Going Car Shopping, I Need Help

Hi, I Have a Kinda Odd Question,
I’m Going Car Shopping, Next Month (with My Whole Family it Seems,)
My BIL Knows Everything About Cars so He’s Going to Make Sure I Don’t Get a Lemon.

But I Don’t Know what I’m Going Home with, so What are Something’s I Should Know to Look for or Avid, Safety Wise?.
I’ll Have the Carseats with Me So I’ll Try Them in the Cars.
They Will be a Highback Turbo Booster, A Chase, and A Rear-Facing Scenera,

I Don’t Know What Year the Car will be Somewhere around 96-99 Most Likely.


I Know Somethings Like, I Want Top Tethers, But I Don’t Know if I’ll Get Them.
I know I Can’t Get LATCH.
Lap and Shoulder Belts in all the Seats. Again Don’t Know if I’ll Get Them.

How Do Ya’ll Feel About 2 Door Cars?, Could I Even Fit Three Car Seats in the Back of One?.


It May Seem Weird But I Really Have to Get a Car on This Trip, This is the Day My Family Will Help and I Really need their Help, I Wish I Could Research and Look for The Car I Really Want but I Can’t, I Need a Car and I Don't Know What the Place's Will Have, I Don‘t Have One at All and You Can‘t Walk Around Here, Everything is Too Far.

Thank You Guys So Much For Any Help and I'm Sorry This is So Long.

What is your budget for your car?

The first thing that comes to mind is the Ford Taurus. I just got done searching for the right car. If you let me know what your budget is, I may be able to help you narrow it down a little

I guess a Price Would Help Wouldn't it?, Well I Thank Around $3,000, It'll Come From a Buy Here-Pay Here Place so I'll be Making Pays, Around Here You Have too Have a Down Payment of $1,000 at Most Places, So by the Time We Go I Hope I Have That,





Thanks!

If you could find a Ford Taurus, that should be good with your carseats and have decent gas mileage. The other nice thing is that Ford will retrofit 2 tether anchors for free. Really, the Ford Taurus (pre 2008) is probably the most car you can get for the money. Even the 2007s I see frequently go for under $10,000 so I think you should easily be able to find one in your price range.

I took a look in the LATCH manual to give the OP a better idea about top tether anchor availability in the Taurus if she wants to seek one out during her car shopping. The Ford Taurus sedan and its Mercury counterpart, the Sable, have been factory equipped with 3 top tether anchors starting with the 2000 model year. Taurus/Sable wagons are listed as having 2 factory equipped top tether anchors starting in the 1986 model year through the 1995 model year, with 3 factory equipped top tether anchors in wagon versions starting in the 1996 model year. The wagon version is impressively early for factory equipped tether anchors, wow. Ford dealerships are supposed to retrofit up to 3 tether anchors free of charge to the vehicle owner (per Ford Program R7C's info. in the .pdf document at http://www.car-seat.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=19326&d=1357607813) in pre-2000 model year Taurus/Sable sedan models, and 1989-1995 Taurus/Sable wagons can also have a center top tether anchor retrofitted.

Another sedan model with a wide back seat that's fairly carseat friendly and probably worth looking into would be the 2000 and newer Chevrolet Impala. Impalas have been factory equipped with 3 top tether anchors since at least the 2001 model year, and possibly as early as the 2000 model year. The LATCH manual unfortunately doesn't go back as far as 2000 model year GM vehicles to be sure, although it should be possible to retrofit tether anchors through a GM dealership in a 2000 model year version Impala if it didn't already have factory equipped tether anchors. :thumbsup:

Happy car shopping.

Like they said - a Taurus would be great - 96 and newer Taurus sedans had lap/shoulder belts in all 3 positions.

A minivan would work as well, and you should be able to find something in that pricerange. It might offer more flexibility as far as head rests and shoulderbelts go.

Most cars from that time period CAN have tether anchors installed.

If you know where you'll be going, see if you can find their website before you go to see what's available and what they're charging.

Redneck-Mama said:

I guess a Price Would Help Wouldn't it?, Well I Thank Around $3,000, It'll Come From a Buy Here-Pay Here Place so I'll be Making Pays, Around Here You Have too Have a Down Payment of $1,000 at Most Places, So by the Time We Go I Hope I Have That,





Thanks!

Click to expand...

I know that I am in a different state but a few of the bigger dealerships around here are starting to offer buy/pay here. Maybe call to see if any has started doing this in your area(or maybe you already know this,lol) and it would give you a bigger selection. Good luck!!!

Thanks Guys, I do like the Taurus, my Sisters SIL has one, maybe they'll have one when we look, we have 4 places around here that we'll be looking at.

I'll call the dealerships and ask about the buy-here-pay-here thing.

Thank you Jeanum for looking up the top tether anchor info.



Thanks Again.