Car Seats in Honda Fit

[deannanmc]

I have kind of a weird car seat dilemma. We are expecting our second child in November and our 2yo daughter is still rear-facing. She's a bit of a peanut so we expect to do extended rear-facing for some time. That said, we're in the market for a new car seat for our older daughter. Our plan is to give the new baby our daughter's Recaro Signo (similar dimensions as a Britax Boulevard and suitable for as low as 5lbs) and we chose a Radian XTSL for our toddler. However, I was just told by a friend that her Radian XTSL barely fits RF in her car, which is a 5-passenger crossover SUV and considerably larger than our 2007 Honda Fit Sport. It would fit FF no problem, but with our daughter's wee size I don't feel as comfortable doing that until she gets bigger.

So here are our issues:

1. We really don't want to buy an infant bucket-style carrier. We had a Baby Trend Flexloc, which all of us (daughter included) just hated. She also outgrew it really quickly. If push comes to shove we will buy a bucket carrier and keep older daughter in the Recaro, but this is less ideal. 

2. We want to do extended RF for our toddler in the Fit AND still be able to sit safely in the front seat without being on top of the dashboard. I'm 5'7" and hubs is 5'10".

3. We are connected to the American military in England. We can buy American car seats through Amazon and have them shipped to our APO address, which is an incredible price savings, but keeps us from trying models that aren't available in the UK before we buy.

So I'm at a loss. The Fit is paid off in full and with gas prices being what they are, I'm not ready to commit to a bigger car. I'm sure it's just a matter of finding the right seat, but what to buy? HELP!! :D

[mama2soren]

The Recaro Signo is definitely not a good choice for a newborn.  It is confusing, because the seat is supposedly rated from 5 pounds up, but the lowest harness slot is much too high for almost any newborn.  The straps must come from at or below the baby's shoulders.  If the baby's shoulders are under the first harness slot, the baby is too small to use the seat safely.  The old-style Britax seats have a similar lowest harness measurement.  My son did not fit properly in his Britax until he was 6 months old.  My friend's short-torsoed daughter did not fit until she was a year old!

The Radian can be the perfect seat or a beast!  It all depends on how well it installs in your car.  In some cars, depending on how plush the upholstery is and how angled the seats are, it is easy to get the Radian installed at an upright angle (it can be as upright as 30* for an older baby and toddler).  In others, it is all but impossible (ok, and sometimes totally impossible!) to get it to be more than 45* reclined, which means it would take up loads of room front to back.  For instance, it installs upright and very compactly in my 2004 Toyota Corolla with lots of room for the front seat passenger.  But in our larger 2008 CRV, it is difficult to get it more upright, so it takes up way more room.

 There is a thread on Car-Seat.Org on successful Radian installs.  I did a search to see who had luck putting one in a Fit, and this is what came up.  Not much on the Fit.

However, if your daughter is a peanut, you don't likely need a Radian to keep her RF for a long time.  How tall is she?  How much does she weigh?  Can you measure her torso height (have her sit down, and measure from her bum to the top of her shoulder)?  Unless she's quite tall or quite heavy, she'd fit in many other easier-to-install/more compact seats RF until she was 3-4+.  The Evenflo Symphony or Triumph 65, the Graco MyRide, First Years True Fit, and Safety First Complete Air might be seats to look at.  The Complete Air is as tall as a Radian, but it's easy to install it very upright, so it doesn't take up too much room front to back.  How does she fit in her Recaro?  Since it's not a good seat to pass down to the baby, could you keep her in that?

For the newbie: look at the Combi Cocorro.  It is a tiny little convertible seat that fits newborns very well.  It is narrow, it takes up less front-to-back room than most infant buckets, and it comes in cute colors    Because it is tiny, some kids will outgrow it RF by 2, and tall kids will outgrow it earlier.  However, at that point, you could pass down whatever RF seat DD is using and buy her a dedicated FF seat.

[mrskingred]

Just wanted to point out that just as the use in of a european swedish car seat in the USA is illegal, the converse is true in europe including the UK.

Q: Can I use a seat from another country in the UK?

