Multiple car seat questions

We have the Evenflo Triumph and it's great for ease of installation! We don't have LATCh on either of our cars, and both cars are smaller sedans. The Triumph is also great because the straps adjustment knobs are right in the front of the seat, so you don't have to take the seat apart to change the straps for those times when your child is wearing a heavy winter coat but then it gets too hot and they take it off, so you adjust back down... It also has a lot of different recline settings. Feeding the car's seatbelt through it is a breeze because you just lift up the flap in the padding and you can feed the belt through with one hand instead of three...

Anyhow, I really like this seat. The only drawback is that it is a bit heavy, so when switching from one car to the other, have someone watch the kids because you won't have a hand free to carry it (unless you carry it like I do, by the tether strap!)

We have a Roundabout, that we purchased when our dd (now 3.5) grew out of her infant seat at 6 ms. We gave the little seat away, and didn't plan to get it back (didn't plan on this baby either!). With this baby, I purchased a Marathon, for older sis, and have used the old Roundabout for new ds since day one. We have a Prius, and it fits fine and snug. I don't know how small a Protege is. I have had to install it in Outbacks, and have always had a hard time feeling like it was in right. (This probably won't be an issue since both the seatwould be newer than ours, and the car you have is newer than the Outbacks we were in, and thus, both equipped with LATCH)
The Marathon, I have only used in the forward facing position, but I would think it would be too big to use rearward facing in our car. It's both wider, and taller. It does have LATCH and it is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I can do both these seats in a minute or two, but my dh could take 30 min. and still not get them in right.

I will add, that the Britax seats are wonderful. The details they've included are lightyears beyond other seats I've seen, and used (like the cheap one my folks have installed, or when we've carpooled, or borrowed on vacation). I took a lot of thier features for granted, and didn't realize they were unique to the Britax.

HTH

We've got two britax roundabouts installed rear-facing in our Jeep Cherokee (not a lot of space back there!). I think if you are just putting one in, it should fit fine. However, if you are tall, you may have to put it behind the passenger seat (as opposed to in the center). I say this because the seat does take up a lot of room when rear-facing. I see them around town installed incorrectly because people don't realize that they need to be at a 45 degree angle. It is tricky because there is no level indicator. It's the one thing that the britax seats are missing. I had to use our bucket carrier and hold it up next to the roundabouts, trying to get the roundabout at the same angle as the carrier seat, and have the level indicator be correct on the carrier. . . not an easy installation, IMO!

So. . . we had to put the passenger seat pretty close to the dashboard to get the seat to be correctly reclined behind it. We also have a carseat behind the driver's seat, but it is not installed correctly because it's not quite at a 45 degree angle. If it were then I absolutely would not fit behind the steering wheel! This situation makes me really nervous and we are looking into trading our car in because of it.

HTH!

Lex

Quote:
Only newborns need to be reclined at the 45 degree angle. Once babies are older they should sit more upright to afford better crash protection.
http://home.earthlink.net/~carseatsite/reclineangle.htm
http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tec...te.htm#angleRF

To answer the OP's question, I highly recommend Britax seats. The extra padding, EPS foam, rear facing tether, built in lock offs and, most of all, ease of installation are well worth the extra price. If you think your dd will be tall go with the Marathon. My ds is 38" at 27 months and I know that he will not make it to 40 lbs in his Roundabout. Make an appintment with a CPS tech at a time when you, your dh and dd can all go with both vehicles so you both know how to properly install the seat you choose in both vehicles.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/inju...acts/index.cfm

I have just finished doing all kinds of research on this topic.

I ended up choosing the Evenflo Triumph. It does fit in my small sedan. (It's an old volvo.)

I liked it because it had a lot of features the Britax had but was not nearly as expensive. It has the EPS foam, tethers, multiple recline settings, no twist straps......

My favorite feature is the turning knob which regulates the tightness of the straps. It's really easy to use. This is really important for me because my daughter wears cloth diapers and the type of diaper dictates how I need to adjust the seat belt.

It also got an "A" rating from the NHTSA.

Good luck.

I've got a Britax Marathon (baby gift from FIL!), and it barely squeezes into the back of the car we're using right now, a Pontiac Sunbird (early 90's model I think) which is my sister's and only on loan to us until Thanksgiving. We'll hopefully be getting a new (well, new to us) vehicle before then as DH just got a full time job, provided we can finally get our hands on the title to our pickup so we can get it legal again. One thing I'll make sure of is that the seat fits in whatever new vehicle we get!

I know it's not at a 45 degree angle, it's wedged behind the driver's seat (can't put it in the middle because it has the wrong kind of lap belt, one you pull tight at the buckle instead of one that locks in place) and needs a towel rolled in the vehicle seat to help make it more level (as per the installation instructions). I've about got DH convinced that we need to move it over to behind the front passenger seat with that seat all the way forward. The only problem with that is when we need to take BIL who lives with us somewhere, it leaves him with nowhere to sit with decent leg room...but I frankly care less about BIL's comfort than DD's safety, and with the seat angled as it is now, her head tends to sag forward a bit. The shoulder pads keep it from lolling over to the side too much, but I know she needs to be leaned back further.

DH took it to the fire station for help in installation, but they were busy putting out a fire. Once I can drive again and get the car, I'm going to go to the fire station again.

It was a piece of cake to install in my mom's Ford Taurus when she was here. Of course, it's a 2003 vehicle and has LATCH. There was also room there for it to recline properly.

I lust after those Britax seats. However, after much research, DH and I bought the Evenflo Triumph. ($$$) I've had no experience with other car seats so can't compare, but we like it fine and haven't had much trouble installing it. I drive a 96 Jetta and DH has a 98 Forerunner. I've also used it in rental cars with LATCH and that worked as well. I do have to use a towel to build up my seat so it sits at a 45 degree angle. We transfer it back and forth all the time (trying to save money) and don't have much trouble. I do really like being able to adjust it easily and I chose it mainly (besides the $ thing) because ds is a big baby and needed the seat to be rearfacing for a loooong time. It is very easy to adjust in the rearfacing position.

The downside is how heavy it is. Not a problem if just transferring between cars. But lugging it around the airport was a bit of a hassle. Thank goodness for the stroller. I wore ds and put the carseat (somehow) in/on the stroller.

Quote:
Good to know! Thanks for the link! Everything I'd heard before was that as long as they were rear-facing, the seats needed to be at a 45 degree angle. That said, my babies are 8 months old and have very good neck control (they are just really solid babies), and their heads do flop forward even at just a 50-55 degree angle (when they fall asleep). The link said that it's okay to recline the seat at a bigger angle so long as the babies head does not flop onto his/her chest. So "older babies" might mean much older babies :.

Also, I didn't see anything about the "better crash protection" at a less-reclined angle. . . (granted I have two babies crawling all over me and am not able to look really hard). Does it say that somewhere in the links? All I saw was that it was okay to put the seats at a less reclined angle, not that it was better.

I'm really glad to know about this, though because if we don't get a new car, we were going to flio the boys around at a year (they are already 20 lbs.) because I thought they'd be safer front-facing than rear-facing at the wrong angle. . . But now it seems I won't have to flip them afterall! Yippee!

Lex