Best seat for 1992 Toyota Celica convertible

[JPS911]

I'm posting this just for closure and for the next dolt trying to do what I am.

I read up on installation, including watching some videos (people actually sit or stand on the seats as they install them to get them snug enough, which i never realized). I was convinced the Radian was going to fit. I took my car to Albee Baby (Manhattan) and parked out front for 2-3 hours while i went back and forth trying seats. The Radian was cool in that it folded, had a steel alloy frame, and fit to 80 lbs. but it didn't fit rear facing at all in my car.

I ended up picking (delivered tomorrow, so will have to verify the install) the Britax Diplomat. I started by fitting the Boulevard, and when i discoverd to my very great surprise that it fit, also tried the Diplomat for the side impact protection. Ironically, I had tried to fit the Diplomat a couple of months ago before I had done any research at all, but didn't understand how seats were installed so I thought it didn't fit.

I would never have bet in a million years it turned out the way it did. You can only try them out. Each seat reclines differently, which is especially important in rear facing. Luckily my wife is short and she can ride with the passenger seat all the way forward, so there is room. Otherwise I'm not sure what we would have ended up doing.

Net net: Read up, try them out yourself. If you have a hard to fit car, there is really no other option.

Best of luck, thanks to this board as a resource, esp. Susan.

JPS911

P.S. Next battle: 1995 Porsche 911 cabriolet...any suggestions on which might be a good one to start with?

	Britax - Click for more info Britax International has been producing reliable child safety products for over 30 years. Not only does Britax have decades of experience creating car seats and other children's safety equipment, Britax has a long standing reputation as an industry leader and innovator. Britax International is headquartered in the United Kingdom, but Britax car seats are designed and manufactured at facilities in Germany, Austria, and the United States. In the summer of 2002, Britax strengthened their commitment to creating the safest car seats with the opening of a brand new, state-of-the-art crash testing facility in North Carolina. Britax car seats have a reputation around the world for being some of the safest, most reliable, and best designed child safety seats ever made.

	Rear Facing Car Seats A rear-facing seat is one in which the infant faces the back of the car. Always install a rear-facing seat in the back seat of your car. This is the safest position for an infant. NEVER place a rear-facing seat in the front seat of a vehicle with passenger airbags.

	Britax Boulevard - Click for more info It is all about the wings with the Britax Boulevard convertible car seat - head and torso safety wings help keep your child from harm in a side-impact crash. And this matters - side-impact crashes are the leading cause of death for 6 - 14 year-old children. Of course, the safety wings are only one of the many safety features that the Britax Boulevard offers: built-in lock-offs, 5-point harness with front adjuster, tangle-free webbing, a push button release LATCH system with Versa-Tether®, and a sculpted base, ensuring an easy installation with a secure fit.

	Britax Diplomat - Click for more info The Britax Diplomat convertible car seat is a smaller version of the Britax Boulevard. It offers the same general features and Side Impact Protection as the deluxe Britax Boulevard convertible seat, but with a lower max weight capacity, seat height, and seat width than the Boulevard. The Diplomat provides top notch Britax safety and comfort for your child, even in the back of a 'lil Mini Cooper.

	Sunshine Kids Radian 80 or 65 - Click for more info If "the Sunshine Kid's Radian 80 convertible car seat is (probably) the only car seat you will ever need," the "probably" part of this statement comes into play when you directly compare the Radian 80 with the Britax Regent. While the Radian 80 has a very high weight capacity, the seat width is only 10" vs. the Regent's 14" seat. The Britax Regent may be a bit wider, but it is very bulky, is only forward facing, and does not fold like the Radian 80. Because the Radian 80 is so narrow, you can potentially put three of them side by side in the back seat. Three Regents side by side? Impossible.

[JPS911]

Just as an update...

I thought I got the Diplomat pretty well tight, but to be sure I scheduled some time with Emily the Manhattan Car Seat Lady. She's really nice, knowledgeable, etc. etc. Can't say enough nice things about her.

