid-sized SUVs, and will offer a decent number of options when it’s time for 3 across setups. As usual, be sure to use your seat belts instead of the LATCH system to make the most of the space you have.
As before, because of the length of the vehicle, if you want to make the most of your money, I’d strongly recommend Radians due to the minimal amount of space they take up with angle adjusters; your legs and front-row passengers will thank you.
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Kia Sportage (SL)
Guaranteed 3 across installations:
Clek Fllo (x3).
Clek Foonf (x3).
Diono Radian RXT (x3).
Diono Radian R120 (x3).
Diono Radian R100 (x3).
Combi Coccoro (x3).
Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT, Diono Radian / RXT.
Clek Fllo, Graco Size4Me 65, Diono Radian / RXT.
Chicco KeyFit 30, Clek Fllo, Chicco KeyFit 30.
Tips and Tricks:
The third generation of the Kia Sportage is 175 inches long and 73 inches wide. The length means you’re going to struggle with front-to-back space with a lot of the car seats you install if you’ve got taller drivers or longer car seats; you’ll want to check out the guide to short convertibles if you’ve already got a seat that you’d like to compare to the ones on this list. That said, the good news is that at 73 inches across, the Sportage is as wide as a number of mid-sized SUVs, and will offer a decent number of options when it’s time for 3 across setups. As usual, be sure to use your seat belts instead of the LATCH system to make the most of the space you have.
Because of the length of the vehicle, if you want to make the most of your money, I’d strongly recommend Radians due to the minimal amount of space they take up with angle adjusters; your legs and front-row passengers will thank you.
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Kia Sportage
Guaranteed 3 across installations:
Clek Fllo (x3).
Clek Foonf (x3).
Diono Radian RXT (x3).
Diono Radian R120 (x3).
Diono Radian R100 (x3).
Combi Coccoro (x3).
Clek Fllo, Diono Radian / RXT, Diono Radian / RXT.
Clek Fllo, Graco Size4Me 65, Diono Radian / RXT.
Chicco KeyFit 30, Clek Fllo, Chicco KeyFit 30.
Tips and Tricks:
The 2005-2010 generation of the Kia Sportage is 171 inches long and 71 inches wide. Once again, the length means you’re going to struggle with front-to-back space with a lot of the car seats you install if you’ve got taller drivers or longer car seats; you’ll want to check out the guide to short convertibles if you’ve already got a seat that you’d like to compare to the ones on this list.
As usual, be sure to use your seat belts instead of the LATCH system to make the most of the space you have.
Because of the length of the vehicle, if you want to make the most of your money, I’d strongly recommend Radians due to the minimal amount of space they take up with angle adjusters; your legs and front-row passengers will thank you.
—
If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.