Best Infant seat for small car?

Thoughts?

Ooooh, I wanna know this too. Trying to figure out what's gonna work in the MINI with a pending child..... and the wife is worried.

Consumer reports screwed up and tested carseats at way too high of a speed a few years back. Only one passed. I bought that one. I think it's called a Graco Snugride. Works fine and it's cheap, too.

mndsm wrote: Ooooh, I wanna know this too. Trying to figure out what's gonna work in the MINI with a pending child..... and the wife is worried.

You might be surprised - none of them might work. It depends on how much you like the front seats to recline and how far back they are and if you can get one in the center of the back seat. The reverse one hit the seats in the Volvo when I had the seat back.

Britax Isofix.

Graco Snugride works in a small car - if you aren't too tall. I am 5'7 and the Snugride butts almost up to the driver seatback in a Ford Focus.

tuna55 wrote:

mndsm wrote: Ooooh, I wanna know this too. Trying to figure out what's gonna work in the MINI with a pending child..... and the wife is worried.

You might be surprised - none of them might work. It depends on how much you like the front seats to recline and how far back they are and if you can get one in the center of the back seat. The reverse one hit the seats in the Volvo when I had the seat back.

Wife's only like 5'3" and whenever both of us are in the car, I take the ms3.... so it's really more of a "backup" plan, she may end up driving the Prizm anyhow. Nothing says class like a E36 M3 brown Chevy Prizm with busted door handles and dents on EVERY PANEL.

ive "wanted" one of these since i first saw one. no idea if theyre any good or just overpriced though.

foxtrapper wrote: Britax Isofix.

Britax is the only company to crash test their child seats. Very good quality too. Only ones we used with our kids.

poopshovel wrote: Thoughts?

Is this for a "friend"?

WilberM3 wrote: ive "wanted" one of these since i first saw one. no idea if theyre any good or just overpriced though.

I have this one and 2 of the earlier versions. These seem to be the slimmest seats. We can actually fit a (small) adult between two of them in our back seat. It was worth the extra money for the cool "Recaro" embroidery. Fit in perfectly with my Recaro GTI seats.

But they won't help the PO because he'll need a rear facing for the first 1-2 years. I don't remember the brands/models, but every rear facing seat we owned interfered with the front seating position.

WilberM3 wrote:

We have these in my wife's Accord and my WRX. They're great seats, but very heavy and it's a tight fit in the back of the Subaru. I like having the extra side impact protection that they offer.

Ours are gray. The model name is "Young Sport".

David S. Wallens wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Thoughts?

Is this for a "friend"?

Yeah...my friend...uh...SCO...no...that's not it uh...PE...nah, um. It's the year of the girl, dude. The coven secretly got together and cast spells or some E36 M3.

We actually had one of the previous versions of the Graco. Good solid seat, went in & out of both our cars (VW Mk.2 Golf/ EG chassis Honda Civic) w/no problem.

honestly I don't recall what model we used it was a combo kit from walmart bought by my mom... the carrier, base and stroller (that the seat clipped into)... but properly installed is more important... I don't recall the statistics but MOST are improperly installed...

the infant carriers are the way to go untill they can sit up on their own... especially in a 2dr... make sure to get one with a base... if you've got 2 cars and will regularly change between cars then get a 2nd...

also a nice tidbit... these cariers are made to CLIP into the shopping carts at the store... facing you the clip will clip the mesh of the back of the seat portion...

the mount is supposed to be "loose" so the seat can "fold" into the back of the seat and turn into a turtle shell of sorts... the seat handle is supposed to be put down so the seat can do roll into the back seat thing... most cars you pass have the handle stright up locked...

but do note all these seats have a height limitation along with the weight... Camber (our daughter) outgrew them in length WAY before weight (something to do with 6'4 dad and 6'+ mom)

In reply to trucke: We only used the Britax seats. I am cost sensitive, but would never buy a cheap ass child seat. The Britax seats were are expensive, like over $200. FYI

Your best solution is to check out www.carseatdata.org You can enter the make, model, year and find out the best one for your car. I write on a website called www.webanswers.com and head up their baby and pregnancy section. We see this question fairly often.

we use the chico keyfit 30 for our 5 month oil and works great.... and our 2 yearold forward facing firstyears.

tongue in cheek I'm amazed that any of us managed to make it all these years... my dads generation didn't even have seat belts... I doubt many of my dads generation gave much thought to the kiddie seat they used...

today I know adults that technically should still be in kiddie seats (FL law: Children from approximately 40-80 pounds and under 4'9" in height should ride in a booster seat.)

that being said I do recall when we lived in germany I couldn't sit in the front seat... you had to be 12y/o for that... so moving to the states and driving across the country with mom was great fun getting to ride shotgun :)

hey now i make my mom ride in a booster seat when she gets in my car (ok not really but i should)