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Rear facing is always tough, especially with a tall seat like SK or Marathon. Any seat that isn't that tall won't last very long (as your child grows). The SK fits at least as well as the Marathon did rear facing in a c900 sedan, but it is a tight fit. Rear facing works much better for us in the middle seat, as the top of the seat nests between the 2 front seats. You do have to be a little careful not to damage the seat backs, and there's not excessive legroom in the front, but it's fine (I'm 6-1). It's either that or zero legroom for passenger. Like the Marathon, SK can be tethered rear facing (not all car seats can) + this is a big feature imho.
Basically, the way I look at it is, it's no fun for the 6 months or so the thing is in there rear facing, but (if you start with a bucket) that's all it is. After that, the SK fits waaay better than Marathon forward facing + you're going to use it a lot longer front facing (unless you're one of those people who try to keep their kids rear facing until they're 5: safer, but impractical). The SK actually accommodates a taller child than Marathon (even though they're the same external height, kid's bum is higher in Marathon), so unless you have really fat kids that exceed on weight, SK will work longer.
In a c900 you can comfortably seat an adult on either side of the SK, whereas with a Marathon in the middle, you can barely squeeze 2 skinny adults. You can not fit a Marathon + another car seat (even SK) side by side, whereas you can fit in 3 SK's (eg if you might have more children). SK is narrower than basically anything else because they get the structural strength with a steel frame vs gobs of plastic. One drawback of this is it is a bit heavier if you have to carry it very far.
We originally bought our Marathon on the recommendation of a friend, and based on reviews, and because it seems to be the standard by which everything else is judged. When our second child was about to be born + we realized the bucket + Marathon would not easily coexist, we did an exhaustive search + found the SK. We could never go back to a Marathon!
That said, some cars do fit the Marathon well: ones with wide flat seats. An example was the 2009 Forester we rented. SK fit fine but no extra benefit because the back seat is contoured for 2 fat adults, not 3 normal ones. We have a friend who owns one + she has 2 Marathons + nothing else back there.
good luck!
James...
posted by 216.59.240...
, Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:45:31
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