Seatbelt obstructs rear view

I have that seatbelt stored away in mine. I figure that if I ever have three people in the back the middle person will be so squished by the other two that a seatbelt won't be necessary.
Limited rear view visibility was a serious concern to me as well. This is why I tucked the seatbelt away and removed the cargo cover.

 

I wouldn't torture anyone to ride in the middle. It would be for emergency times only (when no one else could drive.) Most people offer because both our cars are small, and it seems big car drivers are afraid to ride in small cars. Fine with me if someone else wants to drive! We did buy a c. Since I'm the sole driver 95% of the time, we'll deal with the passenger seat on an as-needed basis.

 

Why did you remove the cargo cover?

 

While at the dealership my husband sat in a scion and an Avalon, neither of which had uncomfortable headrests. I do not understand the lack of consistency.

 

Maybe its not the headrests that are the problem, maybe its your husbands head.

 

That would be illegal where I am... fine and a quarter of the "points" on your licence (or during a holiday period, half of the "points" on your licence). The belt is not hard to redeploy... now I think about it I think I did do it once.

 

Ha! He is short......I should just tell him to GROW UP!!!! Being short should be to his advantage in this situation. I guess he'll be doing all the driving when we're traveling together.

 

Because I think they're stupid. They block my view of the rear window and now I can't put boxes back there without taking the cover off, thereby making it even more pointless..

(By the way I looked all over the manual for this car and it doesn't even refer to it as existing in the car... what's up with that?)

The most I've ever had in my car is 3 people, so when (if ever) it gets to 5 I'll worry about it then.

 

It's in the last part of Section 3-6, referred to as the "Luggage cover".

 

The cargo cover blocks your view? Oh, you just mean when you've got stuff pushing it up past the window, right? I love that thing. Gives me a private "trunk" to haul stuff around, and easy to remove when I need to carry around more.

 

The middle back seat is ideal for a rear facing child seat if you don't want to move the front seats forward.

 

I believe the back seat is rated only for child seats in the two outer positions - see the manual.
This exploded diagram shows the LATCH anchor bars, which are two separate pieces, parts 73705 and 73706:
Prius Rear Seat
If a child seat is put in the middle, it would be connected to the inner end of each of the two anchor bars, which may result in an insecure or unsafe fitting.

 

There are only two bars in the diagram I linked to above.

 

Interesting, there are significant differences between the Australian manual and US manual in the child restraint systems section, with our manual having many references to regulation ECE No. 44, which is an instrument of UNECE, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

We also have several pages of tables on Child restraint system suitability for various seating positions which are omitted from the US manual completely.

For background, ours says:

• a "Baby seat (infant seat)" is equal to Group 0 and 0+ of ECE No. 44
• a "Child seat (convertible seat)" is equal to Group 0+ and I of ECE No. 44
• a "Junior seat (booster seat)" is equal to Group I and II of ECE No. 44

Aside from the images being reversed, the first of that list shows a different belt arrangement to the US manual:



Then there are the tables:





There are also significant differences on the following pages... I'm not sure how much is simply discrpeancy between LATCH and ISOFIX terminology and how much is about real physical differences.

Oddly, ISOFIX child restraints only became legal in Australia from 7 June 2013, well after I got my car.

 

There's also this side-by-side.

US manual:



AUS manual:




I always thought the old rule of thumb was that the rear centre seat was safest, but apparently I'm totally out of date with such things. I don't have kids obviously.

 

The US manual, as the post above shows, says that "LATCH anchors are provided for the outside rear seats". But oddly, it also shows top tether strap anchor brackets behind all three rear seats.