Question Best RF Car seat for 2006 Jetta

I am having a difficult time finding a Convertible car seat that fits my Jetta well. I am 6' tall and husband is 6'3" so our seats need to be all the way back. I can not drive my car safely if the seat is moved any closer. I currently have my daughter in an infant seat and it is too big for my vehicle (located in the center), my husband can not fit in my car while I have the infant seat attached to its base. I have looked over all of the threads but I have not found one addressing our height constraints, most of the women are shorter (5' 9").
I need to find one soon, as my daughter is QUICKLY out growing her carrier (she is 7 months and approx 30" long). I would like to rf for an extended amount of time (atleast two) but like I said nothing seems to fit. Also, there is not a BRU in my area, the closest is 3 hours away. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Do you have advanced airbags in your car? I'm hopeful you don't. The best way to know is, do you have a light that comes up on your dash about the passenger airbag being on/off?

My first thought would be a Diono Radian with angle adjuster (that shouldn't be too upright for a seven month old) in the center, or maybe braced behind the driver's seat. That *might* work behind you.

I'd also look at the Maxi Cosi Pria. The Recaro ProRide will fit, but it'll be hard to get baby in and out, and there's no leg room.

Wendy

I just checked for the advanced airbags and I do have them.

Ok. That means if you have a carseat that allows bracing you can brace on the driver's side, and you can likely gently touch any seat on the driver's side, but not the passenger's.

Wendy

I have a 2006 beetle, which is built on a jetta platform. We have my 2.5 year old RF in a radian and were able to get a reasonably upright install without the angle adjuster (hoping to get an adjuster soon!). Because diono allows bracing and it's not disallowed by VW on the drivers side, my 6' tall husband can drive with her behind him. I'm usually our driver and I'm so short that the seat is touching but not bracing. We can't fit the RF radian on the passenger side since nothing can touch with the airbags but I'm pretty sure with an angle adjuster it would fit well there.

I could get my Classic Marathon rfing behind the passenger seat in my sisters 2009, maybe 2010, cant remember, Jetta. I am 5'9 and wasnt squished at all.

We have an '06 Jetta. While we have two RNs, we have only used the EFT65 RFing in that car because we can use it more easily RFing for both my RFers - no need to uninstall to adjust the harness height. It installs pretty easily. My kids hardly ever ride in DH's vehicle though, and I like the seat enough that I moved it from the Jetta to my van as DS3's primary seat. I am only 5'8", though, and DH is 5'10".

I can play with one of our RNs and the EFT65 in the Jetta tomorrow (DH is away on business until late tonight and the Jetta is his vehicle), both with and w/o the angle adjuster, as we have one available.

I'm happy to post some pics for you of both seats installed in his car in different configurations - assuming DH cooperates and will manage the children for a few hours!

I appreciate your help lilli, Im excited about seeing the photos.
I have been checking out the radians and will check out the marathon. Thanks

(hopefully this picture comes in right, it's my 2y 7m old in her radian today!)

Beetle, your daughter is cute!

So, I only had a limited amount of time to play with the XTSL in the Jetta as DH was in a rush to get the kids out to meet some friends, and DS2 was freaking out that his "backwards seat" wasn't in the van.... so I concentrated on the driver's side position with the XTSL. If I have time later to clean out DH's car I'll experiment in the center as well, and play with the EFT for comparison's sake.

I did not have great luck without the adjuster. I had to move the seat ALL the way up, just about, and quite upright to even get the RN to sit flat on the back seat. You can't even see the driver's seat in this photo, but for reference the passenger seat is almost all the way back. I would not, at 5'8", be comfortable driving in this position, nor would I feel safe. Now, I did not climb behind the RN to really wrestle with a more upright install without the adjuster, but the seat was in rock solid, and I did not feel that I could have gotten it upright enough to make a substantial enough difference for tall drivers such as yourselves. As you can see, it is quite reclined. I also installed with the seatbelt, but there was no difference in recline between the two, so I did not take any pics of that install. Please excuse DH's mess, in particular his snowboard....



I then put in the adjuster:



With the adjuster, I was able to get the seat just about all the way back, maybe two clicks from all the way back. It is quite upright, as I hope you can tell from the pic, but I prefer to drive that way and it's safer as well.

While it looks as if the RN is touching the headrest in this photo, I can safely and easily slide a piece of paper in between the seat and the headrest. Because of the time crunch, I couldn't try with DS in the seat to see how much of a difference the weight of an almost 3-year old would make.



Hope that helps a bit, and is a start. As I said, I can try with the EFT in the same position as well as both seats in the center either later today or tomorrow. And maybe put DS2 in the seat as well to see how his weight affects the recline with the adjuster.

If you have any other questions about the RN in that car, let me know. Happy to help if I can.

Thanks for the compliments . I'm glad to see how much of a difference the angle adjuster makes, I'm definitely going to make it a priority to get one next batch! It'll make us a lot more comfortable!

I had a 2002 Jetta. The Brittax Marathon could not be installed behind either seat for me. I am only 5ft 7". Installed in the middle I could get the seats further back. But it was touching both seats. (no airbags)

Were you able to fit the Radian in the middle seat of the Jetta? I have an 09 Jetta and really want to keep my son in the middle seat if possible. BRU here doesn't carry the seat so I'm ordering it online and really don't want to have to pay return shipping because it doesn't fit.
Thanks by the way. Your post above is really helpful.
Also is that a Radian XTSL? Is there a difference between the models in height?

Also, what do you know about the Jetta allowing bracing? I didn't see anything in the manual, but I could have missed it

You'd want to look in the airbag section, and see if it says anything against having something leaning/touching/shoved against the front seats.

Wendy

I've read it twice and can't find it in there anywhere (not in the carseat section nor the airbag section). Those things are fun to read though. LOL.
So if it is not mentioned does that mean it is okay to do?

Right.

Wendy

Byron said:

I had a 2002 Jetta. The Brittax Marathon could not be installed behind either seat for me. I am only 5ft 7". Installed in the middle I could get the seats further back. But it was touching both seats. (no airbags)

Click to expand...

Huh. I have an '03 and I'm able to put my roundabout 50 behind the driver's seat with my 6' husband driving...it certainly wouldn't work at a newborn angle, but at one point I even had RF Britax(used a couple different seats playing around) on the drivers side, RF Radian venter, FF Radian passenger. For my MY the Radian naturally installs a little more upright than in most vehicles, but I'm sure an angle adjuster wouldn't hurt. I've put a RF Radian behind the driver's seat, but it had to be braced. If my AA gets here today I can try it out and take pics, I have some boosters I *need* to play with anyway, it stopped raining.

Oh, just realized that the far left of my siggy pic is a classic Britax behind the driver's seat of my Jetta if that helps at all.

Yes it helps! Thank you. I think I've decided on the Radian and am going to order here in a few minutes. Just to clarify you had no problem fitting a Radian RF in the center, right? I don't think the layout of the backseats has changed much over the years so if it fits in yours I hope it would in mine. And since you have a Jetta I will ask you in case you found something I didn't. Can you brace in your car? I haven't found anything so far in the manual not allowing it, but I may have missed it.

The Radian does allow bracing right?

The Radian allows bracing if the vehicle also allows it.