Prius with Two Babies and Gear

No, I don't think 3 car seats (2 convertible with wide bases + regular) would fit across the rear seat in anything but the largest vehicles like a Suburban, Tahoe, or Expedition. But if you have one of those, a mini van gets better mpg.

 

It depends. Those convertible car seats that go both rear/forward facing with the wide bases sometimes bump into the rear wheel bump that are right next to the rear seat in most cars. Don't know if that is the case with the Jetta Wagon.

If the 2 seats can be mounted properly in the outside positions, then that's about it, there won't be room for a third person in the middle position.

 

For what is worth, in addition to being longer, the V wagon rear bench moves pretty far back. It still may be tight for your 6'2" legs with one of the rear facing car seats behind you. Give it a try at the dealer!

 

I keep forgetting there is storage room under the carpet / trunk area thanks for reminding me! Seriously, I cram stuff all over and never thought twice about it, haha.

 

Here is the problem I see with trying to fit two seats in the Prius. It is possible that I have a "large" car seat, but all of them in the store appear to be roughly the same size. The Prius is just that small inside.

With shoes, I'm 6'-3" and that is where my seat must be for me to drive. Take notice of where that passenger seat must be for the baby's seat to be at the correct angle as to be safe and not allow her head to fall forwards. The passenger sits nearly straight up as well. She was 5'-5" and was not comfortable sitting up front.

 

I always thought you were supposed to put the car seat in the middle. That should, in theory, give you more room, right?

 

The baby car seat is too wide, it would hit the driver's seatback in the situation above.

 

So pretty much all of you are saying the Prius is too small for a car seat, correct?

 

Wow! Are all car seats that big nowadays? Granted, my "baby" is 24 now, but back in the day infant seats were fairly small. I didn't have a fancy one. It was permanently mounted in the car with no clip-off base unit, so I had to carry a separate baby seat. At that time I drove a Saab 99, which seems like it was about the same interior size as my Prius - or maybe slightly smaller. At first we got a bigger seat, and then realized that even though it was advertised as being safe for infants it was too big and he didn't fit in it properly to be safe. We went back and purchased the smaller seat. The bigger seat worked fine when he was old enough to turn around and face forward.

 

If my car seat was facing forwards, the passenger could sit in the front just fine, but basically yes having a young family in a Prius requires a short passenger, or no passenger at all. Two seats facing backwards is out of the question, nobody could drive it.

 

Those convertible car seats that go from infant to pre-school are really too big when in the rear-facing configuration.

One solution would be to use an infant car seat in the beginning and then just move up the the next size car seat.

Yes it means having to purchase multiple car seats but at least the front passenger seat is available for seating.

 

And probably a money saver in being able to buy the Prius now, save gasoline and planet for the kids.

 

Yes, that's what I was trying to get at, but you said it much better. Infant seats should fit in a rear-facing configuration with no problem, and are safer for infants anyway because they fit better.

 

I have a rear facing car seat and it is behind the passenger seat. I have to move the seat forward to get the seat in and out, but once it is in, I can move the seat back to a decent position for myself and I am 6'0. This leaves me decent space for everything else.

Two car seats would be a problem. If you don't use the "base" they don't take up as much room.

If I had two kids, I would have bought the V instead of the PiP. Lots more room in that.

 

I agree. After talking to make few more parents myself the special infant rear facing seats are definitely the way to go.