Car Seat for Toyota Echo - Help!

[JMGBK]

Hi Everyone,

I am expecting my first baby in May 2012 and am trying to figure out which car seat will fit in our 2001 four-door Toyota Echo. I have gotten the idea that many seats won't fit in the Echo, or not without pushing the passenger seat all the way forward.

I looked at old threads and saw people recommend the Britax Boulevard and the Chicco Keyfit (also RoundAbout, Regent and Frontier). I am pretty new to this though and am not even sure if these are infant seats or convertibles, or if current models really fit the Echo.

Does anyone out there have an Echo and some advice?

Thanks so much!

[edurnemk]

Britax Blvd is a convertible, Chicco Keyfit is an infant seat.

I have the Blvd and love it, but I have a medium crossover, however I did fit it RF in our Sentra we had before (but had to push the passenger seat almost all the way forward).

Have you looked at the Cybex Aton? It's an infant seat supposed to be a few inches shorter without sacrificing actual room for the baby.

ETA: I think one of the smallest convertibles is the Combi Cocoro.

[teo]

We have an '01 Prius, which is almost identical to the Echo---got the Cybex Aton because it allows us to move the front seats back. Very happy with it---pricey but worth it for the size. Haven't explored the convertible seats yet...hopefully there will be some good small car options when the time comes! Good luck---it's a tough car to fit, I found (even though we love the small size most of the time!)

[JMGBK]

Thanks very much. I hadn't heard of the Cybex Aton so I'll put that on my list. I had searched the boards here and found people with Toyota Echos who were using the Britax Boulevard and the Chicco Keyfit... but then when I checked the reviews in my copy of Baby Bargains they said explicitly that the bases on those were large and might not fit small cars. So confusing!

Thanks so much.

[Joolsplus2]

It's a small car, but it's tall, I've easily fit a rearfacing old style Marathon in mine, and the newer MA70 and Roundabout 55 are shorter. Chicco Key Fit is one of the shortest front-to-back infant seats, especially among easy seats to buy in real stores (Aton may be hard to find), so I don't see why it wouldn't work.
In general, you may just have to have the front passenger sit pretty upright so that you can push the seat back for ample leg room. As long as no one in the front seat is over 5-10 I think you won't have any problems (well, depending if you are leggy or long torsoed, there's always an exception, sigh)

[teo]

FWIW, there's a nice list of car seat plus base front-to-back depths for the bucket seats on this review:

http://carseatblog.com/10614/cybex-aton-review-easiest-base-to-install/

There are also a few new seats that weren't out when we were looking, but I think they're larger, for the most part. We just looked at the Keyfit and the Aton since they were supposed to be two of the smallest bucket seats, but would probably have considered the Snugride 30 if it had been out earlier, too, since I think it uses a smaller base than the other Snugrides (? not sure).

Curious to hear additional ideas for convertibles that will fit this car well, though--we still have a number of months to go with our infant seat, I think (hope!), but I'm beginning to do a little research on this to figure out what we might need to rearface a toddler with as little impact as possible on the front seats. Glad to know that it helps to be able to go up!

[Joolsplus2]

I'd think a Britax would be fine, or an Evenflo Symphony or Triumph.
Infant seats with small bases are typically only needed when you are trying to put two seats side by side, so that's the strength of the SR30 (if you're planning two+ kids pretty fast and want to put them next to each other, it might have been a good choice, otherwise meh, the Key Fit or Aton fit anywhere and are a little nicer.