New adoptive-mom-to-be needs new vehicle and car seat guidance!

[mom-in-waiting]

We are adopting from foster care and our homestudy will be completed in a week, so we could receive our placement in a few weeks or in just a few months. We are open to adopting an individual child or (2)siblings; the child(ren)could be as young as newborn or as old as, say five years. Basically, I will need a car with flexibility.

#1. We are looking to replace my Subaru Impreza sport wagon. I am used to driving a smaller car, want hatchback w/covered storage and 4-wheel/all-wheel drive. Considering Subaru Forester, Honda CRV and Pilot, Toyota RAV4 and Highlander, and want to look at some Fords (such as the Escape). We are open to other suggestions as well! Any opinions?

#2. We will be first time parents --any pros/cons regarding fabric/cloth interior vs. leather...for car seat use, spills, & kids in general?

#3. Suggestions for LATCH system/tether locations, etc? (Trust me, I am feeling quite overwhelmed by all of this foreign language and all of the abbreviations on these message boards!)?

#4. I can't get infant seats and/or convertibles until we know the number(1 or 2), age(s), and size(s) of our child(ren) to-be...but based on the Baby Bargains book, I guess I would consider the Graco SnugRide with EPS or the Chicco KeyFit for infant carriers and probably go with one of the Britaxes or the Graco Toddler SafeSeat (step 2) for convertibles. Any negatives for this choices (other than the Britaxes being large)? Any pros of travel systems?

Thanks so much for reading my post. I'd appreciate any responses to any or all of the questions listed above.

[katiesmommy]

1. About the car, do you care about having center latch? Is this going to be the only time you adopt? If you want to have center latch the only vehicle on your list that allows it is the Ford Escape. You can see a list of all vehicles with center latch here:

http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=16980

Scroll down a little ways and you'll see it, it's a pretty long post.

2. My experience (which is limited) is that leather is better because of spills, it's easy to wipe up. Materials don't really matter when it comes to what's better for carseats. The seat will dent, but the dents always pop right out after a little while.

3. I don't know what to say about latch and tether locations, hopefully someone else will know more about that.

4. The keyfit is everyone's top pick for infant seat right now. However, the safeseat 1 is getting up there because of the higher height and weight limits. As far as convertables, you want something that will rear-face for to at least 33lbs. That way you can rear-face longer. Look for a high rear-facing limit, and a high harness limit. The large Britax's and the Radian 65. If you get a child that is going to be over the rear-facing limit anyway, you may want to think about the Regent. It's the tallest harnessed seat on the market right now and would get you the most use.

So, that's all the info I have. HTH (hope this helps)

[Joolsplus2]

If you're looking at infant seats, I'd go with the Safeseat 1, NOT the Snugride, which won't last nearly as long and isn't nearly as easy to install with a seatbelt. Lots of cars have LATCH in the window seats (outboard), but you have to use a seatbelt in the center, and that's why the Safeseat and Key Fit shine, because they are SO easy to install with the seatbelt (the Snugride is a *pain* to install with a seatbelt :P ).

The Marathon or Boulevard would be your best bet for a convertible seat, they are very easy to get a sturdy installation, and fit (most) kids from birth to age 5 or longer (5 is the youngest age to go to a booster seat, so that's a good thing).

www.informedforlife.org has good crash ratings, all suv's newer than 2002 will have LATCH and top tether anchors, and side curtain airbags are a HUGE safety feature, so if there's anyway you can afford a car with them, DO get them. I vote leather, too :). Subarus are known for their tricky carseat installation issues, so it's not my favorite, but it IS at least a safe car, we can walk you through an install issue :)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 3 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[JBaxter]

One of my SIL's has the Highlander and one has the pilot both really like the cars. Honda's you can only use the latch up to 40lbs then you need to do the seat belt install. Either of those suv's have good reviews from my family.

I ( as a mom of 3 boys) love my leather interior droped food spilled drinks mud etc. cleans up really nicely.
IME if you have a bucket style seat its easier to put by the door because they get heavy to lift to the middle esp in an suv

I have the Radian 65 for my 3 1/2yr old with lots of growing room ( it goes to 49 in)

good luck with the foster placement. We should be ready by the end of the summer for ours. We just finished classes and our home study id in a few weeks. I have a left over triumph5 from Nathans earlier years but will probably buy another radian because its is a narrower seat ( and it fit under the tray table on an airplane LOL).

You can also just buy the convertable seats and use a sling or mei tei carrier of you do get an infant. ** If it were me I would go ahead and buy 1 britax and have it on hand. It will cover any child from 5-65lbs. **

[mom-in-waiting]

Whew! It's taken me a long time to find this post & thread. This is a very popular forum.

In any case, I just wanted to take the time to thank you so much for your reply to my question. Your comments and links were very helpful.

I haven't made any decisions yet, but I am narrowing the choices!

[mom-in-waiting]

Thanks for your responses to my question!

There has been a LOT of discussion on these boards about the SafeSeat vs the SnugRide! With all of the negatives about the SnugRide, I'm surprised that the new (7th) addition listed it as their top choice...and that the SafeSeat received such low marks. Overall, I am leaning towards the Chicco KeyFit for the infant seat, and I would choose one of the Britaxes if we are placed with an older child.

As for making a car choice...it's very frustrating. I would be very happy to go with a Subaru, but I continue to hear/read about the back seat space limitations and also the difficulty with car seat installations. In any case, I'm continuing to test drive car options.

Thanks so much for the website links. Great info!

Once again, thanks for taking the time to reply.

