Saferider Vest/Frontier/GN or Other Suggestions - Need Help Please

[jwozy]

Hi there,

I'm struggling to figure out what carseats and thanks in advance for any input or suggestions, this might be long. Here's the background.

My twins just turned 4 years old and my ds is 43" and 50lbs and my dd is 40" and 37lbs. Currently my ds rides in a Regent and dd in a Marathon in my car which we won't change. Because of diesel prices we have been using my dh's VW Jetta to get to places and right now there is a Roundabout my ds rides in (I know he's way too big for it but my dh refuses to try our extra Marathon in it due to space issues), and my dd rides in a graco comfortsport (I think).

Ok, here's the situation. I need to replace the seats in my dh's car. If the Marathon would fit then I would need just one other seat but my dh thinks it's way too big for his car. Does anyone know if this is true? Or do I get 2 gn or 2 frontiers, are these narrow enough to fit side by side in a jetta. I'm looking to keep them both 5pth harness as long as possible but space is an issue in the Jetta.

The other issue is that this summer my kids will be in swimming class and gramie and grandpa will be transporting them to class once a week and they do occasionally pick them up from preschool now with the extra Marathon we have around. The issue I have is that the Marathon is never installed correctly. They just strap it in and pull the seatbelt and the carseat is very loose. I've showed them how but they just don't have the patience to do it correctly. So I thought about getting 2 SafeRider Vest. Are these easy to move from car to car and is this easier to install correctly than a regular 5pt carseat? Also would the GN or Frontier be easy to move around and easy for grandparents to install correctly? Or would I be better off finding a booster just for the grandparents as it's easier to install.

I know lots of questions but any suggestions would be helpful. I would rather not have to buy 4 more car seats as we already own 4 but I'll get whatever makes sense. So looking for ease of use, longevity of use, and small enough to fit in the Jetta. Thanks for reading.

[o_mom]

I don't think you will have any trouble putting the Marathon in a Jetta. Just put your DS in the Marathon and your DD in the Roundabout for now. That will get them into appropriate seats until you can get something new. At 50 lbs he is well beyond "a little bit over the limit". It doesn't take much to try it out - just a matter of installing it to see.

For the future, the Nautilus or the Frontier would be good choices. They are both easy to install, but it is not as simple as just buckling the belt. I think you are going to have to either get through to the Grandparents or just face up to installing the seats yourself every time. The alternative is to buy 3-4 new seats (your DD should be fine in the MA in the Jetta).

[annex]

I've had a Regent and a Marathon installed in my Jetta (old - 1998 model) without a problem. There isn't a lot of leg room for the kid in the Regent, but it's doable. I also just tried a Frontier in it this week with the long belt path and got a good install.

I'm not sure what you mean by "side by side" - they will both fit outboard. There is no way you'll get 2 FF Britax seats next to each other in terms of having one in middle and one outboard though in that car. You'd need to buy something narrower like a Radian (which might not have a lot of harness room left in 4 year-olds.)

If the grandparents can't install Britax seats correctly, frankly, I would buy cheap-ish high weight harnessed seats like the Graco Nautilus or Cosco Apex to leave installed-by-you-correctly in their car during the summer. If that was out of reach financially, or they refuse to leave them installed, I think I would get boosters with SIP like Compass B510s that the grandparents would have less to screw up with. Ride Safer vests outboard in a car make me nervous since they have no SIP, and you can't put both twins in the middle unless the grandparents have some type of 3 seating row vehicle.

HTH,
Anne

[mom2binsd]

I've got the Apex....if you're going that route go with the Nautilus...Apex requires high head rests and it's not that great....

[jwozy]

Thanks so much for the input. I got the Marathon in my dh's Jetta though against his wishes. I have no idea what is going through his head. He insisted on having the seats one outboard and one in the middles which wouldn't work so I just put them outboard. I think I may have to go the route of getting the compass as the grandparents will not keep the seats installed so I need a way to make sure my kids are safe. Thanks so much again!