need next carseat after infant seat

[fastdogs]

A coworker is looking into new carseats for her 8 month old son. He's 19 lbs and about 28" tall. The vehicles they'll need seats for are a 2003 toyota 4 runner and a 2003 F250 extended cab pickup. She currently has him in a graco snugride.
I suggested marathon but she's concerned about the fit rear facing- one of the reviews she read said it was hard to fit without putting the front seat too far forward.
Any suggestions for her next seat? She wants safety first, but would like one that will last him longer than ones like the comfort sport (which I advised her against, due to my experience with it).
thanks
vickie

 

[ThreeBeans]

As long as she does an upright install, the Marathon should fit with minimal difficulty. You don't need a full 45 degree recline with a baby that old

 

[Jewels]

I found that my MA takes up about the same amount of room RF as my snugride did! With the MA and my vehicle I can have the back of the seat toucing the carseat (MA) (britax allows this if the car manufacturer does) so then that way the seats didn't end up being any further up then they were with the snugride.

 

[skaterbabs]

FWIW, most of the reviews talking about how "hard" the MA is to install RF in small cars are from people who really don't know how to do it.