slammers

My wife and I are currently driving a 07 TSX and we have a 3 year old. We like our car but we just wish it had more room to fit two people in the back with our daughters car seat.

Our question is, can the 07 and newer MDX's fit a car seat in the middle and passengers on each side in the second row comfortably? I know it has the 3rd row as an option but we just want to focus on using the second row.

The second row seems to have a LOT of hip room according to the specs at 59.1" inches. Does anyone have this type of setup currently where they get 2 people and a car seat in the second row? If so is it fairly comfortable for the 2 passengers or is it tight for them?

thanks,
Stephen

achan209

I know you mentioned a 07 but we just recently went on a road trip with our 02 and we had 7 people 3 of which were in carseats and everyone had room. We placed 2 carseats in the 3rd row, then the other carseat right behind the driver.

If you install the carseat in the middle of the 2nd row, I do not believe you can move the passenger side seat to access the 3rd row.

BTW, one person in the 2nd row is 8 months pregnant and they were still comfortable. Not sure if the 02 has the same specs as the 07.

My .02, either way MDX's are great!

slammers

Thanks for your input! We haven't gone to look at the newer MDX's yet. From what I understand but I could be wrong, the second row on the 07 and up have about 3" more hip room.

So just to make sure I understand, in the second row of your 2002, you had the car seat behind the driver and were able to have 2 passengers sit next to it with no problem?

db22

I figure that if you can find 2 people that want to sit in the back with a 3 year old for more than 15 minutes then you are lucky!
I have a 2010 and 2 people with a car seat is tolerable but not comfortable. If it is for occassional use and for relatively short drives then it is OK. I also feel the same way about the Chevy Tahoe - tolerable only.
The good news is the optional use of the 3rd row for when your daughter gets bigger but the a child/booster seat (for older kids) actually takes up less room than the heavily padded conventional car seats for infants.
I don't think that you can go wrong with the MDX for a family + it's amazingly safe.

arex

We have a child seat installed in the middle seat in the second row of our 2010. I'm not sure if they have the center LATCH anchors for the 2007-2009s.

Interestingly, the LATCH anchors for the center position are slightly offset to the left, so the seat is not perfectly centered. I think they did this so you can still access the third row even with the seat installed in the center position. When the right seat folds forward, it just barely clears the child seat. Because of this, someone sitting to the left of the child seat is going to be somewhat cramped, whereas someone sitting to the right of the seat will have plenty of room.

Right now, because we have the child seat rear facing, it's still pretty manageable for the person on the left because shoulder space is not impacted, but people sitting in that position kind of need to keep their arms above the car seat. Not sure what it'll be like once we switch the seat to forward facing.

If we instead installed the seat behind the driver, I'm pretty sure two adults could sit side by side in relative comfort.

achan209

Yes and we drove from Oakland to Felton in traffic. (69.3 miles, which took about 1 hour and 30 mins) But remember one in the middle row is 8 months pregnant and she did not complain about not having enough room.

SKW

I was gonna mention the same thing that in the 2nd row of our '10, the center LATCH points are positioned so that the passenger side seat can still fold/slide to allow access to the 3rd row. We haven't had to use the 3rd row yet but w/ 4 adults and almost 2yr old in a front facing seat, we've found that the middle row, passenger side was the best fit. We're using the Orbit toddler seat which is somewhat bigger than other seats. We tried it in the middle position for a 120mi round trip & my daughter basically had 1 foot on the back of my seat and the other on the rear a/c buttons. That center position seems to be more forward and to the left, so we moved her back to her original spot.

benlee78

I have an 07 MDX with 2 car seats in the back. I think theres space for two people and a car seat in the back. The thing is, Im not sure if there are car seat latches in the middle of the row. Ill have to check when I time.

benlee78

Looks like you can attach the car seat in the middle.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f159d66

DigiBox

I have an 08 and the positioning of the "center" is like mentioned above. I'm not comfortable at all sitting next to the car seat. My wife normally would ride back there with my son. The day I rode back there, I asked her how the heck she did it. lol. Head room also is terrible lifting kids in/out of car seats. Once my son and daughter are out of car seats, I think it will be fine. Wish I got an Odyssey. hahah!

slammers

thanks everyone this is very helpful information!

benlee78

I just traded the 2008 Ody for the 2007 CPO MDX a few weeks ago. Ody space is great especially for the car seats but I personally needed AWD for the weather conditions in the Midwest.