A: Any child seat used in the UK must conform to the standard ECE R44.03 or R44.04, which is usually denoted with the letter E in a circle and a number (the number indicates the country in which the seat was tested and approved - the UK is 11).

The standard applies Europe-wide and therefore European manufactured seats will be an 'appropriate' restraint within the meaning of our laws and can be sold and used in the UK. Always check that they fit your vehicle and child.

It is unlikely that seats from the States or Australasia will meet ECE R44.03 or R44.04, and the method of fixing seats into vehicles can differ between countries. Child restraints that do not meet these standards cannot be used in the UK.

[SynEpona]

The Radian, while a lovely seat, can be dreadful to install in some cars, but like the poster above said -- it's not intuitive -- it fits very nicely in every small vehicle I've had it in, but not always in larger ones. I think the flatter seats in some SUVs make it very challenging to get a more upright RFng install. I am shorter, so it doesn't bother me in my car (Ford Freestyle), and DS is FFng now anyway. In my old Ford Focus, it fit perfectly, with plenty of room for DH to be in either the driver or passenger seat. We're about to buy a 2nd Radian for new-baby-girl, but with all the installation issues, I'm not sure I would buy one if I didn't already have one & know how it fits in our cars.
 

Originally Posted by mrskingred 

Just wanted to point out that just as the use in of a european swedish car seat in the USA is illegal, the converse is true in europe including the UK.

Q: Can I use a seat from another country in the UK?

A: Any child seat used in the UK must conform to the standard ECE R44.03 or R44.04, which is usually denoted with the letter E in a circle and a number (the number indicates the country in which the seat was tested and approved - the UK is 11).

The standard applies Europe-wide and therefore European manufactured seats will be an 'appropriate' restraint within the meaning of our laws and can be sold and used in the UK. Always check that they fit your vehicle and child.

It is unlikely that seats from the States or Australasia will meet ECE R44.03 or R44.04, and the method of fixing seats into vehicles can differ between countries. Child restraints that do not meet these standards cannot be used in the UK.

It is my understanding that in some countries those attached to the military can use both their vehicles and carseats from their home country, depending on the agreements the military & host country have. I'm pretty sure that does apply in the UK, as I know many US military families that have taken their US vehicles & seats, so I thought this type of agreement was in place, and may affect the OP.

[deannanmc]

Regarding the above questions about legality, our car has been fitted to UK automotive standards; our USAF base here in England has assured us that both our car and US car seat are road-legal under the Service of Forces Agreement (SOFA). If we had moved here just because and were not part of the US military/government that would not be true, but because of our visa status we are exempt from certain standards. I do appreciate the concern about that, but I can get whatever US car seat I want that fits. (Now, do you think I could get away with getting a Swedish car seat? Hmm...j/k :D)

Thanks for the input, everyone! It looks like the Radian is appropriate for newborn use, then? The back seats in the Fit are slanted a bit and I have noticed that helps when installing our Recaro; perhaps it would make sense to buy the Radian for the newborn and then when our older child clears 35lbs they can switch and our older daughter can use the Radian? The other option we are considering is the Britax Chaperone because it RFs to 30lbs; by the time the new baby outgrew it he/she could have the Recaro and our older daughter could have a dedicated FF booster seat?

So many options!

[MsFortune]

We test drove a Fit and were about to buy it when I got the brilliant idea to try a car seat in it (pregnant but no kids yet).  It totally flunked the test.  We could not even use it with forward facing car seats because we could not put the front seats all the way back with the car seat in.  

[DahliaRW]

If the radian will fit in your car at a 45 degree angle then it's fine (it HAS to be at 45 degrees for a newborn).  But in a lot of cars you can't have anyone in the front seat with the radian at that angle because of how tall it is.

If you want a bucket seat that will last as long as possible, look at the safety first onboard 35.  No child will make it to 35lbs unless they are super chunky (likewise it's unlikely to make it to 30lbs in a chaperone), but it has the tallest shell of infant seats on the market so it'll last a good long time.  Though any infant seat will probably get your LO to an age where they are tall enough for the recaro and then you could decide what to get your dd then.