kia rondo and 3 RF carseats

hopeforchange

New member
so this is kind of a continuation of my other thread. i might could possibly squeeze the 3 carseats in the back on my 1997 honda, but my husband and i decided that it wasn't worth it. so he is going to sell his car so that i can get a new car.

we are planning on getting the kia rondo. we have an old truck in the family that we can trade in for the cash for clunkers and get a 2009 rondo for pretty cheap. as far as i can tell, the backseat on this car is HUGE. do i even need to worry about being able to fit 3 RF carseats in the back of it? i'll have 2 chicco keyfits and a RF radian. it looks to me like i should have no problems, but i just wanted to ask before we go ahead with this purchase.

thanks!
 
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bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
Are you gettign one with a third row? It floors me that anyone doesn't get the third row, since it adds SO much versatility to the vehicle, but from what I've seen, a lot of people don't get it?
It's a decent backseat..not all that big...its teh same as the optima sedan, which I have, and it's actually pretty ugly for ,many 3-acrosses, although a radian and 2 keyfits should fit..you'll have to have the seats up all the way though..which for my barelt 5 foot self is fine, but most people would find it uncomfortable...
 

Maedze

New member
I wouldn't call the Rondo 'huge', no. It's smallish-to-medium, but not huge.

The third row of the Rondo does not have top tether anchors, really limiting how useful it is.
 

hopeforchange

New member
we are definitely getting the third row option. i guess the backseat just looks huge to me compared to my car. :) we will definitely take our carseats to the dealership and make sure they fit before we buy the car though. it looks like it would have room to spare with the seats we have though!
 

Maedze

New member
we are definitely getting the third row option. i guess the backseat just looks huge to me compared to my car. :) we will definitely take our carseats to the dealership and make sure they fit before we buy the car though. it looks like it would have room to spare with the seats we have though!

Just remember that the third row doesn't have top tether anchors. I would steer you away from this car considering you have three kids and eventually they will be forward facing.

There are crossovers that have top tether anchors in the third row....that would be a better bet :)
 

Maedze

New member
does anyone specifically know if the 3 carseats i have will fit in the middle row? that's what i'm mainly concerned about. :)

Two keyfits and a rear facing Scenera? It's certainly possible. I wouldn't count on it, though. And when the babies outgrow the Keyfits you really are going to be in a pickle.

However, what's not going to fit is three forward facing seats, even narrow ones.

Also, you will find, as they get older, that having them all next to each other is going to be extremely problematic. Don't get me wrong, there are posters here that do it, but they WILL fight, they WILL hit and kick each other, and it WILL be extremely distracting to the driver.

At that point you'll be looking at the third row and saying to yourself, "Why oh why oh why did I not get a row with tether anchors?!?!?!"

Because you haven't bought the car yet I'm warning you now :p It's absolutely something to take into consideration


I too have three small children all very close in age. When the baby was a few months old, I was in a very minor accident due to fighting in the back seat, and that's when I traded up to a minivan.
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
I agree, the fact that the rondo does not have TA's in the 3rd row is annoying,..that being said, it was a SERIOUS contender (at one point the frontrunner) in our current new car search. But..i see your kids are 3 years apart...SO.....if you keep the twins rearfacing until age 3 or more, then the older child will be 6+...which means that child could very possibly be compeltely safe in a booster, which means that you *might* not need 3 forward facing harnessed seats at one time, therefore not having TA's in the back row wouldn't be truly horrible, since boosters don't use/need tethers anyway (well, okay 1 or 2 do, but 99% don't). Plus, yes, i think you could get 3 FFing harnessed seats across the second row...radians would certainly FIT, if they will install...or else something like 2 cargos and a frontier, or something like that would be very likely, I woudl think.
for me, it wouldn't be a *dealbreaker* about the TA's, but defintiely make sure you consider it, like Maedze said. It sucks to get a vehicle and then realize you hadn't really considered.."xxx"..
I personally don't give nearly as much weight to the "bothering each other/misbehavior" argument, simply because my children are not allowed to act that way in the car, but then again, i'm a much harsher disciplinarian than many here on this board..;)
 

hopeforchange

New member
i plan to keep all the children RF until they are 4, so dd would prolly be in a booster by then, but i don't know. i'm planning on getting the radian80 for her, so she might still be in that at 7, lol!

i'm not worried about them being 3 across. that's how i was with my siblings growing up and we were very close in age. there was just no choice but to behave. :)

i would LOVE to get a minivan, but i just can't afford one right now unless i'm willing to put dd all the way in the 3rd row, RF, and i do not want her that far away from me and that isolated in the car. i need a vehicle that i can put all 3 on the 2nd row and i have a VERY limited budget. in fact, it's looking like we may not even be able to afford the rondo b/c a lot of the deals they advertise are very misleading.

i'm very discouraged with our car situation right now. :(
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
oh no. ya, a lot of the deals are really misleading..but your biggest "card" to play as a buyer is to walk away...if they really want you to buy that vehicle, they will DEAL!

Are you dead set on a new one? Because you can save THOUSANDS by getting one that is just a year or 2 old..and as you may ormay not know, Kia's warranty is transferrable for teh first 5 years or 60K miles, WAY better than most other manufacturers.
I've been looking for a while, and honestly you can get Kias at significant savings that are a year or 2 old, because even though the brand has improved greatly as of late, the rep is still crappy, so the resale on them is uber-low....
 

hopeforchange

New member
can someone tell me the importance of the top tethers? b/c if i kept my current car and turned dd FF, there are no tethers in my car, nor would there be in any older car that we might get. so i'm just wondering how important it actually is.
 

