Question best car seat for a small two door car?

[Unregistered]

i have a car seat question. can you recommend a good car seat for a small two door car? my new nanny has a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire, two door. she needs to drive my 19 month old (rear-facing, 24lbs, 35") once a week. last week was the first time, i tried to install my Britax Boulevard car seat and it took almost an hour and i'm still not confident that it was installed %100 properly. the car does not have the latch hooks so you have to use the seat belt. her seats are shaped like bucket seats - they dip down in the middle so the seat is hard to get flat. i'm not sure if i should install in the middle or on one of the sides with the lap/shoulder belt. rather than moving the seat back and forth between our cars i would like to find an inexpensive car seat that would better fit her small, older car. i would greatly appreciate any recommendations!!

 

[Lee-B-]

I believe that car is very similar to my moms 2000 cavalier. I used a rear facing evenflo Triumph. I HATED it, had to climb in back and bend my 20month old in half to get her in as the sides were incredibly high (compared to our usual radian). But it did fit. It fit very nicely in the middle and the middle only had a lap belt so made for a very easy install. I ended up moving the seat behind the driver though as it left more room to load and unload via passenger side. My mom drives with the seat wayyyy forward so there was like a foot or more of room between the seats. My 6foot husband was able to drive still, though not the most comfortably.

What I found key to get the right recline was to put the front seat all the way forward and get in there and use my hips to push the carseat into the seat while tightening. The seats in my mom's car where very 'soft' so they had a lot of give which allowed for getting the seat angled into the fabric.

I don't know about the sunfire but my moms car didn't have the usual locking seatbelts so I had to use the lightweight locking clip thing on the male part of the seat belt. It worked great once I figured it out.

Since it's only once a week a seat with high sides won't be a huge issue. If this was the regular daily car I would strongly recommend a very low profile seat to ease with loading and unloading.