She thought we could actually fit a Boulevard in there based upon a conversation with one in her network, but it turns out they were leather seats and sort of in general a higher option as the seat also wasn't so squishy.

So we quickly ditched the Boulevard as it just wouldn't fit in my Celica with cloth squishy seats. We got the Diplomat just OK...not great. It fit quite nicely forward facing, but for my 17 mo and 21-22 lb peanut, I wasn't comfy with that, nor was Emily (dispite this being a perfectly legal option...scary).

Emily recommended several more to look at, including the Evenflow Titan and Triumph, and also the new Recaro. I have Recaros in my street/track car, so would have loved that, but there was no hope. Same with the Triumph. The Titan, however, is very narrow on the base (not the seat), and fit pretty nicely rearward facing. It won't fit forward facing, however.

So, back to Emily. We did get the Diplomat tighter as I left it installed for part of a week. We even got it to where it would pretty much work. While it seemed ok to me, Emily wasn't comfy and she's seen oh, about 1000 times more seats than I have. She was comfy with the rear facing Titan, however, so that is what I'm going with.

For the ease of installation, superior seat, no need for locking clip, and side impact protection, I'm keeping the Diplomat for our travels and also for forward facing once he outgrows the Titan. For the $100 extra in the short term he gets a better fitting seat. Emily's POV is the best seat is the one that installs the best, not necessarily the one with all the bells & whistles.

I'm not advocating everyone buy two seats or anything. Also, not everyone travels as much. My wife and I have severely curtailed our travels, but even with that he has logged about 40,000 air miles in 16 months. Everyone has their own choices and own economic situations. I would have gladly paid $100 just to end my suffering on installing car seats with the top down on 35 degree days in Manhattan, so I went with this dual seat solution until forward facing, when I'll have one.

Thanks again to this board and other resources. At least with all of this my boy will be more safely rearward facing for longer, and the seat is much more secured than I would have known to do on my own. Emily also showed me some install tricks for getting it even tighter.

Use this board and the peeps on it. If you live near NYC, go to Albee Baby or Buy Buy Baby or Schneiders...they will all let you try stuff out in your car if you park nearby. In the end, that is the only way to tell what will fit. Then go to an inspection event or check out Emily on www.carseatlady.org.

I'm waiting until spring to tackle my other car (in winter storage now).

JPS

	Forward Facing Car Seats A forward-facing car seat is one in which the child sits facing the front of the car. The seat should be installed in the back seat of your vehicle. Most forward-facing only seats are for children above 20 pounds.

	Rear Facing Car Seats A rear-facing seat is one in which the infant faces the back of the car. Always install a rear-facing seat in the back seat of your car. This is the safest position for an infant. NEVER place a rear-facing seat in the front seat of a vehicle with passenger airbags.

	Britax Boulevard - Click for more info It is all about the wings with the Britax Boulevard convertible car seat - head and torso safety wings help keep your child from harm in a side-impact crash. And this matters - side-impact crashes are the leading cause of death for 6 - 14 year-old children. Of course, the safety wings are only one of the many safety features that the Britax Boulevard offers: built-in lock-offs, 5-point harness with front adjuster, tangle-free webbing, a push button release LATCH system with Versa-Tether®, and a sculpted base, ensuring an easy installation with a secure fit.

	Britax Diplomat - Click for more info The Britax Diplomat convertible car seat is a smaller version of the Britax Boulevard. It offers the same general features and Side Impact Protection as the deluxe Britax Boulevard convertible seat, but with a lower max weight capacity, seat height, and seat width than the Boulevard. The Diplomat provides top notch Britax safety and comfort for your child, even in the back of a 'lil Mini Cooper.

	RECARO - Click for more info With over 100 years of company history and long standing experience in vehicle seat construction RECARO knows how to make long journeys a pleasure for the whole family. Materials, design and technical highlights ensure a pleasant journey for adults and children alike. RECARO uses its strength as the premier mobile seat manufacturer to engineer an innovative line of products for your children. No other manufacturer can apply experience from production vehicles, commercial vehicles, and race cars to design toward the comfort and safety of children.