Car seat for a small car.

[HeatherAtHome]

Ok, my sister needs a car seat for her soon to be here baby. She doesn't have a car so the car seat will be moved between my car and our parent's car mostly and possibly the occasional friend's car.

My parents have a mid-sized sedan. We have a 2004 Toyota Echo. (Praying my car is big enough!) On the occiasions when I would drive my sister's kids around, I would have a (big!) 4 year old in a booster seat and the newborn in whatever car seat my sister buys.

So 2 questions:

1) What kind of car seat should she go for, bucket or convertible? (I think she'd go with a bucket which could latch onto her sit n stand stroller.) Which style/model would fit in my small car? I'm worried about how much space a rear-facing car seat would take up.

2) Where should each kid be buckled in? I know that small babies go in the middle, but because our backseat is so narrow, I don't know how it would work with the baby in the middle and a booster on the side...

Basically I need the smallest, safest, car seat available in Canada that isn't too expensive. I'll pass the info along to her (and I'm sort of wondering for myself, for when we have kids!)

Here are pics of my car in case it's helpful. And there are anchors (?) at each of the 3 positions in the back seat. Thanks!

ETA: Booster is an alpha omega cosco convertible. So another option would be to buy a booster for the other kid and use the current one for the baby.... but I can't picture it RF in my car. The seat is very tall.

[DahliaRW]

For rare use I'd probably just get a convertible because then she wont' have to buy another seat for a long time. The Cosco Scenera is cheap, but it will be outgrown around 3 and is a real pain to install. The other one I'd look at is the Graco MyRide.

I'd also consider a different booster for you LO. Usually the AO seat makes an awful booster. Make sure the lap belt is down across his lap/hips and not up on his tummy and that the shoulder belt is positioned correctly. If not he needs a new booster.

[redvlagrl]

We have a mazda 3 sedan.

Infant seat - Peg perego fits

Evenflo Triumph fits too

[an_aurora]

Oh yes, I would not use that Cosco seat as a booster. You can pick up a dedicated booster for your sister's LO pretty cheap. I wouldn't plan on being able to use that seat for the infant for awhile, either, since the bottom slots are too high for all but the hugest of newborns. It will fit RF in your car, though

[HeatherAtHome]

Thanks! I'll pass it along! I was thinking about the scenera (and it's on sale this week at walmart!) but if it's tough to install, I'm not sure it would work that great for her with all the moving around. I've thought about buying my own carseat that would stay installed in our car and then get daily use out of it later on when we have our own kids...

What about this though:

Where should each kid be buckled in? I know that small babies go in the middle, but because our backseat is so narrow, I don't know how it would work with the baby in the middle and a booster on the side...

Can the baby be slightly off side to give the booster more space?

[BeanyMama]

we have a super compact jetta tdi and three kids in the back (this is going to have to change shortly after #4 comes!); i'm not sure if it's available in canada, but the britax roundabout is super small and safe. we have baby in the middle, and a full-back booster on either side of it. it works quite well

[redvlagrl]

I looked at the scenera today and we didn't get it - too hard!

We shopped around a bit and ultimately got a Britax Roundabout 55

[an_aurora]

Unfortunately, the Roundabout55 won't fit a newborn

[redvlagrl]

Good point!

i suppose what i was saying is that the Scenera was kinda cheap seeming and DH and I agreed that we would feel horribly guilty if we put our child in it because it doesn't seem very comfortable. Maybe if we had a second car that the kids didn't ride in much...

[MarjoriesMother]

It does but you have to call the company and order something to make it work. :)

[Cananny]

i have a toyota Yaris and can fit 3 sunshine kids radian 80 in there.. I also have set it up with two of them and a booster ( graco) they are narrow seats. I love them! They are super safe and top of the line in safety . I prefer them over Britax now! 

[HeatherAtHome]

Hey! My old thread. :) So the baby has been around for almost 6 months now. I have been driving my sister and her 2 kids around quite a bit. She ended up buying some sort of bucket car seat, not sure on the brand but it was lower end/less expensive. The almost 5 year old has a new backless booster. (I wouldn't have gone backless but what can you do?) When it's the 4 of us, we fit perfectly fine. So far we've only been out once with the 5 of us (DH and I, my sister and her 2 kids) and we actually fit! It was crazy, there's even room for ME to be in the back with the 2 kids, fairly comfortable. No sucking in the gut to get the door closed either. ;) I'm just happy about this because my butt is big.  Not that I'll ever be back there, I'm always up front driving. So yeah, I'm not sure if we could fit 3 car seats back there, but 2 plus a medium sized person is nice.