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I've been looking at the RideSafer Travel Vest for my 4.5 yr old. He's already 40 lbs and 42 in tall. We are in the car about once a week and for about an hour max. It should fit between the convertible and combination seats.

However, we are going to need a second car soon and we are looking at minivans.

Mini van time!!!
We have a Sienna. 5.5 year old sits in way back, passenger side. She is in a 5 point harness in a Chicco my fit, can usually buckle herself and unbuckle with the assistance of one of those unbuckle tools. The rest of the third row stays folded down to accommodate double stroller/whatever. 2nd row drivers side chair has rear facing chicco nextfit, pushed all the way back to make a large aisle for getting to third row. 2nd row passenger side chair has a chicco key fit, pushed forward quite a bit to give third row kid leg room. This also allows me to reach behind the seat to help big kid with buckle as need (I can also climb in from the other side and walk back.
I can’t imagine having 3 kids without the minivan- we live rurally so we can’t walk anywhere, and we often transport a friend for play dates, having the option to put the rest of the third row bench up makes that easy. Plus when we go on vacation the car is packed to the gills.

We drive a Yukon XL (2012) Denali. We have DS1 in the third row in a Chicco MyFit. He can buckle/unbuckle himself (thanks, UnbuckleMe!). DS2 RFing in a Britax Advocate in one captain chair. DS3 in the other captain chair in a Nuna Pipa.

We needed an SUV vs a mini van because we occasionally tow our camper and we need 4WD for our extreme winters.

FWIW, we will be upgrading to a newer model. Any GMC/Chevy SUVs made previously to 2015 have only ONE tether in the third row. In 2015+ they updated the body style and every seating position has a tether. We will also be getting a bench seat (vs captains chairs like we have now).

I have spent way too much time researching this Wall me if you have any questions!

@bees_knees: I drive a Yukon also, needed due to winter in our rural area. I've completely removed the third row (2011 model) for cargo space, only 1 kiddo now. We plan to upgrade, will also get a bench seat versus captains chairs. I'm excitedto have a model where the third row stows rather than removes!

@Foodnerd81: For us, we don't use the third row frequently (1 kid now, only plan to be a 2 kid family). We have a greater need for the cargo space, if we had a bench seat instead of captains chairs we could fit another body in the second row instead of popping the third row up. Little different than @bees_knees: situation though.

@bees_knees: ah thank you! That makes sense. I have friends who specifically purchased the captains chairs too and are glad, but none have two RF seats. As it is I remember now one friend could only put her daughters seat on the passenger side because the younger ones seat was too bulky to be able to move the seat forward.

@LadyDi: yeah, I think so too. we don't have AWD on this one, but we are moving to the end of a private road in about 4 years and will upgrade to the AWD model then

I drove an Acura MDX for two years (started with one FF convertible, one RF convertible, and an infant seat; ended with 2 FF convertibles and an infant seat), across the second row. We had an optional 3rd row, but it was difficult to access and the child sitting in it would have had to sit in her carseat with her legs crossed. The three seats definitely worked for that period of time, but this fall when the girls were 6, 4 and 2, and in need of a new car anyway, we switched it up and got a Honda Oddessey. Honestly, the kids just needed to be separated a bit, and we needed some different accessibility options because of school drop off/pick up lines.

I love that the middle row of the Oddessey has a lot of options (you can convert from 3-seat bench to captain chairs easily, and the magic slide seats are awesome for letting kids in and out of the third row) - but it does not come AWD. It does have a "snow" switch that changes the traction. I drove it in one pretty yucky snowstorm when I'd had it for about 3 weeks, and (knock on wood), it was fine, but I wasn't doing anything too crazy with it.