Certified car seat opinion for buying new truck

[nickstin]

My husband and I are expecting in May, and he is looking to buy a used Toyota extended cab truck soon. My question is who do I contact regarding the back seat on these vehicles and the safety issue of the car seat? Some of the trucks have fold down benches instead of a regular permanent seat.

[Joolsplus2]

My friend has a 1996 Tacoma, and it is literally impossible to safely install a seat back there, I have tried several, repeatedly. It has the fold down (but forward facing) back seats.
If you can afford the truck with the permanent real back seat, it'll work a lot better (I installed a seat in a newer one with no problems).
Statistically speaking, extended cabs have proven to be the most dangerous place for little kids. This is mostly because till recently they've had side facing seats, lapbelts, and no safety requirments or testing whatsoever. Now, a "full size" back seat is going to be the only way to comfortably fit a child back there (rearfacing infant/convertible seats, which you must use for at least a year, are really pretty big...in that dumb little Tacoma, the only choice we had was to put the baby in front (no airbag, fortunately) and my friend and I had to sit on those horribly uncomfortable little fold down seats...yuck).

These just are not the most convenient family vehicle...I'd try to convince him to get a small or midsize SUV instead, if that's at all possible, or a small sedan for "the baby car" and a truck for him. (Don't worry, I know we all aren't made of money like that, lol...but truly, the smaller extended cab pickups are not good family vehicles in any way).

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

[JennsBabySky]

My DH had a 96 or 97 when we had DD. On the rear passenger side, on top of the regular seat, it had a little *panel* that could flip down and then some supports to reinforce the bottom of the panel. It was made for carseat installation and made the seat slightly larger. I was able to install our Snugride on this, but it pushed the passenger seat way too far forward. I couldn't get a good install on the rear facing convertible seat. Luckily, we decided to trade it in, but it was NOT car seat friendly. More recently he has a Ford F-150 with the 3rd door (not the super large extra cab, but the cab with the door that faces the opposite direction). Again, super hard to install a carseat rear facing in here. We have had great success with the full size backseat in the Nissan Titan. It has more room than my Accord! My DH loves trucks, we just made a deal that we would compromise so that we could have a truck that would safely and comfortably accept carseats. He has been wonderful about that.

I'd bring your carseat(s) with you. If you'll be installing more than one during the lifespan of the truck, I'd make sure all can fit. It will be much more difficult if you need to fit it rear facing (the seats tend to be narrow and close to the front seat).

Oh, and do your research before hand and don't believe the car sales reps. I've practically gotten into screaming matches with a couple (and I'm not very confrontational). Basically, a couple flat out told lies about carseat installation in the backseat of trucks. I've found that the information is even more distorted when looking for a used vehicle, but even when buying a new one I've gotten misinformation.

Good luck,
Jennifer



Good luck,
Jennifer