Vent: car & stroller issue

LittleLady77 · February 2014

Oh man, we just put together our strollers and figured out that when one is in the car there is no room for anything else, not even 1 bag or groceries. Crap. Now I need to sell and buy a car quickly. Not the best planning on our part. I figured it would be fine with a small SUV, I guess I was wrong. Thanks for listening to my vent.

somewhereincali · February 2014

What car/strollers do you have?? we have a small SUV and an even smaller car and are fine. I would get a different stroller before I bought a new car.
And you can put groceries on top of the stroller.

LittleLady77 · February 2014

We have an infinity EX 35, it's a crossover\small SUV. We have a double snap n go, the contours optimum and a jogging stroller. Both the front- back ones take up pretty much the whole back. We might be able to put a few groceries on the snap n go but not the other one. Our jogging stroller doesn't fit at all. That's three strollers that don't work

JordynLeighx3 · February 2014

Why do you need 3 strollers in your car at once? Plan your trips. That's what we do. I have the contours too and we put the frame of the seat in the trunk and the seat attachments on the floor beneath the girls' carseats.

We drive a small SUV too. Kia sorento.

LittleLady77 · February 2014

Oh, I didn't put all three in there at once. Just one at a time.

LittleLady77 · February 2014

We didn't even have the seats on with the contours, we just had the frame. I had to take off the part of the car that covers the "trunk" off and then the stroller just barley fit on its side. My friend has the Kia, it's way bigger than my little EX35.

KRoseToes · February 2014

I'm an April mama too and we're in the same boat. The Honda Civic will work with strollers in the trunk space, but we're installing the car seats tomorrow to see if my tall husband can still drive with two car seats in there. Same concerns about the car seats with the Chevy Aveo hatchback, but I know for sure that the strollers won't fit in that small trunk. I spent today trying to figure out how much our cars are worth and starting to research what kind of used car might be a good choice for us. It's stressful and the April deadline is all too soon! Good luck!

Ylvelill · February 2014

We are getting ready to buy a 2014 Nissan rogue. Here's to hoping it has enough room!

LittleLady77 · February 2014

@ylvelill the Nissan Rogue and the infinity FX35 are made by the same company on the same frame. In theory they have the same amount of space. You might want to reconsider or at least try it with a stroller! Also we were thinking about driving 2 hours to my parents with overnight stuff and its not doable at all with that car let alone a target run.

dmurrie · February 2014

If you're going car shopping, bring (borrow if you have to) a convertible car seat and make sure you could drive with 2 in there rear-facing!

LittleLady77 · February 2014

dmurrie said:

If you're going car shopping, bring (borrow if you have to) a convertible car seat and make sure you could drive with 2 in there rear-facing!

Thanks!

Incrediblelife · February 2014

We've got the same issue, sort of. Two kids in car seats already, now twins coming. So need four anchor points for car seats. Plus space for double stroller (I currently have the double Bumbleride and LOVE it). I just bought a brand new Toyota Highlander two yrs ago, and there's no way it will work now! Would love to buy a minivan, but we live in Australia now and the minivans here aren't anything like in North America, so we STILL won't fit!! I have no idea what we will do! I'm 34weeks now, so it's not like we have a lot of time to figure this out either!

Reilly626 · February 2014

If you have the money go for it but I felt the same way with my Rav4 and our small economical car and it's worked out just fine. I love that I have a changing station in the back of the Rav. I had the snap and go and now I have the BJCM GT and it works.

Ylvelill · February 2014

Looking at the specs the new 2014 rogue is significantly bigger than the infinity, we did measure some strollers which seemed to fit. Thank you for the heads up though!

somewhereincali · February 2014

Incrediblelife said:
We've got the same issue, sort of. Two kids in car seats already, now twins coming. So need four anchor points for car seats. Plus space for double stroller (I currently have the double Bumbleride and LOVE it). I just bought a brand new Toyota Highlander two yrs ago, and there's no way it will work now! Would love to buy a minivan, but we live in Australia now and the minivans here aren't anything like in North America, so we STILL won't fit!! I have no idea what we will do! I'm 34weeks now, so it's not like we have a lot of time to figure this out either!

