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Hybrid Babies
07/27/05

The vast majority of what we write about on HybridBlog is about the “under the hood” aspects of hybrid technology, and how hybrids can contribute to a cleaner, more secure future for our kids.  But, as we talk about our kids future, there are also some plain, practical issues with hybrids and kids.  My six-month old daughter has spent almost all of her time in the car riding in the back seat of a Toyota Prius- that is how she got home from the hospital.  And, most of her car rides since (even those late night, sleep-inducers in the early weeks) have occurred in the same place.  Overall, she seems pretty happy about it.  While the vehicle that we ride around in seems a rather mundane detail of parenthood, I realized that--in a Prius--it is actually pretty revolutionary.  My daughter will probably grow up thinking of hybrids as “normal”.  In fact, it is likely that the first car that she ever drives will be a hybrid.  That actually seems like a big deal to me.

So, while I was pondering our choice for the next carseat for our rapidly-growing little girl, I was a little dismayed because I thought the Prius would be too small to accommodate the car seat that I wanted (a Britax Marathon).  I wanted the Marathon because it is safe and can accommodate your child up to 65 pounds, enabling them to be in a very safe and comfortable seat for as long as possible.  But, it is huge- it’s like having a laz-e-boy in the back seat!  I considered giving up and letting my husband drive the Prius and putting the car seat in our other car (a Volvo station wagon) so that there would be enough room.

But, the Prius surprised me.  The Marathon ended up fitting in the middle of the back seat beautifully.  Even when my husband has the driver’s seat all the way back, there is still plenty of room for the car seat.  There is even room for one of us to sit in the back with our daughter and keep her company on longer rides.  The only family member who is not too happy about it is our dog- but she does not really understand why she can’t just ride in (or at least step in) the car seat.

So far, the Prius has proven to be a great family vehicle.  In addition to the mammoth car seat, there is plenty of room for the stroller and mounds of other supplies that are required when one travels with a baby.  As we look for ways to improve the HybridCenter, one of the possibilities we are considering is a tweak to our buyer’s guide that would include a customizable “family features” guide that would allow you to put in the size of your family and the contents you normally put in your car for a trip, letting you know whether it would all fit in a particular model, and how much room might be left over.  This would allow you to better gage what kind of hybrid works best for your particular situation.  We think it would also help people understand what I just learned with my little one and my Prius--you’d often be surprised at how large the “smaller” vehicles really are.   As always, we’d like to hear your take about whether a feature like this would be helpful to you and your friends, or any other suggestions to make our HybridCenter the best it can be.

Posted by: LWB 07/27/05

Original post and comments can be found on Hybridblog.org.