Fit of car seats in car...

Hi all

We have finally had out car seat installed in my car. We bought a Safe n Sound Meridien, which has been installed in my Mazda 3, behind the passenger seat.

Apparently this is safer in cars that don't have side airbags and it means that only one seat has to move, not both. Also there is less chance of the seat hitting the baby seat in an accident if it is side-impact.

Problem became immediately obvious - when the seat is in its rear-facing position, as it will be until bubs is 8mths or 8kgs, there is zero room in the front passenger seat for the passenger.

We're now thinking of upgrading to a larger car, as we want to have number 2 pretty quickly and thought we'd be upgrading for number 2, so we might just bring the timeline forward a bit.

So I'd like to know what cars everyone has that comfortably fit one rear-facing car seat and a second car seat, with plenty of room in the front passenger seat.

We're thinking of upgrading to something of a similar size to a Mazda 6, Commodore or the like.

DH is 6'3, I am 5'9, so we need something that will be comfortable to us both in the front (including when DH needs to sit in the passenger seat) with a rear-facing seat in the back.

Ours is going to be mighty squishy too and we're going to get a new car not long after bubs is born. Good thread.

we only have one seat rear facing and is also behind passanger seat, even in the commodore DH is uncomfortable in the passanger seat as cant put seat back he is 6ft 4 approx.

Even in a commodore?? EEEEK!

We're now thinking a Rav4 - my parents have one, it is a good car to drive and should have enough room in the back. We're going round on the weekend to fit our car seat and see what we can see...

I got to the point that I simply made DH drive when there was a rearfacing carseat and he complained about being uncomfortable, however I am short. I am going to put the capsule in may car sometime soon to check how much room it has, I have the middle row seats as far back as possible though.

Well, it's a fair bit bigger, but a Prado. We had DS2 rear facing until around 18 months (he is not big for his age obviously), so it was just as well we had enough leg room. We can still fit a smallish person between the two seats (one Meridian, one Maxi Rider) also.

I am 6 foot and so is DH. We had no problems when DS was rear facing and we have a 2005 RAV 4. Heaps of room, great driving and you sit up in the seats not recline like in most sedans. Lots of head room too.

As you can tell I love my Rav 4 :lol:

I can't speak from my own car seats but we did have a commodore wagon and had both my sister and my dear friend fit their seats in and there was still plenty of room. I'm 5'9 and DH just over 6'. Always had so much room in the boot too.

We have a Subaru Forester (new model - so more leg room in rear) and a Magna. I had to put the front passenger seat forward in the Forester to fit my unity baby capsule... wasn't gonna go in the middle because DH is 6'4".... so I tried it in the Magna thinking well this is a big car, should be fine. Nope, passenger seat had to move forward in BOTH cars. I was a bit gobsmacked TBH!

WE have the unity capsule in our magna behind drivers seat as have other kids and Dh who is 6ft can drive fine, in the instructions it says the seat can touch the capsule as long as it does not alter the anlge of the capsule. With my second I had a VT comadore and had a capsule in the middle and heaps of space and leg room.

My suggestion is to take the seat with you when looking at cars and put in the car to see if it will fit, I did this when we brought the magna, though I only had to think about 2 seats, but wanted space for a third person to fit if needed.

Just and idea OP
Contact a company called child restraints- they are in Maidstone.You can get their details on the web! You can ring and ask them for advice about what experiences they have had with what works best. They also sell car seat, boosters, hire capsules and will come and install them at your house for you as part of the service. It was who i hired my capsule from and they were ace

We have a 2001 AU wagon- two car seats turned forward facing fitted no probs. Capule is in the middle position and we did not have to move the front seats foward at all- in fact the passanger seat is quite far back as the handle fell off the seat turner and i cant move it any more forward lol!
At the moment we have DS in a half booster, capsule in middle and DD in a full booster and they all fit fine- snug but fine.
My friends that have had twins and had these issues found that that ford/holden wagon were fine for two car seat rear facing- although a lot of them went for 4WD instead as then they had more room for the pram, extra children etc! T

You can also get what they call compact car seats as well- there is a safe and sound compact another brand- cant remember what its called.

Just make sure that whatever car you get that the anchor points dont take up too much of the boot space, and that the middle seat has an anchor point and a lap/sash seat belt. I know with falcons, these features only were standard in models from 2001 onwards!

Good luck and let us know how you go!!
Odette

Thanks girls for all the suggestions and comments.

My mum has the "Compact" version of the safe and sound in her Merc and it isn't that much smaller - narrower as opposed to shorter.

We went looking at cars today - ruled out the Mazdas, but found some other options - Ford Mondeo, Holden Epica or Holden Captiva. All of these start at around $27k-$32k. So if we can sell my car for around $20k, that shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Also DH's cousin works in a car dealer and can do us a good deal...

So has anyone got a Mondeo, Epica or Captiva?

Odette, I'll call that place on Monday, thanks fro the suggestion.

I have an 08 Rav 4 and there is heaps of room in ours. We have Nina in a SnS Maxi Rider & Emily in a SnS Guardian (i think it's a Guardian). Both child seats are bulky and wide. We've had people who are 6 foot sit in the passenger seat with no problems.

OP, I second CREM in maidstone as they fitted our capsule and car seat. We are actually going there to get our capsule and have it fitted for the new baby.

We purrchased the Mazda CX-7 when I found out I was pregnant. We have the S&S - Meridian, I don't think there will be any problems as it is quite roomy in the back..