urgent help-- car seat for almost 5 yr old with leg room

DD is 5 in May, currently around 44" tall and 44 lbs. She's in a MA in my husband's car-- 06 Ford Freestyle (6 seat configuration; no middle seat in center row). She's nearing the height limit in the seat but not quite there. We hadn't planned to replace this seat right now b/c she's still okay in it... but now we have a problem.

Today I went out to install our infant seat (DD #2 is due in two weeks) and the only place it would fit is behind the passenger seat-- where the MA has been installed in order to give DD #1 as much leg room as possible. My husband is very tall and has to drive with the driver's seat back pretty far... There's only about 8" of room between the driver's seat and the seat behind it... not enough room to install the infant seat.

So since the only place the infant seat would fit is behind the passenger seat (it wouldn't fit in the 3rd row either), I had to move the MA over to behind the driver's seat. I highly doubt my daughter-- who is built like her father with long legs, is going to have enough leg room to be comfortable.

So I'm looking for a suggestion for seat that will offer more leg room than the MA but that she won't outgrow immediately. Would the Graco Nautilus fit the bill? If not, are we in booster territory? We have a compas b510 we use for travel that she does well in, but I was at least trying to make it to 5 before we went to a booster full time...

The Nautilus would probably work great. It has top slots 2" higher than the Marathon, the harness weight limit is the same. Since it doesn't sit up on a base her legs should have a bit more room (I'm assuming he has to recline his seat a bit as well?).

Wendy

I don't have an MA but the leg room in the GN compared to the Cargo is amazing. I have pics of the GN with a ruler in it compared to the Cargo if it helps at all so that you can see how much leg room there truley is. Let me know if you need the pics.

I have a 06 Freestyle with a Nautilus installed behind the driver's seat My camera is out of commision right now, but I just went outside with my tape measure. The Nautilus is 1 in shorter in depth that the captains seat bottom. With the seat in my normal driving position (I am 5'8") there was 11in between the back of the driver's seat and the front edge of the Nautilus. I put the driver's seat as far back as it goes and there was 7" between the back of the seat and the front edge of the Nautilus. Hope that helps, sorry I can't get pics for you. Let me know if any other measurement would be helpful

Also I LOVE our Nautilus! We have been using it for over about six weeks now and I have no complaints.

Andrea

wow! you guys are all great! and quick! I just went to walmart's websit and found a walmart not too far away with a Nautilus in stock so I think I'll head over there tomorrow.

Thanks again!

We have an 05 Freestar and the Nautilus has a ton of leg room in that position. I also have no complaints with our GN.

I also have the Nautilus for my tall 4.5 y/o and she has long legs, but is very comfortable in the Nautilus. My only suggestion is, to take off heavy boots while riding in the GN because my daughters's legs hurt after a while I have installed our GN in 4 different cars and I got a tight install in all of them, its a really great seat!:thumbsup:

reelsurfmom said:

wow! you guys are all great! and quick! I just went to walmart's websit and found a walmart not too far away with a Nautilus in stock so I think I'll head over there tomorrow.

Thanks again!

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Ohhh, I hope you didn't already go, and if you did I hope the website was correct. When I ordered our GN, the website said it was in stock at my local WM, I called to be sure and they hadn't even heard of it, nor did that have it. I ordered it site to store, took a week and a half and the day I went to pick it up, they were setting them up in a center aisle! I asked how long they'd had them in and was told they had just arrived that day. If you did go, I hope you got it.

On a side note, we really, really love ours!