Our car has a very small back seat (Audi A4). If you also have a small back seat, which rear-facing infant car seat or convertible car seat do you recommend?
It's overwhelming the number of car seats there are and I have a hard time finding details that share whether or not they fit in smaller spaces length wise - it seems easier to figure out the more narrow ones.
Thanks in advance!
pomegranate / 3595 posts
We have the chicco keyfit, partly for this reason, and have been happy with it. We have a honda civic. The seat is installed behind the passenger seat and the front seat can no longer move all the way back, but it can almost get there and it is still comfortable for an adult in front. We have squeezed two adults in the back with tthe car seat too but i wouldnt want to do it for a long long time.
clementine / 889 posts
We had a Safety First OnBoard 35 infant seat. It is a larger infant seat, and in DH's car we ended up using it without the base. It fit much better that was and we just used the seatbelt to secure it.
You might look for an infant seat with a smaller weight limit, like the Graco Snugride 22. Especially if you don't think you'll have a bigger baby, it should get you through most of the first year and they are smaller in size.
For convertible seats, it's so hard to tell without trying them out or talking to someone with the same car. DH has a VW Jetta, and they are apparently really awful to fit a convertible seat in rear facing because of the way the seats are shaped. I have a Britax Boulevard in my car, which fits in the Jetta with the passenger seat forward less than half way. We ended up purchasing a Graco MyRide for DH's car which seems to *just* fit. We tried the Safety First Complete Air, which didn't fit at all, as well as the Evenflo Triumph which also didn't fit. The Britax Roundabout 55 is a smaller convertible seat that would fit well in DH's car and might work in yours, though it doesn't have th convenience features like being able to adjust the straps without re-threading them. (Those features are on the Marathon, Boulevard and Advocate.)
Babies R Us will let you try the seats out in your car if you go to the store. Also, I bought our Britax from Amazon when it was on sale, and with the free shipping and returns, I would have just returned it if it didn't fit.
grapefruit / 4681 posts
We had the Graico Snugride 22. It's the smallest and lightest version, only hold up to 22 lbs of baby (that can be a down side but it. Worked out for us). I forget the exact dimensions but the carrier itself is much sorter than the Snugride 30 or 32's.
It fit in my husbands Mazda 3. The passenger seat had to be moved up some, but it's normal position is all the way back so I think if your used to your passenger seat up closer to the front it would fit fine without a lot of adjustments.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
we have the combi coccoro. i believe it's the only car seat you can fit 3 in a row. It's small and light!
clementine / 958 posts
I have a chicco keyfit 30, and it fits in my Mini Cooper (the keyfit would have fit better, but DH and I are tall, and we correctly guessed that we'd have a long baby and wanted the extra inches). The graco snugride 22 also fit, but the larger snugrides (30, 35) didn't. The britax chaperone didn't work either. In order for pretty much any seat I tried to fit, the passenger seat had to be pretty far forward. I found that going to a store that lets you try the seats out in your car is really helpful.
apricot / 498 posts
I have an A4 also. Our Graco Snugride did not fit (well, it fit but no one could sit in the passenger seat. We ended up with a convertible in that car and are really happy with the Recaro ProRide.
There are a lot of very active Audi forums and many of them talk about car seats. Good advice in them.
cherry / 146 posts
we had the same problem in our acura. my friend was going to give us her graco snugride carseats but they did not fit in our back seat without having to move the driver and passenger seats waaaay up. the shortest carseats we tried were the european brands (chicco keyfit, peg perego, and some other brand that's been on the market for only 6 months - i forget the name). we ended up buying two chicco keyfit22s and had them installed last weekend. we still had to move our seats up a bit, but i think we can deal with them for now until we buy a mini-van.
pear / 1837 posts
@venice4504: Really? We have the Recaro ProRide in our CRV, and while it fits, it just seems massive and I can't really imagine it in a smaller car. That is good to know.
(I think mainly it just seems ridiculously tall... like, almost vision-obscuring tall)
apricot / 498 posts
@Lozza: Length wise it's fine. Granted neither of us are tall but it's fine. When we turn it around it'll be awesome. And yes, it's tall. Like Jolly Green Giant. But it's a Recaro and if anyone is into German cars...it's a Recaro...
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
You can also try maxi cosi brand, another Euro brand designed for small cars.
We have an Audi a6 and don't have that much more room either, but the slope of the seats made a pool noodle necessary for the install.
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