Convertible child seats that take up less space?

[Quattro Pete]

Been trying to do some research into this, but still undecided. I want to find a safe convertible child seat that doesn't take up too much space (front-to-back) in a rear-facing position. Strangely, the back of my e39 doesn't have a whole lot of space. Wife's Q5 has a little more, but still not a ton.

So far I've seen Combi Coccoro as one potential candidate. Hoping the parents on here have some first hand experience with this and other child seats in smaller cars. Front-facing is typically not an issue. It is the rear-facing that poses challenges.

Thanks!

 

[Neely97]

What age are the children ?
I am car seat poor ( grandkids )
I have found that the best rated for safety take up a lot of room.

When I was a child ( long long ago ) I would stand next to my mom,
cars had metal dashes , no seat belts. We would ride in the back of grandpas pickup truck . Somehow we survived.

Back on subject, go to a babys are us store and look at them as they have a huge selection.

Good luck.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Neely97
Back on subject, go to a babys are us store and look at them as they have a huge selection.

The issue is that you can't really tell from just looking at them how much space they'll require once installed in a car. Plus, there are many well rated seats out there that babysrus doesn't even carry. The typical Graco/Britax stuff that babysrus carries are normally pretty large.

Child is 7 months old. He's almost outgrown his infant carrier at this point.

 

[hatt]

The Graco Mysize 65 fit pretty easy in the Camry behind my wife's seat. Just buy a seat, test and return if it doesn't fit. They all do look pretty large.

 

[IndyIan]

How tall is your wife? We use relatively huge Safety First 3 in 1's, but the rear facing one goes on the passenger side. You probably won't have two rear facing at once in full size seats, so the forward facing one or infant seat goes behind the driver.
My wife is 5'11" so and normally runs her seat all the way back, but for a few months she was fine, or I was fine with the seat up a bit. Even for a 3 hour trip we were fine in the Focus as you stop every 20 miles for something it seems.
We run 5 seats right now, 2 in each car and the grandparents have one, so the 3 in 1's saved us buying several more.
In the CRV we might fit another kid between the car seats, but we've never had to.

 

[Quattro Pete]

I've got two seats on the way actually: Graco Size4Me 65 and Chicco NextFit. Pretty sure they'll fit OK in the wife's Q5. I'll test fit them in my car as well, but I may need to find something different for it.

 

[Mr Nice]

Its best that you and your wife (plus child) go to retail store and take a look.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
How tall is your wife? We use relatively huge Safety First 3 in 1's, but the rear facing one goes on the passenger side.

The issue isn't really with the wife's car - she's short. The issue is more with my car. I'm only 5'7", but when I have the driver's seat adjusted properly, it already bumps up against the infant carrier behind it. And I can't really install it behind the front passenger. We have a tight space in garage so when I park, the right side doors are inaccessible, unfortunately.

 

[hatt]

Our infant carry system actually took up more space than the Graco car seat. Looks can be deceiving sometimes.

 

[IndyIan]

I guess you could build a fullsize cardboard model with the rear seat cushion and back angles and your front seat back angle.
Take it into the store and rip open all the boxes and try them out.
We had the front seat pressed pretty hard into the baby seat, I figured it just helped hold it there.

 

[chefwong]

Wish I could help but there's too many variables

The Base
Does it adapt to the stroller
(our lil one quickly outgrew that)
Etc,etc.

We have the Cybex seats and love them.
Had to order them from overseas as they were not available here stateside

 

[eljefino]

car-seat.org

Found us car seats that worked in the back of a saturn s-series.

You'll need foam pool noodles and rolled up towels for the base to fit snugly.

Don't get hooked into "do everything till they're 8 years old" models. Do pay close attention to height, weight requirements, the weight limits of LATCH per your car owner's manual, and the levels of the shoulder straps. My kids are 6 and 8, tall for their age, and have rocked the $13 "brick" boosters for a while now. (These are essentially double thick phone books.)

IMO if you have more than occasional baby duty in both cars, get seats for both cars. It's such a wrestling match getting them in good and tight.

