Britax Marathon doesn't fit- Now what should I get? (Long Post)

[WitMom]

Any help/advice/suggestions anyone can provide is greatly appreciated.

My DD is currently 11.5 mths and a little over 17 pounds. I am getting ready to move her out of her infant seat and into a convertible seat. I had decided that I wanted a Marathon, but on the advice of a friend, decided to "try before I buy", and it's a good thing, because it doesn't fit in our small-ish car. My next thought was the Roundabout. I tried that in one of the side positions, rear-facing and fully reclined, and it "just" cleared the front seat. The way the seats are in this car, I'm afraid that in an accident, they would "give" enough that the front seat would slam back and hit the car seat. (I don't know if that's a reasonable fear or not.) I know that I could put it in the middle position, and it would probably be just fine, but I'm thinking ahead to if #2 ever shows up. Then we would have to move it, and be faced with this issue.

Other relevant info- I want to keep her rear-facing for as long as possible. The car is a 2002 Saturn S-series. Money is not *that* big of a deal when it comes to this.

So what do I get? (A new car? :))

Thanks for any thoughts you all might have-
Denise

[Joolsplus2]

Your car seat "should" touch your front seatbacks, so that they 'ride down' the crash in unison... they both move forward, then both move back at the same time...also, you can have the RA a little more upright, no problem, for a kid that age (also the MA, much more upright, and touching the front seatback...but honestly, I know it can stil be a bit of a cramp... the MA should fit exactly the same in your back seat as the infant seat did, actually, but still the RA is a terrific seat, you can't go wrong with it :)
And if you're planning #2, then you KNOW the RA will work rearfacing, and can get your older kid a bigger forward facing seat that will fit great. :)

But sure, I'm all about new cars, too... Can't go wrong with a Odyssey or Sienna (juuuuust kidding!)

:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[WitMom]

Thanks for the input, Julie, but I'm a little confused. I'm hoping you can clear something up for me.

I'm trying to think through this, and I just can't figure it out? If the rear facing car seat is touching my front seatback, and I am in a head-on collision, isn't my seat going to move backward and push on the car seat, pitching the car seat "forward"? (hope I explained that well enough for you to know what I mean). Kind of like with air bags, and the reason (I thought...maybe I've got that wrong, too) you don't put car seats in the front seat? I don't get it (but admittedly, I'm not the brightest person) :9

[o_mom]

I'm sure Julie will pipe in here, but think about it this way:

In a head-on collision, the front of the car stops and every thing is thrown forward - like when you step on the brakes hard and all the junk under the seats comes flying out the front. Your seat and the carseat will both move forward. Now, after the initial impact, there may be some rebound, but the force will be much less, since alot of the energy was used up going forward. That is were the Britax rf tether comes in, to limit how much rebound there is.

As far as the seats hitting together, if they are already touching, they will move as one. Imagine you have two matchbox cars, and put them touching, push on one, the other moves. If the cars are slightly apart, then there will be more "collision".

HTH!

[Joolsplus2]

Exactly. It's a basic physics thing that didn't really make sense to me till my tech class, but "a body in motion tends to stay in motion"...you are going forward at 30 mph, then bam, the car crashes, YOU keep going forward and your seat keeps going forward, and the baby keeps going forward...everything moves in the direction of the crash..and then everything rebounds back afterwards, but with much less force.
Yes, in a rear crash, your seat (and the car seat) WILL go backwards (towards the point of impact...we always move towards the point of impact in a crash), but generally rear crashes are far less prevalent and severe than forward crashes.

Scroll down on this page to see what a frontal crash looks like for a forward-facing occupant (it's a child seat test, but it's the same for adults) http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/stayrearfacing.aspx

:)


Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[WitMom]

Okay, now I get it! Duh! But that brings up more questions for me.

Most importantly, what happens if we have the car seat installed, and it touches the front seat, and then someone with short legs gets in, and moves the front seat forward. Then the car seat won't be touching the front seat. Then what? Or similarly, in our larger mini-van, what if the car seat doesn't touch the front seat?

And when people say car seats don't fit in their car, what are they talking about? I thought it was this issue, so that's what I was looking for. Apparently I was wrong on that, so what should I be looking for when I look for fit?

Finally, where do the baby stores find their ding-dong employess that tell people like me these tidbits of inaccurate information?

Sorry to seem so dumb, but this is just one of those things I DON'T want to make a mistake on!

[Joolsplus2]

Well, in your car, you kind of install and forget it... most people are usually comfy and fine being back a bit and won't move the seat forward, so once it's all in, it's all in.
In a van, even usually then it'll install so it's touching the seat...and if not, it's not a big deal, the seats will still move in the same direction, and the seat DID pass initial testing with nothing in front of it anyway, and only a lapbelt holding it in, so it's all good.
I've found that most seats fit in most cars (there are some mid-90's toyotas that won't take a forward facing carseat no matter how hard you try, and old mercury cougars are useless for car seats, and extended cab toyota tacomas are virtually impossible.. so there are a few out there, but often? It's the front seat passengers that are really incompatible! The seat itself will install like a dream, but no one can sit in front of it, and then they'll say, 'the seat doesn't fit!'...which is only really partly true (so few people look at their pre-baby car purchases and think 'hmm...what seats will fit behind me comfortably....'!)
Basically a "good fit" for the seat itself is just that it 'moves less than one inch at the seatbelt path' and '80% of the base is on the vehicle seat cushion'...which are pretty easy criteria to meet, really.
And I want to know where they get those baby store employees, too! Good grief...... baby stores really SHOULD take their 'front line of child passenger safety' role a lot more seriously (BRU won't even hire you if they know you are a tech, because of 'liability issues'... now, I don't want any babies to get hurt, but wouldn't it be sweet revenge if someone sued them for NOT having a tech on staff and something terrible happened? >:-O )
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[WitMom]

Yippee!!! I may be able to get my Marathon after all. Doing the Happy Dance!

Actually, I think it would be a great service if all of the baby stores had techs on hand. I know I would be more likely to buy my carseat there, and even pay more, if I knew I could also get it installed correctly...one stop shopping, so to speak. I guess now I wwill just get it online for the best price I can find. Their loss (wicked laugh!!}( )

Thanks for all of the help, everyone. I so appreciate it!