infant car seat in toyota tacoma - problems with passenger seat

Hi,

We have a 2001 Toyota Tacoma extra-cab pickup, as well as a baby on
the way. This weekend I was investigating how our car seat (which will
usually be in our 2004 Prius) would fit in the pickup. It is a Graco
Snugride with the stay-in-car-base.

Everything looks to be ok - except for one big inconvenience, which
I'll attempt to explain here. We had expected that the passenger seat
would need to be slid all the forward (which ended up being true) for
the infant seat to fit. The problem, though, is that in order to put
the infant seat into the stay-in-car base, you'd like to be able to
tilt the passenger seat back forward, swing the infant carrier in,
tilt the seat back, and lock the passenger seat into the forward-most
position again. But, I couldn't figure out a way to do that, because
the front passenger seat doesn't lock into place again (after having
tilted the seat back forward) until the passenger seat is slid *all
the way* back. Well, with the infant seat behind it, it doesn't slide
all the way back anymore!

The only way I could figure out to get around this problem is to lock
the passenger seat in place, and then put the baby and carrier in from
the *driver* side. This would work but is kind of a pain.

Has anyone else run into this problem? I called a Toyota dealer, and
the service guy I talked to didn't know of a solution, but I thought
I'd ask here as well.

Thanks for any help!

Mick

I don't know anything about your specific problem, but since no one has
responded here's my 2 cents -
I have a tiny little hatchback (honda civic) and the only place the infant
seat fits is in the center back. It doesn't fit behind either the passenger
or driver seat, even if it's all the way forward. Things are so tight back
there that it's easiest to load him in through the trunk, actually . . .
I know that's not an option for you, though, with the tacoma.
But the thing about the infant seat is . . my baby is three months old and
we've never seen the need to take it out of the car. I imagine it'd be very
difficult to wrangle out of the back seat - much much easier to just pick up
the babe (even sleeping - he'll stay asleep if he needs to) and pop him in a
sling or other carrier.
YMMV, of course, but that's what we do.
And even if it's a big inconvenience, remember that everything will change
when your baby outgrows his infant seat. Forward-facing will be easier.
HTH,
Hannah


"Mick Backsen" wrote in message
m...
Hi,

We have a 2001 Toyota Tacoma extra-cab pickup, as well as a baby on
the way. This weekend I was investigating how our car seat (which will
usually be in our 2004 Prius) would fit in the pickup. It is a Graco
Snugride with the stay-in-car-base.

Everything looks to be ok - except for one big inconvenience, which
I'll attempt to explain here. We had expected that the passenger seat
would need to be slid all the forward (which ended up being true) for
the infant seat to fit. The problem, though, is that in order to put
the infant seat into the stay-in-car base, you'd like to be able to
tilt the passenger seat back forward, swing the infant carrier in,
tilt the seat back, and lock the passenger seat into the forward-most
position again. But, I couldn't figure out a way to do that, because
the front passenger seat doesn't lock into place again (after having
tilted the seat back forward) until the passenger seat is slid *all
the way* back. Well, with the infant seat behind it, it doesn't slide
all the way back anymore!

The only way I could figure out to get around this problem is to lock
the passenger seat in place, and then put the baby and carrier in from
the *driver* side. This would work but is kind of a pain.

Has anyone else run into this problem? I called a Toyota dealer, and
the service guy I talked to didn't know of a solution, but I thought
I'd ask here as well.

Thanks for any help!

Mick