rjrdomer

Question for any Q5 owners with young children. Has anyone put in a rear-facing convertible seat? If so, does anyone have an opinion or facts as to which one allows the front passenger to have the most leg room?

I ask because currently we have a rear-facing Britax B-Safe Infant seat behind the passenger seat. We have to put the seat decently forward to fit the baby seat in the rear. My wife still has room to sit, although barely. These seats are so gigantic these days, the car seat manufacturers/government are single-handedly keeping minivan companies in business. I refuse to own one of those, but I digress.

So as baby grows, we are going to need a convertible seat but it needs to face rear until at least 1 year old. Some recommend 2, but I'll stick with guidelines. So does anyone have any recommendations as to which one to get? I ask because my wife is 5'9" so she has long legs. It would be nice for her to have leg room and not be forced into the back seat. I'm 6'3".

The dimensions they give on the car seat sites are always difficult to gauge because they don't really measure from where the car seat touches the passenger seat in front. Thanks.

Parsec

We used the infant seat until our child was 1, then switched to a regular forward-facing seat. Looks like your Britax is good for up to 30 lbs - do you expect him to hit 30 lbs within his first year? That's one giant baby, lol.

BSee20

I can't help you on the convertible seat, but I do have the same britax b-safe infant car seat in the middle seat of my wife's 2013 Q5 and have no issues with front leg room. I have the second row seats slid as far to the rear as they go. I'm 5'11" and don't have an issue in the driver or passenger seat with leg room. Maybe you can try to recline the second row seats back as well to get some additional leg room up front.

Buckeye96

Ummmm, you do realize that putting your kid forward facing in a seat at age 1 is highly dangerous?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/he...seat.html?_r=0

http://www.nhtsa.gov/ChildSafety/step2

rjrdomer

Not looking to get into an argument regarding child safety and laws. We all survived and we were not rear facing for 2 years, I can assure you of that.

And to answer the question about the size, yes, we do have a large baby and it's not the weight I am concerned about but the baby's length. She was almost 10 pounds and 22 inches at birth and babies don't shrink as they get older.

rjrdomer

I don't have a problem with the B-safe as it is right now, but it's the future option of using a convertible seat behind either the driver or passenger seat while using the LATCH system.

Shobaffum

We switched from our infant seat to a Britax Marathon. We tried several convertable seats and this one had the shortest depth while still maintaining some comfort. I have an A4 and it fits behind either front seat in either mode and there's still plenty of room for me to drive (I'm 6'2"). Since the Q5 has a couple more inches of rear legroom I imagine you'd have no problems with this carseat.

rjrdomer

Thanks, I'll check it out.

rkdiddy

My son is 20 months now and he is in a Recaro convertible seat (rear facing) and my daughter is 6 months in a Chicco Keyfit.

I can tell you that the Keyfit (which is behind my passenger seat) takes up more room than the Recaro. I'm 6'1" and I have a hard time getting into the passenger seat, the driver seat though is tight, but doable. My only gripe is I'm constantly hitting the light switch when getting out. So if you just have to have 1 carseat, you should be fine with behind the passenger seat.

I'm looking forward to my son being front facing, as this will give me more room for sure.

FYI: As far as turning the seat forward - children younger than 2 are 75 percent less likely to die or be severely injured in a crash if they are riding rear-facing.

Obviously the number 1 priority for the carseat was safety, but it doesn't hurt the Recaros look awesome.

On a side note: Before I bought my Q, I went to the OC Car Show with a tape measure and got in the 10 or so cars I was considering. Adjusted the front seat and then measured the backseat. Would you believe 95% of the vehicles had right around 21". I was amazed. Everything from a GTI, to a Grand Cherokee, to a A3 to the Q.

Mark P

I'm 6'3" and my wife is 5'8". We have a pair of Diono R120 seats:



As you can see, they are quite long (comfortable for many years of growth). Diono sells a pad that raises the front edge giving you a few more inches of room:



In my A3, I have to put her seat in the center position, and it just barely touches both front seats. My seat is set comfortable for my height, "properly", and the passenger to match.

In my wife's Tiguan, we have her seat behind the driver's seat. It fits there with still space leftover with me (or her) driving, again with the seat comfortable/proper for ourselves.

If the Tiguan has that space, I assume the Q5 will be at least equal if not more. Of course, part of it also involves the angle of the rear seat bottom and how far rearward the entire seat fits against the rear seat back.

I assume that most every other seat has more room than ours since ours is so long. However after adding the angle adjuster pad, maybe it's not as extreme anymore. Certainly the Marathon has to be shorter as is obvious by it's overall shape (wider too).

In addition to asking for real world recommendations here, also obviously head down to the local baby store and look at them on the shelf - line up the edge that would hit the rear seat back, and see which ones stick out the least in the opposite direction - just make sure that you're comparing them with their normal attachments and not some floor demo holder thingy.

Good luck!