Hello fellow HHR owners,
My wife and I are expecting twin girls anytime soon. Since she's due anytime soon I decided to install the 2 car seats we have for them. After a fairly quick installation I came to the realization that both my wife and I in the front will be eating our knees for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The car seats stick out so much from the back seat that you need to pull the front seats forward in order to have the car seats sit flat. The car seats were donated to us and so it's not like we are financially in the hole. So for those of you who are looking at buying one of these and have kids please see how the car seats sit. At first I thought I might have to get another car but I'm thinking at looking at other car seat manufacturers. Take care.

Dean

 

this held true for many cars I have owned...child seats...especially infant seats(rear facing) protrude farther forward than any passenger would, particularly higher up, above where a rear seat passenger's knees would normally be.

This is one reason why "family" cars(mini vans, SUV's, and full-size 4-doors_ are more poluar amoungst parents of young children.

The seat manufacturer wont matter much as child seats are all constructed with the same safety guidelines(dimensions, and mounting options).
4-doors doesnt always guarantee comfort for 4 people...
hopefully you wnt compromise your childs' safety for your comfort. granted, the driver needs to be comfortable to drive safely...so if you cant get the seats situated where everybody is safe, perhaps a different vehicle would be a safer choice

EDIT: I see you too are from Nor Cal.
which part?

Windsor(sonoma county) here.

 

AW CRAP! This was supposed to be our future family vehicle.

 

Congrats on the twins! Wow your life is about to change drastically As far as car seats, are they the 2 seats in one type that lift out of the cradle? If so I can see that would be a problem as they are huge. We had a minivan, and it was a tight fit in that, so I can imagine how tight it would fit in an HHR, and we only had one. At least they won't be in that type of seat for very long. Good luck and keep us informed.

 

Smoke Wagon,
I'm in the Sacramento area. My wife and I stayed at a timeshare in Windsor. We had a fabulous time there. Very beautiful.

Of course the kids' safety is our highest priority. I'm of medium height and so a few inches forward isn't too big I'll just have to get used to the change in accelerating and brake pedaling. For some reason I have to pull my wife's seat even further than mine.

It is the kind of car seat that sits in a base/cradle. I tried using the car seat without the base/cradle and it made no difference. I hope they won't be in those seats too long but right now they're 4 lbs each in her womb and so it looks like it will be a while until they hit 20-22 lbs.

I've been trying to sell my wife on a minivan but it's been a hard sell.

 

<digression>

Ohh, you're from Windsor California.

I'm sorry, all this time I thought the "Ca" stood for Canada, and you were from Windsor, Ontario. Sorry, I used to live in Detroit and that clouded my thinking.

</digression>

 

That's ok...I lived in New Brunswick for several years, so I'm with ya

Sacramento area, huh?
well first, congrats on the twins...

there are a few smaller SUV's out there that she might like...the Pacifica is a nice one...even the Mazda MPV...

but none the less, glad to meet(online) a fellow Nor-Cal HHR owner.
and unless the 4 of you drive everywhere together, at least you'll have a few miles of road to enjoy with the seat moved back when you take your HHR out for a solo flight.

we do alot of drag racing at Sacramento's Raceway park near Mather AFB...

 

Congrats. With a one-year old myself, I can tell you that the infant seats actually fit pretty well behind the front seats. Make sure you have it TIGHT into the seat, and that the carrier handle is all the way in the down position. Set that way, you should have decent front seat room. FYI we had the Graco Snugride seat.

Now, convertible seats set to rear-facing is another story, at least the one we bought is. Our child got too large for the infant seat before he turned one so we had to use the convertible seat rear-facing until his birthday. We bought an Evenflo convertible seat and it takes up more space and forces you to move the front seats forward and/or adjust the recline. Oh, and a larger car is better, but still not perfect. The Freestyle allows a better front seat position with the convertible seat behind it, but the seat definitely still constrains our comfort a bit. Oh and it's big but not a van (hence the wife okayed it).

 

Congratulations! My twin sons are 20 years old now so I can assure you'll survive raising them. I did the last 9 years by myself. If you have any question, feel free to send me an email.

As for the car seats, they make them in all sizes. See if you can purchase two smaller ones now then use the larger ones when they reach 20 lbs and can face forward. My boys were both 5 lbs at birth and one grew to 18 lbs in 6 months. So, it won't be too long before you can turn them around.

By the way, are they identical or fraternal? My two don't even look like brothers, much twins.

 

Wow, I grew up in the time when we didn't have to put our kids in car seats. But those cars didn't have seat belts either and hard cold steel dashboards. It's a wonder we survived. Hope you find a fitment solution.