My 8 month old is outgrowing his infant carrier. We've already installed a convertible car seat in my car (Saturn Vue) -- rear facing. However, we need to find a car seat that will fit in my DH's car. He drives an Acura RSX. The car seat will be positioned behind the passenger seat since the car doesn't have a "middle seat."
What car seat would you suggest? I'm looking for one that will also be able to used as a forward facing once he meets those guidelines.
Thanks moms!! :-)
Hi there - I'm a certified instructor in Child Passenger Safety. Look at the Combi Coccoro - it's a conv car seat that is designed for smaller cars. They use the back seat from a Toyota Corolla to show that you can fit three Coccoros across. http://www.combi-intl.com/Products/Item.aspx?Item=12
My best suggestion for you is to try the online help at www.elitecarseats.com. They are AWESOME and can suggest all kinds of seats! You have to buy from them either. I have found several seats through them and found them cheaper on other websites. My husband has a 2 door infiniti G35 and we never found a carseat to go rear-facing in his car at all. They were very helpful, though, in suggesting some forward-facing seats once our oldest was old enough. The new guidelines are rear-facing until 2 years old, so my youngest may never even ride in it!
Find a CPST in your area to help you install a rear facing car seat. I can get a rear facing Britax Marathon into our Chevy Aveo subcompact without even having ot adjust the front seats. A CPST (certified passenger safety technician) will help you get it in right and make sure you are using it right.
www.safekids.org
the folks at the forums at http://www.car-seat.org are super helpful for these kinds of q's - many of them are certified child passenger safety techs and have installed loads of different types of seats in loads of different types of cars (seriously, some of them even get together for what they call "car seat playdates" where they meet up with their car seat collections and test how the different seats install in each other's cars rear-facing, forward-facing, 3 across a sedan rear seat, etc. - if you post a thread "Convertible seat rec's for Acura RSX", chances are good that at least one of them will have IRL experience with what seats would be good to consider/try out.
Britax has one for smaller cars. I use one in my RX8. I trust Britax more than other brands because of their safety standards. Both our carseats are Britax.
I would suggest the Sunshine Radian. It is a thinner car seat but still top rated. Buy Buy Baby in Plano carries them and should even allow you to try it in your hubbys car before you buy.
My daughter outgrew her baby carrier at the same age. Now we use the Combi Cocorro. It fits rearfacing in a VW Jetta and a Ford Focus without the passenger seat having to be all the way forward. Plus it is rated to stay rear facing longer than other convertible seats. My husband is 6'3" and has to drive with the seat all the way back and the Cocorro still fits behind his seat with no problems. Also getting my daughter in and out is super easy because the Cocorro has some nice features. The padding is nice and thick but it also comes off for machine washing. I LOVE this car seat.
Have you tried yours in his car? What brand is yours? If yours fits, buy another one! We have a Safety First Alpha Omega Elite for our son, and a Graco Nautilus for our daughter, they are both convertible and both bulky in different ways. You will just have to go to a store and check some out, Babies R Us always has tons to choose from!
