[happyscrappy]

My wife and I are on the larger side and we have two kids that are both tall for their age of 6 and 3. Both are in diono radian seats, forward facing in configurations appropriate for their size. As soon as I got the car we found out a family member died and almost immediately took the car on a 1600 km road trip back and forth to the funeral. There was plenty of space and no complaints from anyone. After we got back it was in time for a planned summer road trip where we took the car on a 2400 km trip where we were gone for nearly 2 weeks. The car once again was up to the task. We had to stuff some things in the rear foot wells below the kids feet but it all fit. The journey was an absolute pleasure in the car and there were absolutely zero complaints.

It doesn't have the most room, and in fact the rear seats and the trunk are both noticably smaller than the Focus RS it replaced, but it is a secondary vehicle for us and my wife's crossover has more than enough space to make this work for us both when we want to take a trip in it, and when we need to take a trip in it. That being said with hockey road trips in our near future, I'll be getting a thule to carry some of the additional load when the time comes.

 

[samagon]

I find the design of the rear seats has a huge impact on space for car seats. My wifes old 05 Matrix had way more room between the child seat and the front seat than my 07 Grand Cherokee did.

it's as much the design of the front seats, especially when dealing with rear facing.

my wife's Outback front seats are huge, the back is really deep, vs the Corolla the seats aren't quite as deep on the back.

basically, the amount of space that the backrest of the front seat occupies, from the cloth you rest your back against, to the back of the seat where someone's knees might bump.

the result is, in both cars, even though the Outback has massively more interior volume, they both end up with the rear facing car seat rubbing on the back of the front seat.

 

[underscore]

That too. The Grand Cherokee had very thick seats, and the rear seat base was very flat = no space for a rear facing seat. The Matrix had thinner seats and the rear seat base had a bit of an angle = more space for a rear facing seat.