Infant car seat for a 2007 Honda Fit

March 4, 2017 12:24 PM

We're looking for an infant car seat that will fit in our 2007 Honda Fit. What are your recommendations?

We're hoping for a car seat that will allow two small to medium-sized adults to also sit in the back seat (i.e. with the car seat in the middle). Does such a thing exist? We have zero experience with car seats and babies.

posted by peacheater to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total)

Best answer: Chicco Keyfit 30. We had it in our 1999 Corolla, a 2014 Prius C, and it has been in a Subaru Impreza just fine too. Robust, easy to use, easy to attach, and most importantly: easy to clean.
posted by nickggully at 1:11 PM on March 4, 2017

And when we just had one, it was in the middle, and two adults could be snug on either side.
posted by nickggully at 1:12 PM on March 4, 2017

The Clek Fllo and Diono Radian are both relatively narrow seats. The Radian does tend to take up more front to back room but Diono sells an angle adjuster for about $10 that can help with this.

Keep in mind that no matter what seat you choose, if you put the car seat in the middle you will have to do a seatbelt install. There are no dedicated LATCH hooks in the center and the Honda Fit does not allow for what's called "borrowing" (where you use a hook from either side). You can put a seat in the center but you will have to do a seatbelt install. Alternatively, you can use LATCH with one of the two outboard seats.
posted by pecanpies at 1:58 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

In our 2007 Fit, we had (a slightly older version of) this one when our child was an infant, and we have this one for her now, rear-facing behind the passenger seat. Once she had to move out of the infant carrier seat, we had a lot of trouble finding one that fit- it feels quite roomy, but it's a pretty tight space back there. We couldn't find one that fit rear-facing in the middle for children over 22 pounds for a reasonable price. The passenger seat can't go back quite all the way with the seat there, but it's plenty comfortable.
posted by Adridne at 2:01 PM on March 4, 2017

Sorry, meant to point out that the seats I recommended are not infant seats - they're convertible seats. You'd be able to use them much, much longer than an infant seat, but they don't pop in and out of strollers, etc like an infant seat does. I recommended them just because you mentioned not having much knowledge/experience with car seats and I wondered if you knew this was an option - that is, not having to start with an infant seat.

If you're definitely looking for an infant seat, I found the Chicco KeyFt 30 very easy to use and install.
posted by pecanpies at 2:01 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Last comment!

The Chicco KeyFit 30 is just as narrow as the two convertible seats I recommended above. It'll just be outgrown much faster.
posted by pecanpies at 2:04 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have a 2010 Fit and the Chicco Keyfit fits very well either in the middle or on the side, and two medium size adults can fit in the back no problem. Only a short adult can fit in front of it, however, when it is on one side; when it's in the middle the front seats can be pushed back more. I definitely am glad we started off with an infant seat rather than a convertible. Being able to take the baby and seat out of the car as one package and bring into the house or snap onto the stroller is amazing in the early days.
posted by permiechickie at 2:32 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Clek Fllo is narrow, so it can easily fit two adults on either side, but it's long when rear-facing. We have trouble with it in a 2006 Outback - whatever front seat my husband is in has to be very carefully positioned so that it's not resting on the car seat - and are actually kind of stressing about fitting our Fllo + a Keyfit 30 in the back seat in a few weeks once Baby 2 is here as a result (even though they fit side by side).

That said, the Keyfit 30 is a good choice for an infant-only seat. It worked in the middle back of my Subaru Impreza hatchback easily, with room on either side + room for front seats to be positioned normally.
posted by marmago at 4:48 PM on March 4, 2017

Best answer: We also used the Chicco Keyfit in our Honda Fit (2009 though). It fit fine in the center, and two adults could definitely sit in the back as well, though they might not be particularly comfortable. I had the same experience as permiechickie that the center was fine, but putting the carseat on the side meant the front seat needed to be too far forward to be comfortable. Also, the lack of latch in the center is not a problem if you use a base - it takes a bit longer and more fussing to install the base, sure, but then you just pop the seat in and out easily.

I'm another person who is glad that we used an infant seat at first rather than a convertible, despite the extra expense.
posted by insectosaurus at 5:34 PM on March 4, 2017

Definitely check out the forums on car-seat.org. They have intense people who post all the time and who know everything about cars and car seats. It's a great place for very specific questions since people will jump in with very specific answers and specs. Here's a similar question to yours.
posted by LKWorking at 7:51 AM on March 6, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks for your inputs everyone. We decided to go with a Chicco Keyfit 30 as we liked the idea of being able to move the baby as one package. Fingers crossed!
posted by peacheater at 1:29 PM on March 7, 2017