6ft driver with a rear facing carseat behind commuter? options?

Gas is creeping back up a little bit and my commute here in Socal requires higher speeds and more sitting in traffic than my commute in Seattle. I really love my 2003 Montero and it has plenty of space. What are my options for something that can still do my school drop off duties (note I have two car seats one of which is rear facing and one front so the middle seat doesn't really work for the rear facing) also note my wife isn't super short so the rear facing only fitting with the seat way pushed up won't work either.

I am using a 09 G37 for a similar scenario. One rear facing and one booster seat. Passenger seat barely needs to be up to fit rear seat. I am averaging 23.16 mpgs over the 12k I have owned mine. The rear seat does not fold down, so it does somewhat limit larger pick of items. It is a blast to drive, doesn't look to bad and seem to be pretty reliable.

I was cross shopping Caddy CTS, BMW 3&5 as well as looking at some of the midsize Chevy. Inifniti was the best deal all around, felt less worn out that some of the other around the cost and miles I was looking (15k, 60-80k) and the most fun to drive.

That's one of the exact reasons we got our Outback, depth to the backseat was the biggest I found

Hmm, I need more than 5mpg to justify getting rid of the Montero (it gets around 16). I really like it for everything except mpgs.

Any mid-size sedan should do that fine. We did it in my wife's Mazda3 when we had our first kid (I'm 6'0) and it fit fine. They fit fine in my (09) WRX as well, FWIW. I would imagine a Civic or Corolla would fit rear-facing seats with a 6'0 driver, assuming you don't drive all lean-back gangsta style.

This might not be the kind of thing you're looking for, but we have a previous gen Fit that becomes a 3 seat car when a rear facing infant seat is installed. We don't have any experience with them yet, but I suppose convertibles seats may help the situation.

Not too long ago, I checked out the Sonic, Cruze, Fiesta, Focus, and Mazda 3 to see how much (little) leg room I had in the front passenger seat of each, with a rear facing infant seat mounted behind me. Just like our Fit, my knees were literally smashed against the dash in all of them, if I could even wedge myself in. I don't expect other substantially similar cars like the Civic or Corolla would be any better either. However, in the new 2015 Fit, I had room to spare! No other compact or subcompact that I'm aware of even comes close...Now if only they would come out with a Fit Si.

I know that my old TDI Jetta the larger convertible rear facing etc seat didnt fit behind the driver. And I know when I measured the distances in a Fiesta/Focus the Fiesta was substantially smaller and the Focus also than the Jetta's back seat. The convertible rear facing seats are even more space hog than the infant carriers. Did you putone of those behind the driver seat or in the middle irish?

Yeah I've thought about a Forester. Partially because of how easy they are to make kind of quick too :P but I need a decent mpg bump to make it worth it.

New? A Mazda6 is the droid you want. I've put almost 18000 miles on mine since I bought it last March and have really grown to love it. If you can skimp on the electronics and tech, get the 2.5 Sport (aka base model) with a 6spd manual for around $22k. It drives almost as well as the 2.5 equipped 3 but has tons more room in back, is almost as good on gas (I average 25-30mpg in all stop and go in town driving, and mid 30s highway at 65+) and is a lot cheaper to insure. The motor really loosens up after a few thousand miles, the shifter is typical Mazda excellent and it handles for a big car.

Jaynen wrote: Gas is creeping back up a little bit and my commute here in Socal requires higher speeds and more sitting in traffic than my commute in Seattle. I really love my 2003 Montero and it has plenty of space. What are my options for something that can still do my school drop off duties (note I have two car seats one of which is rear facing and one front so the middle seat doesn't really work for the rear facing) also note my wife isn't super short so the rear facing only fitting with the seat way pushed up won't work either.

Chevy Volt?

Not at all unpleasant to drive. Does long distances. Does short distances. Happy to burn dino juice all the way back to Seattle. If you've heard negatives from the news, they're probably untrue. Happy to burn electrons for 30-40 miles on a charge. Crushes your current MPG. Should be plentiful in SoCal. A new model is coming, and plug in cars fall of a cliff on the used market due to lost state and federal subsidies, so it should be easy to get a deal. Or, wait for the new one.

If your intentions are sporting, get a 2012 or later for traction and stability control defeat, or go 2013 to get the refresh, which includes the "hold" drive mode that lets you preserve your charge and burn gas.

There should be an EVSE, or charge cord, under the cargo area floor. It's the slow kind. Don't bother getting anything fancier until you know you need it. You probably won't.

On the rest drive, put it in sport mode, put the shifter in low (the car has a single speed transmission - low is just a throttle mapping, and is good for all speeds) and drive around. Bury the throttle from a stop. If the car has a charge, you'll leave with some serious authority, but you'll make no noise beyond tire scrub. If the gas engine is running, the lack of a close relationship between throttle position and RPM will take getting used to.

Downsides are premium fuel, (of which you will use very little, but still) cheap interior plastics, no middle rear seat, and absolutely incomprehensible coat hooks.

You might want to check out the Mazda 5. The rear seats are adjustable and when in the rearmost position have impressive clearance to the front seats.

Tesla model S.

Ok, seriously, you need to buy the seat first and then go put it in various vehicles. That's the only way to tell since carseats fit so differently. There are a few baby-esque parenting forums which talk extensively about carseat combos too.

My wife has a 2008 Mazda 3 wagon, manual trans, and the giaganto Recaro rear facing car seat fits behind the front passenger seat fine. With that said... My wife who is all of 5'3" can seat in the front passenger seat and have enough room. I'm 5'11" and I can't sit in the front passenger seat without my knees being jammed up around my ears.

What usually happens is the booster type car seat goes behind the driver, and the rear facing behind the front passenger, I drive and my wife rides shotgun. We've been doing this setup for over a year with no problems.

