Possibly getting an Apex for friend

She has a 1996 maxima, was wondering if the back seat reaches the high seat back/headrest requirements. And if this seat will take up lots of the middle seat.

Anyone?

I don't know specifics on the Maxima, but the Apex is a very wide seat and will likely take up most of the middle seat in just about any car.

She's using this now and I think it's pretty close to the top of the back seat, maybe 2-4 inches from top.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10759858
This seat is supposed to be 26 inches while the Apex is supposed to be 28. I was reading another thread and it seems he may be able to use it for a couple years before the headrest thing is an issue.
http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=81202&postcount=2

She doesn't have any other option, the car is small, so is her income. I tried to get her to look at other options but because she needs it literally right now and the price is 1/2 of anything else, she wants to get it. But I don't think she's realizes how big. A Marathon would be so nice, I hate myself for being tempted by those CL ads.

The APEX takes up lots of space
here is a pic of two across my third row

excuse Fionas face, she ate the pavement running the day before this was taken

The Apex is a beast. (IMO... I don't have a lot of experience with 'larger' seats though.) I have it sitting next to the Cosco seat you linked, and it is significantly larger.

Depending on the height of her LO, he may be able to get away with it for a while, even without a headrest behind. It dawned on me the other day that although I have both of the ones I own in front of headrests, one of them actually could be in a non-headrest seat, as the child in it is not yet tall enough to have head support above where the seat itself goes. He's about 43" standing height -- I don't know his torso height and don't have access to him right now to measure it.

Let me go out and measure the seats and see what the height difference is. I'll reply back in a couple of minutes.

ETA: Here's what I came up with -- hope this is of help for your friend, and makes some sense. From the top of the car's seat to the top of the Cosco HBB is about 2.5". From there, it's about another 3.5" to the top of the Apex. I have the headrest in a position to accomodate a child who is at the top of the harnessed height settings; he's almost outgrown it as a harnessed seat. (I believe the headrest can go up higher for use as a booster, though.) So if she has 2-4" above that Cosco HBB, it's likely that she'd be just fine with the Apex, headrest-wise.

As far as width goes, I got 18" wide for the Cosco, and 21" wide for the Apex. I measured along the edge of the seat, from the outside edge of the Cosco to where the two seats butt up against each other (they don't puzzle -- it's a flush touching) and then from that same "butt" space to the side wall of the vehicle, where the Apex touches. It may have been a bit shy of the 21"... it was the end of my measuring and I was getting sloppy. But at least 20".

Is she puzzling with something, or just needs space on each side?

HTH

Well she said she went to the store and looked at the seat and it was too big. Funny, since she didn't know what store to go to or even what seat to look at. So I guess she gonna leave him in the outgrown seat. Can someone with the ability please delete this thread.
Thanks.

I've always wondered, what is the height needed to get full use of the seat with the harness, or with the booster.

That's so sad. I hate it when parents have been informed that what they're doing is unsafe and choose to continue to do it anyways. Here's hoping she'll change her mind and move him out of the outgrown seat. If he's truly outgrown it, would that make a HBB a safer option, if she refuses to get a HWH seat?

Peg -- do you mean the height of the seat back, or the height of the child? I can go measure my seatbacks later, if that's what your asking... child is about 48" (standing... no seated height handy) but all of that info is usually easy to find around here.

Is this the 3.9yo child you posted about before? While it would not be my first choice, if he is 3.9yo and >40#, he would be safer in a booster than an outgrown harnessed seat. If the mother is not willing to spend $100 on a huge seat, maybe she'll spend $40-$50 on a decent highbacked booster?

ETA to CarrieR -- yes, in general, if the child meets the legal minimums for a booster, even if not the best practice minimums, it is generally safer to have that child properly boostered than improperly harnessed. If the child is too young/small for a booster or cannot use it properly, then we need to tell the parent (assuming they are interested in the information) that a higher-weight harnessing seat is the only safe option.

Vivo or TB? TB is cheaper. Is there a better one for tiny kids and that is narrow. While he is 40lbs he is real tiny, he looks like he just turned 3 and is the smallest kid in his 3yr old class.

chickabiddy said:

Is this the 3.9yo child you posted about before? While it would not be my first choice, if he is 3.9yo and >40#, he would be safer in a booster than an outgrown harnessed seat. If the mother is not willing to spend $100 on a huge seat, maybe she'll spend $40-$50 on a decent highbacked booster?

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

I'd rather the kid in a highback turbobooster.

Turbos are cheap, available everywhere, and fit small kids very nicely.