Car Seat in Prius & Civic Hybrid

[Anonymous]

We have a 2006 Prius and a 2004 Civic Hybrid. Wondering if anyone had issues installing car seats into either of these cars. If anyone installed on the side instead of the center, did you disable to side airbags?

[Anonymous]

Check out http://carseatdata.org/. It will give you an idea of which carseats will work best in your car. Based on my experience, I don't think you will have a problem installing your infant seat in the center. It's definitely the safest place to be.

[Anonymous]

I have an '03 Civic Hybrid and have absolutely no problem with our Britax Marathon. In fact, mine is one of the easiest cars I've ever used carseats in (including Volvo station wagon, BMW, Acura sedan). It's extremely roomy even if we place the carseat on the side, which we almost never do. Btw, I've never heard of disabling the side airbag if installing on the side -that seems to defeat the purpose???

[Anonymous]

We have the '05 Civic Hybrid -- I am pretty sure that if you do the center seat install, you need to do a seat belt install (unless they've changed it). The latch latches are set for the side seats, and, although you can use one from each side seat, I was told that is not safe. So we use the latches on one of the side seats, which works really well for us. We have to take our seat in and out very frequently, so ease of install is really important to us.

[Anonymous]

We have an 05 Pruis and have had no trouble installing car seats. we use a britax marathon, rear facing.

Get you car seat installation checked. We are both scientists, and we still got it wrong!

[Anonymous]

I have a Marathon rear-facing in the backseat, center, of a Prius. You can't use the LATCH anchors in the middle; you have to use the seatbelt. That's pretty standard, is my understanding.

I second the above -- get it checked. I would have sworn ours was in right, and it wasn't.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had a seat installed on the side using the LATCH system? Did you have to have the side airbags disabled when in this location?

[Anonymous]

I'm glad you posted this, because I'm trying to figure out what will work in my 05 Prius. From reading the car manual and the manual for the car seat I'm planning to get (Britax Companion), as well as priuschat.com, I was pretty sure I'd have to use the seat belt to put the seat in the center, because LATCH is only for the sides. And the pps confirmed that. So your choice is either center (using seat belt), or side (using LATCH). (Sorry, I don't know anything about disabling side airbags, but I don't think the manual said anything about that.)

[Anonymous]

We have a 2007 Prius and recently installed our Britax companion seat in the center, rear facing, and using the LATCH sytem. We got it checked by police afterwards and it was installed properly.

[Anonymous]

We have two carseats in our '04 Prius. As mentioned above, you cannot use LATCH in the center; ours are in the side. You can't squeeze anyone safely in between the carseats, but otherwise it's great. WIth just 1 carseat on the side, you can fit 2 small adults in back along with the child.

You really must have it professionally installed every time you take it in or out. Our officer told us that she has viewed 1000 cars and only 3 were properly installed. WE use her frequently for re-installs or when the carseat needs to be turned around as the child grows.