thoughts on convertible seats?

Hi,

I'm starting to think about convertible seats, even though my daughter won't need one for a while. We have a Chicco Keyfit right now, which we like, except for one thing. We have a Mazda 3 - not the biggest car. When the Keyfit is installed, the passenger seat has to be set quite far forward, leaving very little legroom. Fortunately, neither my husband nor I am particularly tall, so we can squeeze in, although not too comfortably. But it did start me thinking - the convertible seats look pretty big, and I want to keep my daughter rear-facing as long as possible. I'm thinking of the Britax and Maxi Cosi seats. How much room do they take up when rear-facing? Will we have to get a bigger car?

Thanks,
-S

They take up the same or less room than the Key Fit, so no worries :) (Your Key Fit has a lockoff on it, by the way...that plastic slot thing on the side that you would use if you were using the seatbelt ;) )
The Britax would be nice (Marathon) as it can be installed in the middle of the car using LATCH (most can't be, but Mazda and Britax both allow that, so it's ok)...the Marathon would be the same (more or less) fit as the KF, while the new www.britaxdiplomat.com would probably offer you a tad more room up front, so would the Roundabout. Those are smaller seats, won't last quite as long, but generally rearface to 2-2.5, forward face to 3-4.
The Maxi Cosi is shorter than the Marathon, and it may work well, particularly with LATCH behind the driver or passenger (not in the middle, MC doesn't allow it, I don't think...you COULD do it in the middle with the seatbelt, but there's no lockoff for RF, you'd probably need a locking clip for a good install), it's maybe only a little taller than the Roundabout/Diplomat. I haven't seen one in real life, I hear it's 'ok' (from the other thread here, anyway).

Evenflo Triumph Advance is another pretty good choice, but no lockoffs, pretty bulky...I haven't tried it, but it's a good seat for the price.

:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 3 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

The Maxi Cosi is really hard to buckle. I have limited use of one of my hands so I went shopping for convertible seats looking for how easy the buckles were to use. I could not unbuckle the Maxi Cosi seat. I could get DD in, but then she would be stuck (LOL). Even DH, who is fairly strong, found the buckles more difficult than they needed to be.

I am not sure a bigger car will help, we have the outback wagon, and it has no more legroom than the Mazda 3, which we are thinking of buying to replace our other car. Unfortunately, both DH and I are fairly tall so the front passenger seat is unusable. We can't put the seat in the middle, the Subaru has a hump.

I think we are going to go with the Britax MA, the buckles are easy to use, and it seems to take up no more space than our infant seat, and DD should be able to stay in it for quite awhile RF.

Good luck in your search.