Carseats

Hi everyone,

The hubby and I have been chatting about available 2nd row space in our vehicles and the carseats. Right now I have a Hyundai Santa Fe, and the Graco Infant SafeSeats with bases. I am able to tilt the backs of the 2nd row seats a fair amount, to give a little more room to the front passengers, but it's still a fairly tight fit. Our little guys are 6 months old now, and at some point in the coming year they will have outgrown their safeseats, so we'll need to go to a convertible or larger car seat.

1. Any recommendations?
2. When using a convertible, as opposed to the infant seats with bases, do the convertibles cause you to have less room in the front seats, or more? I haven't had a chance to research this, to find out if convertible carseats will be doable for us, or if I really just need to get a minivan instead, for the additional legroom.

Thanks for any input!!!

 

We have the Evenflo Triumph Advance and I think that takes up almost the same amount of room as the infant seats with the bases. We still have our kiddos rear facing right now, so I imagine it might take up less space once they are forward facing. DH and I are pretty happy with the ones we have, they were easy for him to install and seem pretty comfy for the kids. Good luck on your decision!

 

i think we got the evenflo triumph advance premier (at least i think that's all the words in the right order). if i remember correctly the only thing that makes it "premier" is the quick-latch mechanism if you use LATCH connectors. which, personally, i think is totally worth it.

we found the seats fit into my nissan about the same as the graco snugride infant carriers. we literally didn't have to move the seats to fit the new convertable seats in. we didn't gain any leg room in the front, but we didn't lose any either. we went into BRU and reclined the floor model all the way (as you're supposed to when rear facing) and measured it visually against the size of the infant carrier. that gave us the ability to at least eyeball the fit and see it wouldn't be more bulky than what we already had.

i looked to consumer reports crash test info to choose our seats. the evenflo triumph advance got one of the best ratings and it rated as one of the absolute best in ease of use. and the way i see it, if i can't use it, it's not going to be safe. so far we totally love them and the boys are so much happier. i think they're more comfortable because the curvature of the infant carrier pushed on their tummies more, and because these seats sit higher they can see out the windows now. instead of complaining in the car they now laugh and talk to their feet.

as far as when, that's up to you. we switched because our guys were getting long and their feet were threatening to dangle over the end of the carriers.

 

I have a Santa Fe as well, and am getting ready to buy convertibles. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a seat that works because the Santa Fe is not even a year old, and a new car is not in the budget!

Good luck!

 

I switched my kids when they started sitting up well, so that when we went to stores and such, they were able to sit in the cart without toppling over. Check out this website for recommendations by car make and model: http://www.carseatdata.org/search

 

We have both the Evenflo Triumph Advance and the Britax Marathons. They are both great seats. We switched at about 6 months.

 

We switched at around 6 months as well. Great website Becky!

 

We switched at 3 months because one of the infant seats we had (we borrowed from dh's cousin) was not easy to adjust the straps for taking Rylee in and out. It was a huge pain in the butt. So we switched to the convertible's early instead of wasting money on a new infant seat, and now just use our combi twin stroller everywhere we go. We have a britax marathon for liam and a graco comfortsport for rylee, both seats that we currently already had for our older dd. My friend is bringing me a second marathon this august for rylee because it's just a nicer seat, bigger and will last longer than our comfortsport.

Convertible's are safe from birth so really when you switch is up to you

 

We have a Rav 4 (pretty much the same size as the Santa Fe) and our Evenflo Triumph Advance seats fit the same as the carriers. We turned one forward facing a few months ago for a long drive and DH was able to recline the front seat and have it pushed all the way back. I am 5'3 and DH has a hard time driving my car b/c of the car seats. If you go to a BRU you can ask for help in trying the sample seats in your car. Even if you don't buy it there, you will KNOW if it fits well or not. There was one that didn't even fit behind the drivers seat when it was set for me. We got convertible seats around 6 months b/c the boys were too long for their infant carriers.

 

We switched to Britax roundabouts at about 6 months. I drove a Honda Accord and am tall - it was a little tight, but definitely manageable. I was initially concerned that those seats wouldn't last long and are expensive, but the girls are still in them at 2.5 years, and I have tall girls - both 95th percentile. I did a TON of travel with them too on planes - my dh is in the military and I had to do many long flights by myself, and those carseats were a godsend for that because they are relatively small and can fit down aisles better than others, especially when strapped into the gogo kidz rolling thing. Just in case you plan any airtravel!

 

The good news is that unless your babies a huuuuuuuuuuuuge they won't out grow the safeseat until a year old. My son Eli reached the height limit at one, and then I decided to get them a convertible seat, but I went ahead and put it in forward facing since they were over one. Some people are now leaving their kids rear facing until 2, but I was ready for them to be turned around.