Ironically, Prius is better than Prius v for large rear-facing child car seats.

I went from a 2013 prius plug in to a 2015 v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon). I found i had more room in the prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) for a rear facing car seat for both the passenger and the car seat. I have a chico 35 car seat and it fits fine. Not sure why you need a large infant seat as its an infant after all. BUT! I did have issues installing the seat in the middle as i did just fine in the plug in. I suspect this will apply to both infant seats and booster seats. There isno realistic way to safely install the seat in the middle in the v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon). THe shape of the seats in the v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) cause the car seat to roll sideways. I installed the seat on the sides and used the normal LATCH connectors. On the sides i had no issues, but i just preferred having the car seat installed in the middle for that extra side impact avoidance. One thing i dont' get is why do not manufacturers provide latch connections at the middle!! Its the safest place in the car for side impacts.

 

Just a quick survey of cars in my work parking lot with child car seats. Besides my own, not a single one has a car seat installed in the middle. Everyone puts it on the side for easier ingress and egress. I've mentioned this to as many as would listen, here so it's not out of ignorance. Go to any supermarket parking lot and you likely will find the same. I don't think there is incentive for Toyota to install middle LATCH anchors.

 

When we first got the Prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) for my wife, we were sharing use of a Safety 1st Onboard 35 infant seat and it fit perfectly fine in the Prius. This is one of the larger infant seats, allowing children up to 35 lbs. I still use it today in my Dodge Charger and it fits my 17 month old daughter and will likely continue to do so until we flip her at 2 years to front facing. We now use a Safety 1st Advance SE 65 Air+ convertible seat in the Prius and, again, this is a fairly large seat when reclined for rear-facing toddlers and it fits without issue.

My only real complaint for children in rear facing seats in the v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) is that I wish there were better vents for the A/C back there. We shut the side vents in front and aim the middle ones straight through to the back to alleviate this as best we can. I imagine this is only an issue when rear facing and for the time being we use a clip-on foam stroller fan to blow some of that back toward her on short trips when the car is so hot.

 

I've owned a 2012 Prius v, 2014 Rav4, and 2016 4Runner. The Rav4 was best rear facing, but it was vastly better than the v. The 4Runner is the tightest, but my 38lb, 3.5year old is front facing in a Chicco Nextfit and we aren't having more children, so it isn't a big concern these days.


Tandy 400

 

I have 2 giant car seats in my v and have had both rear facing and have had no issues. I find the v has a ton of room in the rear seats - seems to be even more than the CRV we have as well.

 

This is the part I don't understand about young families. All cars and all car seats are sized differently. Regardless of size, some seats will just fit better or worse. It's a fact that the v (as in the posts above, lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) has more space than the hatchback.

A car seat costs some $300 for the expensive ones. Cars cost around $20,000. It just doesn't make sense to me to buy a car based on how well car seats fit. If you want more space, get the v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon). If you want better fuel economy, get the hatchback. If your current car works just fine, don't buy anything. Choose the car seat that fits your car not the car to fit your car seats. Even if you throw out your old seat and buy a new once, it's $600 combined. That's a lot less than a new car. My $0.02 and watching a lot of young families purchasing SUV's.

 

Exactly - plus I like to choose the car seats on which one's looks more comfortable for my kids. Last thing I want is them screaming because their seat is like sitting in a rock. I ended up getting expensive one's ($300+) because they were the more comfortable looking one's. And they don't scream whilst on long trips so I guess my sanity was worth it!!

 

Wow, really?! We just bought a 2013 Prius v and use a larger rear-facing car seat for our daughter (2.5 years old). We use a Chicco NextFit convertible car seat. No problem at all with space. In fact, there's MORE space between the front passenger seat and our daughter's car seat than there was in our previous car (2014 Mazda CX-5)! I'm very happy with how spacious the Prius v is.

 

I'd like to see this "less room" scenario since the numbers on the two vehicles simply don't support it.

 

The NextFit is a great seat. We have one in our 4Runner and our MINI. It had loads of space behind the passenger in the v when we still had the v.

Just for fun, here is my wife buckling our daughter into the back of her MINI.

 

Haha, nice pic! Yup, I'm very happy with the NextFit. We're happy Chicco customers. We started with the KeyFit 30 for our daughter and moved up to the NextFit when she outgrew it.

 

I have two recaro sport children seat ( Performance SPORT ) that I interchange between Prius 3 Gen 3 and Prius v, Prius v has approximately 8 inches length compared to Prius 3 Gen3. Width is slightly more, about 1.5 inches which is negligible in my view, but still more compared to Prius 3 gen 3.

 

We did the same. Very happy.