Good luck!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan

We had the front seat pressed pretty hard into the baby seat, I figured it just helped hold it there.

Actually, that is considered a huge no-no from what I've read, at least for some car seats. The child seat is supposed to have some wiggle room between it and the back of the front seat. That slight movement room helps lessen the blow in an impact.

Quote:
Its OK for your rear-facing seat to move at the top of the seat, this allows the seat to absorb forces upon impact. DO NOT allow the top of your rear-facing seat to touch the front driver or passenger seat- allow at minimum 1 inch of space between the front seats and the rear-facing car seat.

http://www.safekidsmidlands.org/cps.html

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
IMO if you have more than occasional baby duty in both cars, get seats for both cars.

That is the plan. I'm going to see if either of the ones we ordered for the wife's car will also fit well in my car. If so, I'll order a second one. If not, I'll have to find a different one for my car.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: chefwong
The Base
Does it adapt to the stroller
(our lil one quickly outgrew that)
Etc,etc.

Infant carrier and a base is what we have now, but the child is about to outgrow it so I'm looking for a convertible seat now, the one that permanently stays in the car and does not attach to the stroller.

The Combi Coccoro I mentioned earlier is a no-go. It only has a 40 lbs weight limit, and I don't want to have to go buy yet another seat in 6 months time.


Quote:
We have the Cybex seats and love them.
Had to order them from overseas as they were not available here stateside

Which Cybex model do you have? Amazon sells some of them.

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
And I can't really install it behind the front passenger. We have a tight space in garage so when I park, the right side doors are inaccessible, unfortunately.



I'm in the same situation, but I just back the car out every morning, then load the baby. I carry my coffee, lunch and any baby stuff out the car, back it out, then go back inside and get the baby.

It's a slight inconvenience, but I'm not buying another car just so I don't have to do it. I'm tall, so even our compact Cosco seat won't fit behind the drivers seat in our Cruze, which has a tiny back seat.

We have a Britax Roundabout in our Jetta and I have a cheaper Cosco APT in my Cruze. The APT isn't a fancy seat, but it's quite compact.

On road trips we put the Britax in the middle rear seat, so it sticks between the front seats. That gives significantly more room for front passengers.

 

[stephen9666]

Also, this has some useful info:
http://carseatblog.com/22818/the-ultimat...w-size-matters/

As far as trying car seats, I think I've read that sometimes Babies R Us will let you take seats out to your car and try them.

Quote:
The Combi Coccoro I mentioned earlier is a no-go. It only has a 40 lbs weight limit, and I don't want to have to go buy yet another seat in 6 months time.

Eh, it will probably be a lot more than 6 months if you have a 7-month-old baby. Our baby is 16 months and she's only 26 lbs. She's also a really big baby, around 90th percentile for weight.

This site has a chart going up to 24 months. It shows a 95th percentile baby at 36 months is only 38 lbs.
http://www.infantchart.com/cdc0to3weightforage.php

In reality, babies usually grow out of car seats because of height, not weight. I don't know how tall your baby is, but that will probably be the issue with a compact seat.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Also, this has some useful info:
http://carseatblog.com/22818/the-ultimat...w-size-matters/

This is great. Thanks!

Quote:
Eh, it will probably be a lot more than 6 months if you have a 7-month-old baby. Our baby is 16 months and she's only 26 lbs. She's also a really big baby, around 90th percentile for weight.

Our 7-month-old is already at 21 lbs. But yeah, it would probably last us longer than 6 months before the limit is reached.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Just tried the Graco Size4Me 65 in my car. There was still about an inch of room behind the driver's seat, when mounted in rear-facing position. However, even though the seatbelt was already as tight as possible, I could still topple the car seat over - toward the backrest of back seat. That can't possibly be safe in an accident...

 

[IndyIan]

Ours would tip up too easy with just using the two latch anchors like the manual shows. Using the seat belt through the seat worked better in our case but it never really inspired confidence, but I read that getting rear ended is a fairly rare accident.
I thought about installing a loop under one of the front seat anchor bolts and attaching the top strap of the car seat to it, but my wife vetoed that idea, afterall who am I to second guess the experts?