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Hi all,
I've never posted here before, but my wife and I just spent the weekend trying to find the perfect convertible car seat to squeeze into a Honda Fit and wanted to share our findings in case it helps others. We found the perfect car seat to be the Diono Radian with the angle adjuster.
We originally had a Graco my size 65 installed, which requires the passenger seat to be pushed up a few notches and not reclined pretty much at all. I am very tall (6' 8") so I had no chance to fit there, so my wife (5'8") had to be the one to take the bullet and always be the passenger with her knees in the dash. The problem with the Graco (and Chicco Nextfit, Britax Boulevard, Evenflo Symphony, etc. that we tried) is that the Fit's front seats lean back into the shell of the car seat, but the headrest leans forward. That means if you can find a car seat that is sufficiently upright to get past the main part of the passenger seat, there is extra room for it to rear face shine the headrest is further forward. The Radian with the angle adjuster turns out to do just that. In fact it did so well, we were able to push the front seat back all the way and recline it slightly! The radian is a big car seat, but since it is very tall, this ends up being fine in the Fit .
A few notes:
- We have a 2010 Fit, which is second generation. Therefore I think my advice should be valid for any Fits in that generation.
- I'm not sure how well this advice applies to other small cars since it really had to do with the shape of the front seat. We found that car seat testing was a game of inches, so test everything!
- When testing car seats, completely install them! We tried the radian out without the angle adjuster and the sales man tried to approximate the angle you'd get with the angle adjuster, which made it look like the seat wouldn't work. It wasn't until reading a number of posts (including on this site) that made me want to try again.
- I've mentioned a few times but it's worth repeating, this seat needs the angle adjuster to work. Without it, the radian is way too long to fit.
- We bought the radian (RXT) in Alameda, CA at a place called Tot Tank. If you are in the area, I highly recommend them!
I've never posted here before, but my wife and I just spent the weekend trying to find the perfect convertible car seat to squeeze into a Honda Fit and wanted to share our findings in case it helps others. We found the perfect car seat to be the Diono Radian with the angle adjuster.
We originally had a Graco my size 65 installed, which requires the passenger seat to be pushed up a few notches and not reclined pretty much at all. I am very tall (6' 8") so I had no chance to fit there, so my wife (5'8") had to be the one to take the bullet and always be the passenger with her knees in the dash. The problem with the Graco (and Chicco Nextfit, Britax Boulevard, Evenflo Symphony, etc. that we tried) is that the Fit's front seats lean back into the shell of the car seat, but the headrest leans forward. That means if you can find a car seat that is sufficiently upright to get past the main part of the passenger seat, there is extra room for it to rear face shine the headrest is further forward. The Radian with the angle adjuster turns out to do just that. In fact it did so well, we were able to push the front seat back all the way and recline it slightly! The radian is a big car seat, but since it is very tall, this ends up being fine in the Fit .
A few notes:
- We have a 2010 Fit, which is second generation. Therefore I think my advice should be valid for any Fits in that generation.
- I'm not sure how well this advice applies to other small cars since it really had to do with the shape of the front seat. We found that car seat testing was a game of inches, so test everything!
- When testing car seats, completely install them! We tried the radian out without the angle adjuster and the sales man tried to approximate the angle you'd get with the angle adjuster, which made it look like the seat wouldn't work. It wasn't until reading a number of posts (including on this site) that made me want to try again.
- I've mentioned a few times but it's worth repeating, this seat needs the angle adjuster to work. Without it, the radian is way too long to fit.
- We bought the radian (RXT) in Alameda, CA at a place called Tot Tank. If you are in the area, I highly recommend them!