Convertible for our 2.5 yr old in '08 Honda Civic

I was in a car accident & killed our nice large newer Nissan Altima. Everyone is fine but we need a new car seat. We have a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid and we are living overseas in England as my husband is in the Air Force. I have a loaner car seat from a friend, Britax Marathon 70 which is actually what we were using in the totaled Nissan but OMG is it a tight fit in the Civic. She is forward facing now - we all get car sick driving on the hilly winding farm roads here and she's cured now that she is upright & on "my side" of car vs reclined & in the middle.

We are here for 1 more yr so need to find a new seat that we can purchase & ship to our APO that will fit in the tiny Civic, good for travel (air & car) and could possibly be used a booster too later since I am shopping for new car seat way earlier than planned so I'd like to get my money's worth. I was looking @ the RECARO Performance SPORT Combination Harness to Booster but have been suggested by some friends just to get another Britax but the Frontier 90 Booster Car Seat. My daughter is 2.5yrs, around 35 lbs & about 32 inches. HELP! Is there some holy grail of a smaller, lighter but Safe car seat?

We will be getting another car when back in the US and we are trying to add to our family and would like to us the Chicco Keyfit 30 again if we are blessed with another child. Budget is about $180-200 but cheaper would be GREAT!

Hello! I have a 2006 Civic, which is essentially the same car as the 2008 Civic.

I LOVE my Radian in my Civic, but I wouldn't buy a convertible seat for a forward-facing child unless I could pass the seat down to another child. Therefore, I would look at a combination seat such as the Graco Nautilus or Britax Frontier. The Nautilus is the less expensive of the two combination seats I just mentioned.


However, I would also consider turning your daughter back rear-facing (and installing the seat upright to help with the carsickness). I know she's 35 pounds, but at only two-and-a-half, she would be safer rear-facing. If you choose to keep her forward-facing, please don't feel guilty.




Convertibles:
While the Evenflo Sureride fits in the Civic, and would likely fit your DD quite well, it is quite tall, and does take up a lot of room in the car.

The Radian is VERY-low-profile and fits beautifully both RF and FF. It installs quite upright.





Combination seats:

Both the Nautilus and the Frontier fit well in the Civic, but they are fairly deep and therefore seem to take up a lot of room. I have had no problems, though, just telling the kids to "walk around" the seat by using the floorboard.

We have two Civics and have used several carseats. Frontier fits good, but very bulky. We recently got an evenflo surekid and love how it fits in the car. Latch is super easy. My 7 year old fits in it as a booster and had no problems buckling properly. The harness straps barely fit her as well - barely. It's the narrowest carseat we've used and can accommodate two additional kids easily (or kid and teen).

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We have a Civic and have used a multitude of car seats.

For air travel, I do prefer the Britax as it's easier to install and fits well rear facing in a lot of cars. If you are travelling and end up with something large and heavy like a Radian, the GoGoBabyz travel cart is a godsend. I know there are cheaper options, but that's the one I have and I used it many times to cart kid and seat around the airport solo. I always, always buy my kids seats on the planes though.

If you stay forward facing, I just bought a Securekid and my son really likes it. It's not as pricey as some of the alternatives, but it fit in the small space I had.

Also- evenflo is one brand that BRU let's you use the 20% off one item on (found online with the current Ad). We got two and it ended up being $130 each I think ($60-something saved on both).

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Thanks for all the suggestions. Off to Goggle what I can get off Amazon shipped here quickly. The car seats here for the UK cars are very different, not chest belt and many times they are installed in the front seat! Freaks me out to see a little kid/baby in the front seat!

Where do you think I should install the seat to the most room, cut down on car sickness & safe?