The GMC Terrain is the GMC equivalent of the Chevrolet Equinox, and an upscale mid-sized SUV chosen by families interested in a hint of luxury without the luxury price tag. It competes with other 5-passenger mid-sized crossovers in the US market like the Ford Edge, Dodge Journey, Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe, Jeep Cherokee, and Jeep Grand Cherokee. It comes with a wide range of safety features and is often chosen by parents interested in the utility of a hatchback without the resignation of a minivan.

Although I’d had the chance to put an Equinox through the 3 across test, I wanted to see if its GMC twin would do as well, so I borrowed a Terrain this past week to see how friendly the back seat was when it came to installing 3 car seats across. We’ll look at how it did in a moment; first, I’d like to review some elements of car seat safety that apply to all passenger vehicles, including the Terrain.

Car seat safety starts with rear-facing. It’s the safest position we know of, and the longer our kids rear-face, the safer they’ll be, regardless of what kind of vehicle they travel in. I recommend keeping children in rear-facing infant or convertible seats as long as possible (ideally until 4!), then keeping them harnessed in forward-facing seats for several years more (ideally until 8!), and then only switching them out of booster seats when they pass the 5 step test (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids in the safest kinds of seats for as long as possible to increase their odds of surviving serious car crashes.

With that all in mind, I got to work with my seats to create what I believe to be the most detailed 3 across guide for the GMC Terrain on the Internet, covering every model year of the SUV so far. 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.

The initial generation of the GMC Terrain is 185-188 inches long and 73 inches wide, which means you’ll have a comparable amount of space for 3 across installations as what you’d find in the average mid-sized SUV or car.  It’s technically slightly wider than the Equinox in this generation, but that difference is mostly in the exterior, which means your internal space will be the same. As usual, to maximize the available amount of space for your installations, you’ll want to make use of seat belts instead of the LATCH anchors.

Because the Terrain is basically a fancy Equinox, issues in a given generation Equinox are issues you’ll see in the same generation of the Terrain. For example, the way the seat hinge is oriented in the back seat, you might have trouble installing multiple Radians rear-facing. I was able to do it, but some folks have had trouble with it. The center Radian can definitely be installed rear-facing, but you might need to install the outboard seats in forward-facing configurations.

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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.