We just purchased a Prius and I am trying to figure out how to configure our car seats. We have a Frontier 85 for my almost 6 year old and a Roundabout for my 3 year old. They fit just fine in the two outboard positions, but we'd like to be able to fit an adult in the back with them occasionally when we go out with my mother-in-law. There definitely isn't enough room for an adult in the middle. I tried playing around with the seats today but had trouble. We also have a backless booster for the older child that we use occasionally as a spare seat. Today the only way I could fit them (with an adult back there) was the Roundabout in the middle and the booster on one of the sides. But it was really hard to get the seat belts in for both the booster and the adult. Any suggestions on what would work with the seats we have? Or a new seat? The 3 year old is getting big for the Roundabout so we would likely be replacing that soon too.
Use seatbelts instead of latch. You can push the seats further outboard and squeeze in the middle. I can't fit there but my wife squeezes in between a rear facing roundabout and a booster.
I can't comment on the specific car seats you have. We have twohttp://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B002OCAE3U?tag=priuschatcom-20 car seats in our 2007 prius, and we have had them in a rental 2011 Prius as well, and will soon move them to our 2012 PiP that is on order. We have one rear facing in the middle with the seat belt, and one forward facing on the drivers side with latch. We have also done one on each side with latch, forward facing, but getting an adult between was a little difficult. We can put both forward facing, one in the middle, and one on either side, and an adult fits fine (250-300 pound adult even) on the other side. These car seats are built to fit three across, which will help for us when we add kid #3. There is now a version of the Radian rated for up to 120 pounds, for use a as booster/car seat combo. We are kinda looking for an infant seat that will fit between the two Radian XTSL seats, but since we don't have a new one on the way yet, it's more window shopping then anything else. -Harry
I have an earlier generation Radian 65 which is also a slim design - I can vouch that with one seat installed, I can fit an adult-sized teen outboard and a small-framed 10-year-old in the center position - but it's "cozy". You "might" be able to get a second, similar car seat into the center position with an adult outboard, but it may be a tight fit and not something I'd want to do on an extended Journey. That said, Prius v might have enough extra width to make a difference for those who haven't already purchased.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll have to try the seatbelt installation and I'll take a look at the Radian for our next seat.
The Radian XTSL are the old models, the RXT are the new 2012 models. There is a problem with the Radian car seat latch coming loose, simple google search will turn up a lot of complaints. If you install it with a seat belt, should be no problems.