Maedze

New member
can someone tell me the importance of the top tethers? b/c if i kept my current car and turned dd FF, there are no tethers in my car, nor would there be in any older car that we might get. so i'm just wondering how important it actually is.


Very, very, very important. When possible, a forward facing car seat should always be top tethered, as it reduces the risk of a head/neck injury.

However, many older cars can be retrofitted :)
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
i thought you had like a 97 civic? that can be retrofitted with anchors...any vehickle since 2002 is going to already have them, and most cars from about 90 on can be retrofitted, so unless you are looking at some ancient vehicles, you absolutely can get TA's for most used cars.
they really do reduce head excurision and create a much safer forward facing carseat. In fact, it is so much safer, top tethers on FFing carseats are REQUIRED by law in
canada.
 

MarathonMama

New member
Ok, so I'm not a tech but I do have a 2007 Kia Rondo with a 3rd row. I'm expecting #3 so we bought a RNXT so we can do 3 across since the third row is useless for anything but RF or boosters and ODD is FF.

I fit a RF MA behind the passenger, FF Radian centre, and a FF Marathon behind the driver. They fit well and all were independently tight installed with seatbelts.

The second row has a 60/40 split and because of where the devision is and the belt stalks, there is very little room behind the driver (hence the FF MA to puzzle with the RNXT). I might be able to fit a RF RN but it might slightly affect the driver. FWIW, I got an impressively upright install on the RNXT!

As for 3 RF seats?!? I'm not entirely sure ... but worth a check with your particular seats. Our next vehicle will definitely be a van! Have you considered putting a RF seat in the third row and accessing it through the back hatch?!?
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
I know you said you didn't like the minivan idea, but with 3 kids already, why not?
If you dont want 1 kid to be alone in the back, then there are some options..for example, you could put all 3 kids across the back bench, and leave the middle free..that way all kids are still together. bythe time the babies are big enough to play with an interact with your older child, she'll be FFing anyway, right? so actually, having a FFing child in the 3rd row and 2 RF'ers in the middle row means they are looking at each other...
some minivans have a bench across the middle, so you could possibly seat all 3 kids across the middle row.
Or you could get a sedan or SUV with a wide backseat, and seat all 3 across, and just have a 5-seater car...there are lots of nice safe models....do you have criteria you are using, along with a budget? Maybe we can help suggest? There are, for example, lots of ford freestyles available for $10K or so, and they seat 6-7 and are very safe....sedonas can be had for that also....a whole array of 1-3 year old used sedans...what would you like, ideally? (i love to shop..i'm a compulsive shopper and shopping enabler, LOL!!)
 

hopeforchange

New member
I know you said you didn't like the minivan idea, but with 3 kids already, why not?
If you dont want 1 kid to be alone in the back, then there are some options..for example, you could put all 3 kids across the back bench, and leave the middle free..that way all kids are still together. bythe time the babies are big enough to play with an interact with your older child, she'll be FFing anyway, right? so actually, having a FFing child in the 3rd row and 2 RF'ers in the middle row means they are looking at each other...
some minivans have a bench across the middle, so you could possibly seat all 3 kids across the middle row.
Or you could get a sedan or SUV with a wide backseat, and seat all 3 across, and just have a 5-seater car...there are lots of nice safe models....do you have criteria you are using, along with a budget? Maybe we can help suggest? There are, for example, lots of ford freestyles available for $10K or so, and they seat 6-7 and are very safe....sedonas can be had for that also....a whole array of 1-3 year old used sedans...what would you like, ideally? (i love to shop..i'm a compulsive shopper and shopping enabler, LOL!!)

i'll take any help you can give! we are just racking our brains right now to come up with anything.

i'm not against a minivan, i just really want to keep all 3 kids together on the same row (ideally the 2nd row) until dd FF at age 4 (in a year), which means i'd need an 8 passenger van and those are hard to come by in my price range.

we are definitely looking at SUVs, like an older pilot or highlander. we're actually calling around right now about a few we found on craigslist. i will take a look at the sedona and the freestyle as well.
 

APT

New member
Cash for Clunckers is a good reason to not buy a used 2YO vehicle.

You can find Dodge Caravans and Chrysler Town & Country 2008 models for $10k that have all the safety equipment. 3 in the 3rd row for now, stow the 2nd row seats for easy access. Sliding doors rule with children, especially small ones. Skip the SUV.

Mazda5?
 

Maedze

New member
we are definitely looking at SUVs, like an older pilot or highlander. we're actually calling around right now about a few we found on craigslist. i will take a look at the sedona and the freestyle as well.

I was also thinking a Freestyle might be the answer...plenty of room to do three across, but there's a top tether in the third row to use if the time comes.
 

hopeforchange

New member
we've looked at the mazda5, but since you can only seat 2 in the middle seat, i'm not crazy about it.

we will look at the caravan and town and country. and we've been checking out the freestyle as well.

another option we're considering is a ford aerostar van that my parents have. we could get it for super cheap and use it for a few years until we could save up and get a nicer van, like the sienna.
 

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