Question Please recommend an ERF seat for 3 year old in Ford Focus Wagon

enviromomma · Oct 20, 2010

Hello,

I am looking for recommendations for a rear facing seat for my daughter. She just turned 3 and she is about 28 lbs. and 36 ". I think I would like her to rf at least through the winter since she's on the petite side.

We currently have the True Fit rearfacing in our 2006 Ford Focus Wagon and we absolutely HATE it. It is so hard to adjust rearfacing and we curse it every single time.

I loved our old (manufactured in 2006) Marathon when we had her in it rearfacing (which we've now passed onto my son), but I've heard that the new Marathons are shorter and people don't think they will fit an older child long. Is this true?

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

sebandtoby · Oct 20, 2010

From my experience, the new marathons arent shorter...but the boulavards are very tall. Radians go to 45 now...and they are really tall too.
Beset bet is to go to the store and sit them in all the seats that go 40 or 45lbs rear and see which one they 'fit' the best. That way you can see which you like most and will be easiest for you to use in your vehicle.

Deanna
mom to 5. CRS-IT
Ontario

BookMama · Oct 20, 2010

We have a 2003 Focus wagon, and it's a dream for installing car seats. :thumbsup: I've installed (RF) Radians, My Ride, old style Marathon, etc.

The nice thing about installing a RF Radian in the Focus is that the vehicle seats are very compressible (i.e. squishy

), so it's very easy to get the Radian pretty upright, thus taking up less front-to-back space than in other vehicles.

Here is a picture of the Radian at an angle that was comfortable for my DD1, who was almost 4 at the time. I'm sure I could have gotten it even a little more upright if I had tried to, but I didn't try because we don't need the driver's seat back any farther.

You can find some comparison pics of a new MA and an old style MA in this thread. My DD is the one in the blue shirt/striped pants. I'm comfortable saying that she had about 1" less room in the new MA. She was 4Y9M in those pics, of about average height/weight/torso, and had at least a smidge of growing room left. :twocents:

unityco · Oct 20, 2010

I have an '06 Focus Wagon too. :thumbsup: I've had a Titan (2005), old Marathon and a Radian RFing in it. They all fit well. :thumbsup: I'll second BookMama's comments on the Radian RF in the Focus. We put ours in the centre and neither front seat needed to be moved forward for it. It installs beautifully FF too, when the time comes.

hipmaman · Oct 20, 2010

My 3 yr old, 30ish lbs, 38" is rf in a Radian and it works well

ETA: is getting an 'old' Marathon with 30 lbs rf an option for rf her pass the winter? 2 lbs to go if she is petite and slow growth? They are now on clearance (at least 20% off). Thought to add it as an option.

Aurezalia · Oct 20, 2010

I - what, fourth? - the Radian. When I was car-shopping I looked at these and did a test install of the Radian. It fits well.

enviromomma · Oct 22, 2010

Thanks for your replies.

How well will the Radian fit rfing with another rfing seat in the back? Does it have to be in the middle positiong to fit in the Focus? My son is 13 months and needs to be rfing too. He is still in his Safeseat, but I want to buy a new convertible rfing seat really soon which is why I was wondering about the new Marathons.

Thanks so much!

enviromomma · Nov 10, 2010

I had no luck installing our old Radian rfing in our Focus. I tried installing it behind the driver's seat. There was not enough room for the driver and neither my husband nor myself are very tall (I didn't have nearly as much room as Bookmama's pic). I tried as much as possible to install it farther out from the seat bite to help with the angle (as I had read on here), but it kept on sliding back so that didn't help either.

Is it the fact that we have leather seats? Is it the vehicle model? It's something like SXZ. I find our backseat to have very limited room. *sigh*

As much as I liked the idea of another Radian (which is now back in our truck), I think I am going to have to check out the new Marathons......

Question Please recommend an ERF seat for 3 year old in Ford Focus Wagon

enviromomma

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sebandtoby

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unityco

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Aurezalia

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