Are we seriously talking about changing a 20k car for a few hundred $$ carseat? I admit I changed a 2-door FR-s for a sedan because getting my kid in/out of a door car is hard, but this is GRAND Cherokee. Im sure there are other car seats that may work for OP?
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The negative equity isn’t that big of a deterrent for me if I can find the right deal on a new lease. While I agree considering other carseats is a nice option, we elected for one of the safest on the market, not considering the impacts to us from a car standpoint.
One might think the Grand Cherokee is a decent size SUV but between the carseat and the stroller we effectively have one additional passenger seat and 1/3 of the rear available for groceries, storage, etc.
It’s been an overall good car (aside from the recalls) but it’s not practical in the long run.
Have you experimented with all 3 placement options?
As folks have said it’s your money. I swapped out of my GTI because the wheels on my Uppababy stroller were too big. “Why trade in a car and not just buy a smaller stroller” would have been obvious.
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I love a good carseat discussion; I have a 2.5 year old daughter and we went through plenty of carseat trials and tribulations.
My wife drives a '17 GMC Acadia for comparison sake and we had the Nuna Pipa rear facing. I am 6’3" and never had issues for space in the front passenger seat. Additionally I feel like the rear doors are quite long/large on the Acadia so getting her in/out was generally pretty easy.
Now we have the Nuna Rava forward facing and the front passenger seat placement is similar to the Pipa but as her little legs grow I think we’ll need to nudge the passenger seat forward to compensate.
Random side note I have a Diono Radian R100 (no longer made) in my Nissan Titan and it rocks. It’s super slim/narrow, great for smaller cars and trucks and it’s good to up to 65-70 lbs. I bought it originally for my old Toyota Tacoma that could NEVER fit any Nuna’s:)
Hope this random info helps.
Mark
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that carseat must be massive. I swapped cars when dealing with a rear-facing seat and got into an '04 Accord so it would fit. I’m 6’5". And the JGC has nearly 2" more rearseat legroom than that Accord.
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You may have one of the safest car seats but the JGC is one of the worst vehicles in its class for crash ratings. Just another reason to dump it!
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That does sound like a massive car seat. I’d sooner invest in a new car seat than flip a car, but that’s me.
We had a Cybex Aton Q for our infant seat, and then in our Outback we have a Diono Radian NXT and in my i3 we have a Britax Marathon ClickTight. I can safely say that the Radian only works in cars with a lot of front-to-back space in the rear seat, even with the angle adjuster. The Britax is far more compact in length but takes up more room in the width.
Take a trip to BuyBuyBaby and see what works for you before selling the car.
Unless you’re looking for an excuse to get a new car, in which case, proceed.
Cybex Aton in the middle seat using the seatbelts. People have a misconception that Latch is safer: the truth is that belts or latch are equally safe when properly installed. And the middle is safer than outboard.
You will not get a snugger fit than a Cybex base, using either Latch or belts.
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This is 100% accurate. Had it installed in the middle of my GTI and the base was so tight that when I tried to shake it, it rocked the whole car.
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4/5 star front
5/5 side
4/5 overall
Yeah, total deathtrap. 
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IIHS doesn’t seem to agree with that, at least with frontal collisions and mounting of child seats
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IIHS:
Small overlap front driver-side: Marginal
Small overlap front passenger side: Poor
Child seat anchors: Marginal
Structure and safety cage: Marginal
Overall evaluation: Marginal
I strongly recommend it for your family.
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No, it doesn’t agree with what I wrote. Especially considering IIHS doesn’t use stars at all.
Personally, I don’t consider “ease of use” of latches to be a valid concern. My phone is difficult to use, but that doesn’t mean it is going to spontaneously combust.
BTW, 2020 model is a top pick.
oh, and I sometimes drive my family in a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T. I bet that would be “poor” in all categories.
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because of this?
Tether anchor
other hardware could be confused for anchor
Lower anchors
too deep in seat
difficult to maneuver around anchors
Irrelevant as she has a 2018 and frontal crash test scores matter…except in your world. LOL
Strange the the JGC did so much worse than the car upon which it was heavily based (the Mercedes ML)…
Leave it to the internet to turn the discussion of dumping cars into carseat to safety standards…
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Like a few others said, I’d be changing my car seat out before buying a larger car and taking a potential loss on my current one. I just don’t grasp the concept behind getting a bigger vehicle that I really don’t need just for a car seat that will be a temporary nuisance. Buy a smaller car seat.
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The Mercedes ML of that era was actually based on the grand Cherokee, not the other way around. MB used a Chrysler unibody design for their ML, but the ML launched before the Grand Cherokee because of Chrysler’s bankruptcy and restructuring following the 2008 recession.
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Interesting that MB was apparently able to “retrofit” the ML to do much better on small offset crashes…
Back to the topic… 