[mom-in-waiting]

Thanks so much for your reply. VERY helpful info. We haven't decided on the car yet...I'm still hoping to find this "miracle" car that is going to be the ideal fit for everything I want...but I don't think it's out there. Overall, I'm not the biggest fan of SUV's, but I really want to increase my cargo space. So good to know that you have family members happy with the Pilot and Highlander. I may just have to bite the bullet. We'll see what happens!

I continue to hear good things about the Britaxes and the Radian, so those are on my list. I'm also leaning towards the Chicco KeyFit infant carrier if we are placed with a child that young.

It was so nice to hear from a fellow foster care adopter-to-be! Our homestudy was approved and circulated last week, and they are expecting to present us with a series of potential matches this week. It's all starting to get very exciting...but I realize how much preparation I still need to take care of.

We are so happy that we chose the foster care route -- good luck to you, too. And thanks again for your reply.

[Melanie]

#1 - If money is no object I'd go for the Highlander Hybrid. Moms drive WAAAY more than you'd imagine. If money is an object I'd go for the Honda CR-V.

[mom-in-waiting]

I wish I could say that money was no object...but preparing to become a family suddenly changes one's perspective on finances! The Highlander Hybrid is a little more than we'd like to spend, although the regular Highlander and the Honda Pilot could work for us. We like the CR-V (prefer it to the Toyota RAV4), but just want to be sure that it has enough cargo space for us.

Thanks for the feedback. It's really helpful to get opinions from others when you feel like you're swimming in the sea of baby consumerism!

[rupptopia]

Just a quick note - We own a Subaru Forester & like it a lot. However, the back seat is way too tight for rearfacing carseats & tall parents. And we aren't even that tall! (5'9" and 6ft)

We actually returned the snugride & bought a primo vaggio (sp?) infant seat in 2004 just so we could fit it in the center of the back seat. Otherwise the passenger would have to ride with their knees touching the front.

That backseat is also the reason we bought the Britax Roundabout for DS instead of the larger Marathon/Decathlon. We wouldn't have been able to fit the larger seat rearfacing. We recently had to buy him a new seat as he outgrew the Roundabout, it would have been nice just to get him the big one to start with. If we get pregnant again, we are planning on buying a new car!

Other than the carseat thing, the car Forester is great. But I would go for a bigger car today. My SIL just got the new CR-V & they love it. The split cargo area is a definite plus, although their double mountain buggy stroller just barely fits!

HTH!
Michelle
Mom to Alex born 9/28/04

[mom-in-waiting]

Thank you sooooooooooo much for your feedback. These are -- unfortunately -- the same concerns I have about the Forester. I have loved my Subaru Impreza Sport Wagon for 12 years; the Forester would be an easy one-step up. My fears are that it will be too small...especially if we are placed with siblings (twins, infant & a toddler...). If I had to get a double stroller, plus have two cars seats of any sort in the back seat, I think we'd be in trouble. (I'm 5'5", my husband is just shy of 6').

Thanks for the specifics about Britax models and the Forester. All of that information really helps. Amazing how one or two inch variations in products make such a big difference in car compatibility! Who would have thought that this would be so complicated!

So as for the CR-V...the interior space is quite spacious, but I have to say that the cargo area (with no seats folded down) is really about the same size as my Impreza Wagon. Again, if I had to store a double stroller, groceries or baggage, plus have two car seats in the back seat, how would we fare? At least I know that the passengers in the front seat would be comfortable.

The big question then is do I bump up to the Honda Pilot? The CR-V really handles like a car -- it's a nice drive; the Pilot is a different beast altogether, although it handles pretty smoothly. It is taller and much wider, and you are really raised up from the road. The cargo area is very spacious and so is the interior...but the seats and cargo are higher off the ground. Will it be more difficult to load cargo, install car seats, etc.? Neither the CR-V nor the Pilot have the visibility of my Impreza Wagon (read: big blind spots -- not something that I am used to!)

I guess no one can make this decision for me. Both the Pilot and the CR-V seem to do pretty well with car seat compatibility -- Subaru's problem. And both Honda's are rated well with crash tests, reliability, and satisfaction. (Ditto for the Toyota models; we just prefer the Honda's features).

Thanks again so much for your feedback. Whenever I start veering back to thinking about Subaru's, I need to be reminded that they probably won't serve my needs anymore. : ( I wish they would re-tool the Forester design: make it a little longer to provide a more spacious backseat and a slightly larger cargo area. Even their Legacy/Outback wagons are known for cramped back seats.

Thanks for your reply! Really, really helpful information!!!

[Joolsplus2]

Odyssey :). Safe, easy to install seats in, better gas mileage than the Pilot, easy to drive, lots of cargo space...

(I know it seems like a leap... I did have to work my way up from a Saab hatchback to a CR-V to an Ody, myself, but it's absolutely the perfect kid hauler...I even had to drive a Buick Rendezvous for a year to realize how horrible SUV's are with kids and all their gear).

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

[mom-in-waiting]

Ooooh, we're not ready to go the mini-van route (yet)...although everyone I know who has one absolutely LOVES theirs. I think we'll have to have the child(ren) for a while to know whether or not we need to make the mini-van choice (if you read above, we're waiting to adopt a child/siblings.) In the meantime, I'd feel kind of silly driving myself around (alone) in a mini-van. My husband, on the other hand, wouldn't mind having one so that he could enjoy using it for a road-trip golfing weekend with his friends!

In reality, the CR-V isn't much bigger than the Subaru's are (which I am used to driving)...so for me, the leap at this point -- both in terms of size & feel -- would be for the Pilot.

Once I get this car situation resolved, I now feel pretty confident about my options for the infant seats and/or seats for older children. At least I know that they are compatible with the cars I'm considering.

Thanks again for your feeback...and your website was very helpful!