Question Convertible Car Seat for '09 Hyundai Elantra

Hi! I've been scouring the internet trying to find a safe, rear facing as long as possible, convertible car seat for my 4.5 month.....that will fit in my car! I drive a '09 Hyundai Elantra and currently have the Chicco Keyfit 30 infant car seat. This car seat makes such a tight squeeze to have the driver seat not touching but still have enough room to drive. I would like a convertible that can offer a bit more room, if possible.

My son is 27.5 inches but has a super long torso so he has pretty much reached the 1" away from the top of the seat...and the book says that is when he outgrows it. He is a big boy. 95 percentile for height and 90 for weight (17.5 pounds). The doctors expect him to continue and grow at this rate.

I really like the Diono Radian RXT and the fact that it goes from convertible to booster but I don't know if it will fit and from what I can read the angle adjuster isn't recommended until 1 year of age.

Does anyone know if this seat will fit it in my car? On the side? In the middle? Other long term rear facing and long term use car seat recommendations for a tall big boy? Any help is much appreciated!

You are doing an awesome job with checking out all of the details for the car seats! Having such a tall child can make car seats more challenging - which I know from experience.

I'm finding the same information that you are about the angle adjuster. I don't know what the belief is about using the angle adjuster for such a young baby, so hopefully someone else can jump in to answer that question.

As an alternative, you can look at some other seats that work well for tall babies. One seat to look at is the First Years True Fit car seat. It's similar in height to the Radian. One big drawback is that it only has the 35lb rf limit so it won't last as long in that position. The Safety First Complete Air would be another good seat to consider. It has a tall shell and it has the 40lb rf weight limit. I believe the Complete Air is one of the seats that has traditionally worked well in smaller vehicles.

With the convertible car seat, you will be able to install it slightly more upright then you have to do with the infant bucket seat. This should end up giving you more front to back space in your car.

ETA: With such a tall child, there is a decent chance that you are going to want to buy a taller combination seat when your child is older and riding forward-facing. So you might want to focus on what will work best for long-term rear-facing for now and know there are other options down the road if your child continues to be at the top of the charts in size.

The AA (angle adjuster) "rules" have been changed a few times, I think currently it's if the child can sit independently (unless I'm mixing that up with the Foonf, another tall convertible, that you can't use just yet, for the same reason as the AA).

I think the Graco head wise/mysize/something else (it has different names at different stores) or the Graco Myride (different seat) is also really really tall, but they only have a 40lbs RFing limit (which if your 90-95% kiddo grows like mine, he will reach far sooner than you are ready for him to, mine did around 2.5 yrs).