Convertible seat for 1999 Subaru Outback Legacy

regulardad · Mar 26, 2013

Hello,

We have a low-mileage, reliable 1999 Subaru Outback Legacy station wagon.

I tried installing a Britax Advocate RF. I have not tried putting my 1-year-old daughter in it, but the space between the car seat, seat back, and ceiling/door frame is extremely tight and I am not sure it would even be workable. In the meantime I installed the seat in our Prius instead, which seems ok.

Are there any other seats which would work better RF in these circumstances? I guess a car seat where the child's back support naturally would sit a good distance away from the seat back of the rear car seat? And maybe sits a little lower?

Thanks,

regulardad

Ozella21 · Mar 26, 2013

I have successfully installed one of my Myride 65s RF in my mothers 99 outback, however if the person sitting. In front if the seat is tall it may not work out well.

Jeni-GAcpst · Mar 26, 2013

It is workable if you hoist toddler in head first parallel to the ground, which gets harder by the minute as they grow!

You might like the Diono radian. The side profile is very slim and can brace against the front seats in your vehicle. It also tethers RFing like the Britax seats.

You might be able to get a good install in the center with any seat then sit outboard while loading and buckling.

Good luck!

Keeanh · Mar 26, 2013

I agree the Radian is a good low-profile choice. Since your child is 1, you can use the Diono angle adjuster to make the seat more upright and therefore more compact front-to-back. It's a piece of foam that's purchased separately (~$10) and is only allowed to be used with Radians.

aeormsby · Mar 26, 2013

We used to have a 99 Outback. We had a RF Marathon (what's now te classic style) that fit fine. We had it on the driver's side and never had any problems.

regulardad · Mar 27, 2013

Thanks all for your help. The Diono Radian line looks pretty good. I'm looking at the Radian RXT vs the Radian 100. I see that the RXT has special infant padding and more head support for children of all sizes.

We wouldn't need the infant padding as we have a separate infant seat for our soon-to-be-born son.

I can't tell how much the extra head supports protrude -- i.e. would they make it more difficult to work with the narrow space between the door frame and the child's seat back. Also, not sure how much they add in terms of safety. If they do add anything in terms of safety, I would prefer to go with the RXT - it seems like it should probably still be much easier to get our daughter in and out of than the Britax Advocate.

Any thoughts on the above would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

regulardad

Jeni-GAcpst · Mar 27, 2013

The R100 is the base model and RFes to 40lbs.
The R120 adds infant cushions, memory foam under child's bum, and RFes to 45lbs.
The RXT is the R120 plus head wings.

The headwings don't extrude much. http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i447/skybutta/IMG_20120112_175521.jpg

We don't have any data as to whether they add safety or not. We know all car seats pass federal minimums. Car seat manufacturers don't release their crash test results. (Actually, Diono might, but I haven't looked.) If they did release crash test data, we'd all need to understand engineering and physics to know what the numbers meant - and who knows how crash test dummy "numbers" relate to a real child's experience, etc.

All car seats that are installed to manufacturer specification will keep your child safe. Maybe head wings add side impact protection by reducing how far the neck moves in a side impact hit. Maybe head wings are an additional component for your child to hit his/her head on. We simply don't know.

Unregistered · Dec 21, 2013

What carseat did you end up going with? I have a '99 Outback and am trying to figure out the same thing. Thanks in advance!

Convertible seat for 1999 Subaru Outback Legacy

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