Need a lil help with cars/carseats

I'm not sure of exact measurements, but when I had our rearfacinng capsule I found I didn't need that much extra room for that, and could easily fit it in my car, my partners and my mums. T's car seat now is rearfacing and although I have to put the passenger seat a little forward it's not by much and can people easily still fit in the passenger seat in the front, I just have a 2001 Toyota Corolla so not a huge car but not tiny either...sorry I don't know if that helps or not!

oh kool thanks i was thinking about the distance from the back seat to the back of the front seat

we have a '94 nissan maxima and a cosco scenera carset, and im 5'10" and have plenty of room in the front seat. DP is 6" and is fine in the passenger seat. his friend is 6'2" and while he has a good amount of room, he always pushes the passenger seat back even when DS is in his carseat in the back and it PMO no end. always have to tell him to move the seat forward.


depends on what carseat you want and who drives and how often its going to be a problem, and if you need to take the seat out for any reason.


i would pick 2-4 carseats (the one you want regardless of financial position, the one you are likely to get - taking into all financial obligations, and what you can realistically spend, and 1-2 others that you think are good/like)

then take those measurements with you. no point taking the hugest carseat measurements and then not getting it. I like the carseat to rest on the back of the passenger seat so that its more secure, so if you want to do that, then end up with a smaller carseat, you wont be able to IYGWIM.

also you have to take into account installation instructions. some need to be more upright than others.


hope that helps

Thanks heaps everyone, I might go to somewhere like babycity and have a look at the carseats there. Seems a lil odd to be looking or thinking about car seats at t his stage, but buying a new car isn't something you do every day.

hmmm didn't think of the actual lenght of the seat belt, my MIL has a real new car and i have noticed that her seat belts in the back are kinda small.

it really depends on the carseat.

bowie wrote: Another thing i thought off - rear seatbelt length. For some reason mine arent that long and won't go around a capsule which is a PITA. I don't know how much it costs to have new seatbelts fitted (enough to justify not buying a certain car maybe..?) but i wish i'd thought to look into that. If i'd brought a capsule and then had to have the seatbelts replaced in the damn car i'd be spitting. Fortunatly the convertible seat doesnt need as much length and it fits fine.

EXCELLENT POINT!!!!

I completely forgot but I started a thread on seat belts as we had the exact same problem! Our seatbelt was retractable but wouldn't go round our capsule but we were told as we could manipulate it - it was ok... Though I always felt weird about it so we swapped cars. Anyway, it is long enough for our carseat. We looked at getting a longer carseat belt but we got different advice from everyone... One mechanic told us they could do it but it wouldn't pass a WOF (????) and we also got told it could be done but would be very expensive! List goes on... So definitely look into seat belt length, one idea would be to sit on the seat with your knees up and see if the seat belt goes around you still iygwim and still has more stretch.