Subaru Imprezza

brooksfamily

New member
Does anyone have a Subaru Imprezza?

My husband and I are considering a 2008 hatchback. I'm wondering about the back seat. Is it wide enough for 2 car seats and a slender person? What's the front to back car seat space like? My daughter is 2.5 and still rear facing and I want to be sure my husband can fit comfortably in the front seat with her in the back.

If we had 2 seats in the car one would be a keyfit, the other can be any rf convertible. Would 2 adults fit comfortably up front with the rf seats in the back? Her pria convertible was in a crash and will be replaced, once we know what car we are getting, but I'm open to getting a different convertible seat for her.
 
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gigi

New member
Probably not. The body style changed around 2012 and we have that... The backseat is wide enough for me and two seats if you use very slim seats (I am very small). The 2008 generation is more narrow... I don't think you could comfortably get an adult back there with seats.

I think the front to back space is tight also.
 

Nedra

Car-Seat.org Ambassador
I have a 2010 Impreza. The only infant seat that would fit comfortably behind the driver was the Aton. The KeyFit was a no-go for us, but I think it would have been fine for me, just not my husband. At the time when my daughter needed to move to a convertible, the only seat that fit well was the NextFit. Nowadays I think there are some others that would work too, but even the NextFit is a tight fit if we want the adults up front to be comfortable.

I have never attempted to fit 2 seats and a third person in the back. When my daughter was in the Aton and that was the only car seat back there, we could fit two medium-sized adults back there. It was tight, though. Really only suitable for a short and essential trip like dropping people off at the airport (which is like a 15-20 min drive for us).


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abigaylebelle

Active member
How slender is the adult? We put 3 across a 2008 Impreza, a 2002 Impreza, and a 2007 Impreza. In my experience we needed pretty narrow car seats in order to fit a third person. i wouldn't want to do it for a long trip or on a daily basis but we managed fine for short trips.
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brooksfamily

New member
It wouldn't be an adult it would be a tween, and also right now we only have one child. But we hare TTC...have been for a year and I've had several miscarriages. However, we are hoping we will have a baby in the next year. So right now it's just my rf 2.5 year old. Knowing that this is a car I will hopefully, be driving for a long time I'm just trying to look forward a bit. DD had a Graco Snugride 22 which is now expired, but a trusted friend has offered up their keyfit when we need it. So technically, the infant seat doesn't have to be a keyfit, I was just hoping to not have to buy an infant seat.

My concern is that on occasion I have to pick up my niece from school, last minute, it doesn't happen often, and it's only about a 10 minute ride from her school to my house. Same with my nephew. They are currently 11 and 12 and both slender.

DD's convertible was crashed out. She had a Maxi Cosi Pria 70. Insurance refuses to replace, so once we know what car we are getting we can get any seat, with in reason, to fit the car.

Our other car is a Honda Pilot so most of the time if we know in advance we have to drive people around we've got plenty of space. But my husband drives that to work since he commutes on the highway and I drive the smaller vehicle since my drive to work is 10 minutes on back roads and DD's daycare is right around the corner from my school.

I'm open to other cars. We need something that can also accommodate 2 car seats and a large dog. I posted other threads looking for vehicle advice, I just haven't gotten a ton of feedback.

Our budget is tight. We were hoping to spend $10,000 - $12,000 but realize we may need too stretch to $14,000 to get something decent.
 

Nedra

Car-Seat.org Ambassador
When you have to pick up your niece and nephew, do you have both your other kids in the car as well? Or just their seats? If you have easy-to-install seats and *don't* have to have them both occupied with your kids on these rare emergency situations, then I would just plan on having a backless booster in the Impreza for your niece/nephew and quickly install one of the other seats up front with the seatbelt when you have to pick up a niece/nephew. So for example, if you needed to pick up a tween on short notice but didn't have to have the baby in the car as well, then you would buckle the keyfit in the front seat and take out the backless booster from the trunk to put in the back seat in its spot.

