elke
05-25-2005, 11:48 AM
Hi,
We are having a tough time finding a carseat that fits our Mazda Protege5 , which is a hatchback/wagon style. It actually feels pretty roomy in the backseat, and neither of us is supertall either, however, all seats we have tried so far made it necessary to put our front seats forward by a bit, which is an issue for the driver's seat. We could of course avoid this by installing the seat behind the passenger seat, but we would really like to have it in the middle for safety reasons.
Also, even though we are able to put all seats in the car, I have really no clue if they are installed correctly or a good fit - even after reading posts on this. The problem is that we have yet to find a store where they have the manuals with their try out models.
We have tried these seats so far:
1. Babytrend latchloc: tried it twice, thought it was fine the first time, but realized that we couldn't actually get any tight fit at all with the rigid latch. don't know if we overlooked something...for the seatbelt installation in the middle, we felt it wasn't tight at all either. Due to the handle of the seat, we had to move both seats forward.
2. Graco snugride: didn't like the seatbelt installation, less of a seat moving forward issue. What I don't like about this seat is that it only goes to 20 pounds/26 inches and costs just as much as the baby trend.
3. Combi Tyro: could fit the base 80% plus on the seat (it's rather long and they recommend 80% on the seat), and we actually thought the seatbelt installation was rather easy and tighter than on other seats, but with the handle down, we have to move both seats forward (even when it's already set for me, the 5'3 driver). we can then push the driver's seat back again, which makes the carseat in the middle go a little more toward the passenger side, but i guess that's not safe???
We liked that seat more than the other 2, and they all cost $90 (Tyro's on sale).
4. Britax Companion: We only tried this one on passenger side, again had to put the seat forward quite a bit.
My question is: Do we just have to resolve ourselves to not being able to install any seat in the middle without moving driver's seat forward? Should we just go with the smallest seat (graco snugride), despite not liking it too much because it's the only one that can be safely installed?
I tried searching the carseat compatibility database, but there's nothing on our car, since it was only made for 2 years in the US. But just for comparison, our back is roomier than a Honda Civic's, and really not cramped at all. The car is somewhat similar to a Toyota Matrix, and very similar to the Mazda 3 hatchback/wagon.
I could possibly even get the Tyro from the store and have it inspected by a technician before committing to buy, but I haven't been lucky yet finding any safety inspections here in san diego.
Does anyone have any input on this matter? Any car owners or safety seat inspectors who have experience with our car?
Or does someone know where/when clinics in san diego are held?
Thanks!!
elke
We are having a tough time finding a carseat that fits our Mazda Protege5 , which is a hatchback/wagon style. It actually feels pretty roomy in the backseat, and neither of us is supertall either, however, all seats we have tried so far made it necessary to put our front seats forward by a bit, which is an issue for the driver's seat. We could of course avoid this by installing the seat behind the passenger seat, but we would really like to have it in the middle for safety reasons.
Also, even though we are able to put all seats in the car, I have really no clue if they are installed correctly or a good fit - even after reading posts on this. The problem is that we have yet to find a store where they have the manuals with their try out models.
We have tried these seats so far:
1. Babytrend latchloc: tried it twice, thought it was fine the first time, but realized that we couldn't actually get any tight fit at all with the rigid latch. don't know if we overlooked something...for the seatbelt installation in the middle, we felt it wasn't tight at all either. Due to the handle of the seat, we had to move both seats forward.
2. Graco snugride: didn't like the seatbelt installation, less of a seat moving forward issue. What I don't like about this seat is that it only goes to 20 pounds/26 inches and costs just as much as the baby trend.
3. Combi Tyro: could fit the base 80% plus on the seat (it's rather long and they recommend 80% on the seat), and we actually thought the seatbelt installation was rather easy and tighter than on other seats, but with the handle down, we have to move both seats forward (even when it's already set for me, the 5'3 driver). we can then push the driver's seat back again, which makes the carseat in the middle go a little more toward the passenger side, but i guess that's not safe???
We liked that seat more than the other 2, and they all cost $90 (Tyro's on sale).
4. Britax Companion: We only tried this one on passenger side, again had to put the seat forward quite a bit.
My question is: Do we just have to resolve ourselves to not being able to install any seat in the middle without moving driver's seat forward? Should we just go with the smallest seat (graco snugride), despite not liking it too much because it's the only one that can be safely installed?
I tried searching the carseat compatibility database, but there's nothing on our car, since it was only made for 2 years in the US. But just for comparison, our back is roomier than a Honda Civic's, and really not cramped at all. The car is somewhat similar to a Toyota Matrix, and very similar to the Mazda 3 hatchback/wagon.
I could possibly even get the Tyro from the store and have it inspected by a technician before committing to buy, but I haven't been lucky yet finding any safety inspections here in san diego.
Does anyone have any input on this matter? Any car owners or safety seat inspectors who have experience with our car?
Or does someone know where/when clinics in san diego are held?
Thanks!!
elke