Car Seat for a 2 Door car...HELP PLEASE

If you can fit an infant seat back there, you can fit a convertible, as they sit more upright. You can find many seats in your price range that will allow you to rear face your child for 2/3yrs, and fit in your car.

Cosco Scenera is $50, wil lrear face to 35lbs, forward face to 40lbs. Good bare bones car seat, sits up on a base so it has a smaller footprint on the bottom.

Evenflo Triumph Advance $130 will rear face to 35lbs, forward face to 50lbs. Nice seat, easy to install, fits older kids well too.

Graco MyRide 65, $150, will rear face to 40lbs, forward face to 65lbs. Awesome side impact protection!

After you find a seat you like, find a CPST in your area to help you install the seat and show you how to use it properly. www.safekids.org and click 'find an event in my area' in the child passenger safety area.

By the way, feet touching the seat is not a reason to move a child out of a seat, or move a child forward facing. A car seat is outgrown when the child hits the weight limit or there is less than one inch of shell above the childs head. She is only 28" tall, I'm guessing she has oodles of room to grow above her head before she outgrows the seat. The Keyfit 30 also goes to 30lbs, which she is a full 11lbs from. :) If she's not outgrown it, don't worry about moving her, as again feet touching the seat is NOT a problem. My boys rear faced until 18mos and 35mos, and they kept their legs crossed or put them up on the seat. There has never been a documented case of broken legs from rear facing, so again as long as there is more than an inch of shell above her head, she's totally fine in the seat.

The biggest issue you'll have when you change over is to have a rear-facing car seat in a two door car. The trick is to try and place it in the middle of the back seat. If that isn't possible, place it on one side of the back seat, and then get baby in/out from the other side. You'll also want to get one that has a 5-point harness and not a bar that goes over babies head. There probably won't be room to lift the bar and get baby out.

The Radian-65 might work for you, but its a bit pricey. You could ask the people at the store for recommendations. We had a 1999 Taurus that had small headroom. We chose a Graco model from Target that worked really well in both rear-facing and front facing positions.

M.

After 10 years of not getting pregnant and buying 4 door automatics, I went and bought a 2 door accord. Found out a month later I was pregnant. I refused to succumb to everyones predictions that I would trade it in for a 4 door. My daughter is now 2 and we still have it. I purchased the evenflo triumph and it fits fine. Its in the middle and as long as i go in from the passanger side its not too bad, I can actually crawl right in (although I believe the accord is bigger than the eclipse). Now she climbs in herself and it is much better.

good luck.

I also have a smaller car (Subaru Impreza) though it is 4 doors. You can go to Babies R Us and ask a sales person to let you try to see if the sample model fits in your car. Don't go at a busy time (like Saturdays) though or they don't have enough people to help.

A lot of seats don't fit smaller cars when rear facing. Graco My Ride has a big footprint so it didn't fit in our car at all, at least on the side. I don't know if it fits in the middle since I have 2 kids and 2 car seats. I tried a Britax one but it was a very tight fit and more expensive. The Alpha Omega seat is the best fit of the ones I have tried. It is not as highly rated as the Britax and Graco but it has held up well for us and the strap adjustment is easy to use. I got it for my first child almost 4 years ago and just switched things around to put my 15 month old in it.

If your child's feet touching the rear of the seat, this is normal. You can get a convertible car seat but try to keep her rear-facing as long as possible, up to the maximum weight or height allowance of the seat (rearfacing). My son is 3 1/2 right now, 32 lbs and 39", still comfortably rearfacing in a Britax Boulevard, but our back seat is tiny (we have a Subaru Forester) and the front passanger seat is almost unusable.

The best car seat is that which fits your child, your budget, your car, and can be installed correctly everytime. More that 80% of the time, they're not. Have your car seat (with your child) inspected - Safekids does free clinics nationwide or can recommend a police/ fire department that can check the seat installed by you. You can find a carseat check up event in your area here:

http://www.safekids.org/in-your-area/car-seat-check-up-ev...

The new edition of the book "Baby Bargains" has a good overview of the car seats on the market with pros and cons, plus ratings. You can also check consumer reviews on amazon for different seats, usually they are very helpful.

You can also check out http://www.carseatdata.org, an online resource for parents seeking guidance toward the best car seat for their family, lifestyle, vehicle, and budget. It matches your car model year with other parent's opinions about car seats that fit (or not).

In terms of seats in general (for any car), the most recommended from a safety and ease-of installation point of view for an older baby is the Britax Roundabout, sold at amazon for $179 or at Buy Buy Baby in NYC for the same price (with a very flexible return policy) if you use a bed Bath & Beyond blue coupon (they own the chain). The seat works up till 2 1/2 or so, depending on the size of your child.

Some parents go for the larger Marathon (65 lb frontfacing/ 35 lbs rearfacing, $220 right now on amazon) but there are now many other options out there that have high weight limits rearfacing. Look at the maximum height allowance and also the height of the shoulder straps, as children oftentimes outgrow the seat by height, not weight.

When buying though, check the return policy. Brick-and-mortar stores like Buy Buy Baby and Target are the best options. Babies R Us and Walmart have a good assortment, but prices tend to be just as high and the quality sometimes inferior (thinner fabrics, less padding, etc.) Amazon has great prices but their new return policy has increased return S&H significantly and the box must be unopened (it used to be a fixed price per type of item but now the price varies according to your order).

www.elitecarseats.com is another option, they have an interesting lifetime return policy for new and unused seats; return S&H is free if you get their Return Shipping Insurance. The site offers many options and objective reviews on different car seats, as well as customer service support (note: I don't work for them but from my research this site was one of the best).

Keep all tags and stickers on the seat, box and receipt so you can return the seat if it's not a good fit for your car or your child. It needs to be almost rock-solid with side-to-side movement of less than one inch once istalled, with about two fingers clearance from the back of the front seat to give some room in case of a collision. Some give is normal, side to side or front to back - Safekids can advise you on this and help make the install more secure with the addition of pool noodles or a rolled-up towel.

Oh my gosh, I almost didn't read your post since my son is 10. But I am glad I did. My daily driver when my son was little was an Eclipse. It is not an ideal car for a car seat, sorry to tell you. Because of the form of the back seat the car seat MUST be very thin side to side or it won't sit flat. Once we got a seat to fit I took it to the fire department to make sure it was installed properly, then I NEVER took it out. It is a fun little car. I now own another Eclipse and love it but my issue isn't a car seat; my son doesn't fit in the backseat so I am looking for a new car :) Good Luck--maybe someone with younger children can suggest a thinner car seat!

You might check FreeCycle or craigslist -- there's always concern about a carseat having been in an accident or recalled, but everyone I know is honest and just trying to keep useful things out of a landfill. Since you'd get a carseat that's been in use, they can tell you how well it fits/works. (Everything on freecycle is free -- craigslist it depends on how you search. They're also good ways of passing on the carseat you're getting rid of.)

Before buying i would read the manufacturer's recomendations for size. My Graco Snugride went up to 22 lbs and you'd be surprised how slowly they'll gain those last three pounds now that they are approaching their first birthday. And I wouldn't worry so much about the length of her legs, I would worry more about how long her torso is and if she is too big to fit into the straps comfortably. Her legs will hang over the end of a child seat too. They are still perfectly safe in the infant seat and if cost is an issue, you might want to consider waiting a few months.