Toyota Camry and Radian

christen04 · May 19, 2010

My husband and I are planning on going to the dealership tonight to look at Camrys (new ones). I want one really bad!! I wanted to find out, though, if anyone has experience installing a Radian in a Camry. I currently have a 2008 Saturn Vue, and it fits in there, so I figured it should fit in the Camry. Does anyone know if the Radian can touch the front seats? It can in my car. If anyone else has any comments about Camrys, I would love to hear them. I'm trying not to get too excited, b/c I know we will owe some on my Saturn, but Toyota has 0% financing and $500 bonus cash, plus I'm sure they'll lower price to try and get rid of it.

Jeanum · May 19, 2010

The Camry has advanced front airbags which were phased in several model years ago in many vehicle models (as early as the 2003/2004/2005 model year depending on the specific manufacturer and model). Toyota has a warning blurb in the airbag section of the owner's manual for models equipped with advanced airbags stating it doesn't allow touching the front seatbacks with a child's carseat due to the sensors for the advanced front airbags. So you wouldn't be able to brace against or touch the Camry's front seatbacks with your rear facing Radian or another rear facing convertible carseat.

You could try doing a thread search for Camry entries in the forum's Successful Radian Installation thread at http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=18235 to see if anyone has posted entries for the current Camry models. I believe the 2007-2010 Camry models are the current version with the same design. I did a quick search of that thread for Camry entries and here's a link to the search results that came up for me: http://www.car-seat.org/search.php?searchid=2584991 and there appears to be a couple of entries stating a RF Radian install was successful in current generation Camry models. :thumbsup: I also recommend trying out your Radian yourself in the Camry at the dealership as part of your car shopping and test driving before making a decision to purchase. Happy car shopping.

christen04 · May 19, 2010

Jeanum said:
The Camry has advanced front airbags which were phased in several model years ago in many vehicle models (as early as the 2003/2004/2005 model year depending on the specific manufacturer and model). Toyota has a warning blurb in the airbag section of the owner's manual for models equipped with advanced airbags stating it doesn't allow touching the front seatbacks with a child's carseat due to the sensors for the advanced front airbags. So you wouldn't be able to brace against or touch the Camry's front seatbacks with your rear facing Radian or another rear facing convertible carseat.

You could try doing a thread search for Camry entries in the forum's Successful Radian Installation thread at http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=18235 to see if anyone has posted entries for the current Camry models. I believe the 2007-2010 Camry models are the current version with the same design. I did a quick search of that thread for Camry entries and here's a link to the search results that came up for me: http://www.car-seat.org/search.php?searchid=2584991 and there appears to be a couple of entries stating a RF Radian install was successful in current generation Camry models. :thumbsup: I also recommend trying out your Radian yourself in the Camry at the dealership as part of your car shopping and test driving before making a decision to purchase. Happy car shopping.

Thanks for you advice/input. I planned on trying to put the seat in the car, but I wanted to know about it being able to touch the front seats. I'm pretty sure the Camry is pretty roomy, but hubby and I are both fairly tall. I would really like her in the middle, but I doubt that will be possible. Oh the stresses of having a child and how everything changes to accomodate your child's carseat...lol!

flipper68 · May 19, 2010

I have an '05 and I

it. I've had NO problems and with just over 40000 miles (with the exception of a spoiler brake light

), it's only needed routine service.

I've had a variety of seats in the car and never had difficulty with any. I've "played" briefly with a Radian and didn't have any problems, but I can't remember if I tried it in the middle. A rf'ing MA fit easily.

My other 'usual' suggestion when installing rf'ing seats is to have the front seat as upright as is comfortable. A "click" or two more upright often adds a great deal of room between the vehicle seat and the shell of the restraint. {This is also a bit safer for front seat occupants as well - puts your head closer to the head restraint and eliminates any gap between the shoulder portion of the seat belt and you.}

christen04 · May 19, 2010

Ok...so, we got a Camry tonight. I can't sleep now stressing over it, but oh well! I wish we could return it, but I doubt that's possible. Is it? I love it and all, but I think I'm just having a moment of stress in reguards to a lot going on. Anyways...when we installed the seat at the dealership, it was not touching the front seats. Well, when we picked my daughter up on the way home, her weight made the car seat touch the front seats. I do not see in the manual where it says that the car seat cannot touch, and the salesman said that it was ok?? I'm not saying ya'll are lying, but you could you possibly tell me where it says this? I've looked, but I tend to look over things. And it probably doesn't help that I'm just besides myself over this.

christen04 · May 19, 2010

Nevermind, I just found it. I'm not sure what do do now???

Jeanum · May 20, 2010

Sorry it was harder for you to find that warning against touching the front seatbacks in the owner's manual than it should have been.

It's part of a bulleted list of warnings in a yellow text box in the airbag section for our '05 Toyota Sienna and '08 Scion xB, and easy to overlook without a thorough scouring of the manual. Not sure why Toyota almost buried it in the manual like that.

It might be possible to achieve and maintain a more upright RFing Radian installation by experimenting a bit with the position of the Radian's RFing foot/base relative to the vehicle seat bight (the crease where the vehicle seatback and vehicle seating surface meet). Sometimes positioning a RFing convertible carseat a bit farther away from the vehicle seat bight, and pressing down on the portion of the convertible carseat closest to the bight while tightening up the install can help get it more upright.

You could also try posting a new thread in the installations section of the forum to see if you can get more specific input on RFing Radian installs in the Camry. :twocents:

Toyota Camry and Radian

christen04

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