seat belt location~ car in Japan

[tnjw]

Hello!

We've just moved to Japan with the military and are getting settled. We need to buy a car, (one made for Japan, not the US) and I have a question about car-seat installations.

We have 3 children:
DD1 5 1/2 years, 45 lbs, FF Radian
DS 4 y.o. 42 lbs, FF Radian
DD2 2 1/2 y.o., 26 lbs, RF in Marathon

I'm sure there are names for the various things I'm going to describe, but I don't know them! Hope I can make it clear.

One car we're looking at has the vehicle seat belt female part coming out of the seat in front of the spot where the seat meets the seat back, not coming out from between the seat and it's back, does that make sense?? Would this location impact safe installation of carseats in general, or out Radians or Marathon specifically?

THANKS in advance for your help!
Tiffany

[hipmaman]

Do you mean the seatbelt stalk or buckle is more forward and not exactly at the crease of the vehicle seat, like the picture here

http://lh3.ggpht.com/hipmaman/SD7nCNEIIRI/AAAAAAAABPA/YmM4zJF6pLU/s400/186_8639.JPG

instead of by the crease like this

http://lh4.ggpht.com/hipmaman/SIAk4ChXUyI/AAAAAAAABlc/2U7M9HrY_7Y/s400/187_8740

Not the best pictures of the seatbelt stalks, but that`s all I have at the moment :)

[tnjw]

YES! that's exactly correct. THANKS! :)

It looks like your first picture. In this car there is also a bit of plastic around the seat where the stalk comes out.

Will this make it hard to securely install our Radians or Marathon? I've always had rock-solid installs at home, and so don't want to buy a car here that will cause install problems.

THANKS!

~Tiffany

[sunnymw]

nak

it can make ff radian installs harder and occasionally impossible

take a radian with you and install in several places before you sign :) with seat belt!!