I will say that it is nice to get 30-33mpg and haul the whole crew around. For longer trips we have a roof rack and coffin (Thule box). We've used that setup to go to FL and back twice, week long trips to visit family, now MPG drops with the roof coffin on, but it allows us to take much more stuff. One trip we took the roof coffin and two bikes on top as well. Worked like a charm.

the kid seat fits fine in the 9-7x so i'd say the same across the trailblazer line. i usually put the rear facing kid in the middle though and put the booster behind one of the front seats, then front person can put seat back as far as they want and the rear facing seat just slides next to it. what's stopping you from that? rolling like that in the temporary van while my truck is torn apart.

patgizz wrote: the kid seat fits fine in the 9-7x so i'd say the same across the trailblazer line. i usually put the rear facing kid in the middle though and put the booster behind one of the front seats, then front person can put seat back as far as they want and the rear facing seat just slides next to it. what's stopping you from that? rolling like that in the temporary van while my truck is torn apart.

This ends very quickly if you ever have two reverse facing at the same time.

My son's Jetta was totaled last week so he's been searching also. Because his wife only drives 10 miles to and from work he opted to lease a Mazda CX-5 for her. They believe they can keep miles well below the lease requirements but will probably buy it at the end anyway.

So far it looks like something that would fill your needs, GRM staffers seemed to like it.

Dan

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/new-cars/2015-107-cx-5/

So we have two sets of car seats because of our situation and the two convertible boosters one front one rear in my car just don't play nice in terms of putting the rear facing one in the middle.

Funny enough I have been seriously thinking about a Volt if we do a new car. But unless I am reading this wrong http://bit.ly/1KxPz0p we have to pay 20 cents per kw/hr which the volt gets 2.7miles per kw/hr and I do about 1200 miles a month at minimum. so 444 kw/hr *.2 88 bucks a month in electricity.

Gas wise that is 75gallons at lets say 3.60 right now or 270 (I budget around 300-350 a month however for gas)

So at new car prices I don't know that I could ever get the Volt to actually save us money because of a payment unless we were able to use it to cut down usage of our minivan as a family a lot as well.

Patgizz your Saab SUV (the trailblazer one) I cant imagine gets a lot better gas mpg than my current SUV but I could be wrong, it should be fine size wise for sure

Octavious we had a Toyota matrix when we had only one kid I imagine the space is similar to the 3

I've been hoping pricing would announce for the new 2016 Volt and if its true they lowered the price the "new" older models would drop as well. Which might make them cheaper.

What about like a 335d? I love those but don't know if its viable. They are down to some below 20k and average 30+ on fuelly for overall fuel economy. Diesel actually seems to end up being cheaper than gas sometimes or sometimes a little more (maybe 20-30 cents) here from when I had my jetta

Am I the only one who came into this thread looking for the pictures of a 6 foot tall man sitting in a rear facing child seat placed behind the driver's seat of a small commuter car?

Current body style elantra and chevy cruze have the most rear seat depth of the ~40mpg cars. I had a rear facing seat behind me in the elantra for 6 months and I'm 6'0 240lbs and was comfortable. Cruze has similar space. 2011+ Outback/legacy has most space of any I've seen. My wife's outback had 2" of space between rear facing seat and back of front seat. The rear facing seat did not touch the front seats. We get 26 average in the outback, 34 in the elantra.

you have 2 kids or 4? little unclear based on your comment.

luckily my son hit booster size when the baby came so we only have 1 rear facing and 1 convertible booster.

as much as i don't like recommending anything that i personally do not care for, the mazda 5 sounds like a good fit.

Piece of cake in my '05 xB - that car has more rear seat room than anything I've ever seen. But they don't make them any more. Have you tried a Kia Soul?

2015 Mazda 6 are being closed out now for new 2016 arrivals; a manual tranny Sport can be had in the high 18k range, 37mpg highway.

But I'd look into the seat as much as the car, doing the exact same calculation myself. We have a Diono RXT car seat, currently facing backwards. This seat gets great ratings for crash worthiness and width (3X can fit in a civic), but it is super long. It doesn't work in the back of my 9-2X Aero (WRX) wagon, with any height passenger. It barely works facing backwards in the middle seat of a Honda Pilot.

I'm looking at Mazda6 as well, but I think the answer is to keep my car and get a shorter rear-facing seat. Most online reviews focus on width, but I did find this one with some length data. http://csftl.org/battle-of-the-infant-seats/

probably wont see more than high 20's with a mazda5. but it is pretty spacious. you can shop base models (sport trim) if you absolutely gotta have manual. otherwise 08-10 switched from a 4 speed auto to a 5 speed auto. 12+ are the restyled ones with a bit more power and I think a 6 speed auto? not sure if manual is 5 or 6 speed off the top of my head.

some people complain the 1st gen is underpowered for what it is, maybe true, but up until a month ago i was driving a 2500lb hatchback with maybe 90 hp at the wheels for 5 years. I think the mazda5 has adequate power.

No cones, interesting about the Cruze and it did come in a diesel which I don't think sold well but probably got better mpgs?

Pat I have 2 kids but mom and dad both work so we both have car seats because one parent drops off (me) and another picks up (mom)

Jaynen wrote: The convertible rear facing seats are even more space hog than the infant carriers.

It's not so much about physical size, as it is about form factor between the rear facing seat and the front seat.

Published rear seat legroom gives you a starting point, like the 2015 Fit (shockingly) having even more of it than a Subaru Outback or Mazda 6, but does not necessarily mean a better (or worse) fitment. Especially in the compact and subcompact car segments, the only way to know for sure seems to be test it for yourself with your own car seat(s) when looking at cars.

Honda Fit or Toyota Echo (depends on how old you wanna go).