It wouldn't work if you had to have both kids AND a tween all at the same time, but I figure you know under what circumstances this usually happens. If your husband could pick up one or both of the kids with the pilot, I think it would be pretty easy to shuffle things up so that you could pick up a tween or two when necessary.


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brooksfamily

New member
When you have to pick up your niece and nephew, do you have both your other kids in the car as well? Or just their seats? If you have easy-to-install seats and *don't* have to have them both occupied with your kids on these rare emergency situations, then I would just plan on having a backless booster in the Impreza for your niece/nephew and quickly install one of the other seats up front with the seatbelt when you have to pick up a niece/nephew. So for example, if you needed to pick up a tween on short notice but didn't have to have the baby in the car as well, then you would buckle the keyfit in the front seat and take out the backless booster from the trunk to put in the back seat in its spot.

It wouldn't work if you had to have both kids AND a tween all at the same time, but I figure you know under what circumstances this usually happens. If your husband could pick up one or both of the kids with the pilot, I think it would be pretty easy to shuffle things up so that you could pick up a tween or two when necessary.


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The circumstance would be I had 2 kids in car seats in the car. I live in downtown Raleigh, my niece and nephew's schools are also downtown and our daycare is just around the corner from my school, which is 10 minutes north of our house. I do all transporting of dd to daycare. My husband can't even make it to work on time if he has to drop our daughter off because of traffic. He works in Cary, which is the complete opposite direction of my job and our daycare. Cary is 30 minutes away without traffic ,and his job is extremely inflexible. He gets out at 5:30 and we all get out at 3:30, so him coming with the Pilot isn't an option. Niece or nephew don't need a booster, they both 5 step. When the emergency situation pops up once or twice a year it's not a situation where my husband can help, my sister is a single parent, and we have no other family in the area so I want to be able to help her in an emergency. I def. need a vehicle that could accommodate this situation.

I'm really just looking to know if you can squeeze a 5 stepping kid in between 2 car seats in the back of an imprezza for a 10 minute car ride on occasion and if not some recommendations of some other safe vehicles within our budget that could accommodate this situation. We also need it to be a hatchback or open trunk type vehicle in case we ever have an emergency with our dog and I need to get her to the vet with 2 kids in car seats.
 

Nedra

Car-Seat.org Ambassador
Hmmm...yeah, that's a tricky situation! I would guess that it might be possible if you replaced your Pria with a Radian with angle adjuster (and planned to move the new baby to a Radian with an angle adjuster after s/he outgrows the keyfit).

Looking in the back of my car, with the Aton 2 and the Nextfit, this is what it looks like:

8e79fad798e8928439d4d831956ebffc.jpg


And looking down between the two seats:

2bfcbb3ef2425ecdc0d5f3fc22fcd06a.jpg


I hope those pictures aren't huge. They look normal in the Tapatalk app...

I am measuring about 10.5" between the two seats.

Now, the Nextfit is a rather wide seat and both seats are installed with LATCH, which can leave you with less room to work with. However, when I tried to install my Nextfit with the seatbelt and move it closer to the door, I couldn't do that without it tipping up on the edge of the vehicle seat cushion, which is kind of bolstered.

A radian would definitely give you more space. I have never tried to install one in the Impreza before, though, so I don't know if it would actually work. I don't want to make any guarantees. Sorry I don't have more info.

As far as other vehicles that might work, I know my friend has a RAV 4 and I think she has been able to fit two adults and a car seat in the back comfortably. Maybe that would be one to look into?


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brooksfamily

New member
Thanks for the pics. That was definitely helpful. We've got a Diono olympia with no angle adjuster, but we can easily go get one, I still have the pria even though it's unusable, and I've got a Roundabout. If we decide to look at the imprezza I'll just take all the seats with us and the key fit and if we can't find something that works then we'll just have to look at other cars. It does look like either my niece or nephew would fit in between. It wouldn't be very comfy, but for 10 minutes every once in a blue moon I think they could deal.
 

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