Looking for a compact car seat

Hi!

My son is transitioning from the rear facing baby carrier/car seat base to a permanently car mounted rear facing seat.  We have a second baby coming this February.  So far we have a 2009 CRV and a 2008 Civic Coupe. We know we need to get rid of the Civic coupe and have been looking at some cars but what I have been finding is that the 3 in 1 car seat we got as a hand me down is a giant roadblock in finding a car. We know minivans work out as well as most SUVs and crossovers but trying to get around that with a sedan or wagon/hatch. This could all change if some good deal pops up but minivans have been priced high lately (as with everything) so we figure get a something else for now.

I found a late model Scion xB but the baby seat made me have to have the driver seat so far up that it was barely comfortable.  My brother had a 2014 Accord and had two car seats in back and it worked.  

Obviously the car plays into this equation but are there slim reat face car seats that dont require front seats to be pushed up to the dash?

I hear good things about the Diono Radian car seat but mostly that its slim width wise and not so much front to back.

Any thoughts?

Sliding doors Man.  Sliding doors. 

Please excuse the absolute disaster that my car is. This is an '04 TSX with a Diono Radian.

Tsx is a small car. Not as small as the civic, but small. For the most part, the longest drive I take is about 10 minutes. It is definitely tolerable for those trips, but I have short legs (30" inseam, if that). Longer trips are definitely possible, but you wish you could stretch out a little more.
 

The Diono as you said doesn't really help going N-S. I would look at the cheapest Cosco option at wal mart, probably the smallest one out there. 

There really is only so much you can do here.  The seat needs to be at a specific angle and there has to be room for the child's legs, so the best you're going to get is an inch or two off the thickness of the back.

If you don't want a minivan, then you're looking for a sedan with a big back seat.  Googling rear legroom specs, the most "normal" sedan with that kind of feature is probably an Avalon.

I can't really help on the car seats, as we just accepted their bulk.

I will say that the times we've rented midsize sedans, they've swallowed the rear facing car seats with room to spare. If you like smaller cars, the 15+ Fit is going to be way better than anything else even remotely similar sized... Including prior generations of Fit.

This is why we love our Mazda5.

This is a lot of the reason why my mustang spent this year parked, despite running just fine. 

I can use the carrier seat or forward face in it, but rear facing faceplants kiddo into the roof and makes loading impossible. 

Our dailies are a mazda5 and an expedition, so I'm no help. I haven't shopped around to improve it. 

You have about a years gap that they need to be in a non carrier rear face typically.

At risk of seeming like a bad parent becasue I'm not gonna recommend a $500+ full on, baby cacoon....

Shop for seats and shop with the intention of actually returning some purchases.  Buy, or more likely order because the one you want might not be in the store.  What they will have in the stores are these complex, all-in-ones.  $400 but they tell you the seat will last from 4 lbs to 100lbs.  All those configurations usually mean heft and bulk.  

This one-year-old-ish phase of rear facing is a real size struggle.  Seek out a seat that is really just good for that phase only.  Once they are through this phase you can then buy a seat dedicated to forward facing.  I call those forward facers "the last car seat you will buy."  Most of them convert all the way down to just a booster seat.  But, that is for later.  Now, just buy a seat with the focus on upright, rear facing seating from about 1yr old to about 3 yr old.  

On Target's site, I see this one that might be worth a try: https://www.target.com/p/baby-trend-trooper-3-in-1-convertible-car-seat/-/A-82102677?preselect=81506830#lnk=sametab

Some old photos:  

We had this pink trimmed seat that was labeled Eddie Bauer.  It was a hand-me-down giving to us by someone but it was great.  It was rather petite.

Shown in 2007 Prius with the seat behind the driver's seat positioned for my 6' 1" self (driver's seat all the way back with some significant recline.)

In this picture, forward facing, she is getting bigger and maxing out the seat.

Here then, she's even larger but now in a "last seat you'll ever buy" that converts all the way down to just a booster seat but shown with all the pieces.

Searching photos...

Seat in Q45, notice the GRM sticker in c-pillar window

Same seat in race van:

Same in Montero: 

Get well versed in what it takes to properly mount the seat if your moving vehicles often, I was.  But, we kept a different seat permanently mounted in my wife's car.  My wife was never good at wrangling the seats around from car to car.   Expect that you're buying two seats!

Look closely at the latch system on the seat.  The high dollar seats have push button connectors for grasping the latch.  The lesser models (like most of mine) had a metal attachment point that required you bend the metal clasp to attach or unattach.  My wife doesn't have the hand strength to work those metal closures.  She can get the seats in the cars but she can not get them out.  

Don't be afraid of getting used, either. Check the dates, but these things are built like a brick house and it's not like people are going into demolition derbies with them in the back seat. 

Combi Coccoro. 

We dailied a Honda Fit for the first years of both our kids' lives, and that tiny Combi seat worked beautifully as a rear-facing seat. I'm 5'10" and fit easily in front of the seat rear-facing. 

And yeah, get something with sliding doors when you can. 

In reply to mtn :

Dates on seats:  

As I understand it... You buy a seat and you register it with the card included in the box.  The seat manufacturers are required to keep this database of owners, for safety recalls, for a fixed period of time like 10 years.  After the 10 years, the manufacturer is no longer obligated to contact you about the seat.  

The date on the seat does not mean the date the seat wears out.  It just means the date that you are "on your own."  I think we had 3 or 4 car seats which was great for multiple vehicles.  Most we had been given to us, used, from friends.  I remember that more than 1 was "past its date."  

mtn said:

Don't be afraid of getting used, either. Check the dates, but these things are built like a brick house and it's not like people are going into demolition derbies with them in the back seat. 

I would not buy a used child seat, at least not from a stranger with no history.  As with helmets, race belts, etc, these are single-use safety gear.

A lightly used seat from someone you trust is reasonable.

John Welsh said:

In reply to mtn :

Dates on seats:  

As I understand it... You buy a seat and you register it with the card included in the box.  The seat manufacturers are required to keep this database of owners, for safety recalls, for a fixed period of time like 10 years.  After the 10 years, the manufacturer is no longer obligated to contact you about the seat.  

The date on the seat does not mean the date the seat wears out.  It just means the date that you are "on your own."  I think we had 3 or 4 car seats which was great for multiple vehicles.  Most we had been given to us, used, from friends.  I remember that more than 1 was "past its date."  

They are made of plastic, plastic gets brittle with age, especially with UV exposure. Please trash it after a decade...

All those old seats are long gone now and out of use. I do know that Goodwill and places like Once upon a child won't accept used seats.  

That seat recommended by Erich seems exactly to fit the bill of buy a seat specifically for the 1-3 years old phase. 

Hey, back to chime in.

Thanks for the input and photos and specific seats! 

For us, we have gotten hand-me-down seat offers from family and close friends that we know had good history. That does not bother me. Some facebook groups seem to be helpful here too.

Ill look into that Combi seat and see if I can order one. It looked like Walmart has a clone looking one too.

John, I see what you are saying. It sucks but the big box stores really only have a small handful of seats in store to touch and feel. BuyBuy Baby has significantly more so that might be worth a shot.