You can install the car seats with seatbelts. It's just as safe as the latch anchors and not hard.

LittleLady77 · February 2014

Ylvelill said:

Looking at the specs the new 2014 rogue is significantly bigger than the infinity, we did measure some strollers which seemed to fit. Thank you for the heads up though!

Oh good!

LittleLady77 · February 2014

Ugh. It's so hard knowing what to do.

SV917 · February 2014

I have a Prius and there's plenty of room for the snap & go and groceries. I haven't tried the jogging stroller, but the reviews I read say it fits when you remove the front wheel (which is supposed to be easy). It seems ridiculous to buy a new car because of a stroller.

mommaoftrips · February 2014

What about buying an on the roof carrier thing? Way cheaper than a new car. Groceries and baby bags can go up to, or reverse, just put the stroller up there. Getting a new vehicle is SOOO expensive, I wish we didn't have to do that but with triplets there was no choice

LeoLauren · February 2014

We are experiencing kind of the same thing. My dh just leased an Acura rdx (before we found out we were preg x2) which is fine for 1 baby but not for 3 car seats... We are going to turn in the rdx for a smaller car and get a honda odyssey.

LittleLady77 · February 2014

Honestly, even if we just used the FX for a few months it would be fine but I don't see this as a long term solution and car shopping pregnant seems so much easier than car shopping with twins! I also do have the money right now although I really didn't want to use it on a car.

somewhereincali · February 2014

If you want a new car by all means go for it. But you really can make it work with a small SUV. And as kids get older they have less stuff. If I run out of room I can stick bags where your feet go in the backseat since the carseats are rear facing.
We manage just fine with a small SUV even though we also have some large medical equipment that takes up a lot of space in the cargo area.

bride063007 · February 2014

I drive an Acura TSX and have been able to grocery shop with the stroller in the trunk-either the maclaren twin techno or the BJCS. Sometimes I have had to put some of the groceries on the floor in front of their carseats but definitely have been able to do shopping in my car.

Wishing35 · February 2014

We only have room for groceries or other people if we have the frame stroller in the car, double strollers are huge! I always said if never drive a minivan but when we have another baby I may need to.

LucyRicardo3 · February 2014

Just to give y'all a little chuckle, but we are moving up from the minivan to a full-sized van soon, much thanks to my 13 yr old's huge growth spurt and his crazy extracurricular "stuff". He's almost eye-to-eye with me now, all knees & elbows, and has to fold his lanky long legs underneath the bench seat in order to fit into our Sienna, and is squished sharing with 2 Radians. I can only imagine how much more fun it's gonna be space-wise as he keeps growing.

8-}

TheDairyQueenx3 · February 2014

We have the contours optima as well a the bugaboo donkey double with bassinets. We have a small SUV as well as a large SUV. Both strollers easily fit with all three car seats as well as our sons hockey bag (which is massive) and groceries or whatever no problem in both SUVs. The contour optima folds pretty much flat when you take out both seats it fits like a puzzle.the bugaboo does take up quite a bit more space though I must say. How are you folding the optima to where it's taking up that much space? I just straighten out the seats after removing them fold the frame flat then lay the two seats on top leaving plenty of space for whatever.

LittleLady77 · February 2014

I didn't have the seats on there, just the frame. I figured I could find a spot for the seats somewhere. My car is just tiny. It was rated one of the worst crossovers in terms of space.

ks3pink · February 2014

Fwiw a few months ago I was all ready to trade up from my traverse to a suburban. We didn't have the money at the time and I'm glad we didn't. The boys are now FF in their car seats so DD doesn't have to climb in the back and now that she is out of the booster seat we can put her in the smaller part of the back seat and have plenty of room. Not saying you don't need a new car but just keep in mind that all things are temporary and before you know it they won't need so much stuff or take up so much space!