Looking for a Safe Compact Car Seat

When my daughter was younger this is 7 years ago.. I loved my Britax roundabout and used it for my second child too.. so easy to clean and safe.. bought mine at babyage.com and they had free shipping at the time.. I like the way it fit rear facing and the lever in the back that ajusted the recline.. All my car seats/ 5 point harness seats have been britax.
Lenc

I went thru the same thing with my car. I had a Cadillac CTS for awhile so I too had to find something safe yet more compact. 3 of my girl friends, including myself, all got a Maxi-Cosi Priori car seat. We all love it. It's easy to install, the material is breathable, fairly easy to clean, and once it it forward facing it can even recline just a little. It's the smallest and best quality car seat that I could find. I put my daughter in it around 9 or 10 months and she's still just fine it it at almost 18 months. I think it holds up to 40 or so pounds? I know there are car seats that hold more but they're just soooo much bigger and by the time my daugher outgrows it, we hope to have another child growing into it. :) Feel free to message me if you have any other questions about it.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=342258...

(her's is a different color that they actually had at Buy Buy Baby)

What are the ages and sizes of your older boys and what seats are they using? If one of them is forward facing and close to outgrowing his current seat, one option would be to use his convertible rear-facing for your 9MO and get a nice forward facing combination seat (harnessed seat that can later be converted to booster when the harness is outgrown - the Britax Frontier and Graco Nautilus are the ones that are most frequently rec'd by Certified Child Passenger Safety Techs b/c their high harnessed height and weight limits mean that they'll last until the child is mature enough for a booster - and the Nautilus and Frontier both position the seat belt well as boosters, while most other combination seats are outgrown by height or weight before the child is ready to use the seat as a booster, and most of those seats don't make very good boosters either).
If you need a narrower option, the Sunshine Kids Radian is an excellent convertible seat. Although it's not considered 'compact', it has an 8 year lifespan and high harnessed height and weight limits, and it sits lower to the vehicle seat than the Britax seats do (so it often fits in well in 3-across setups next to a seat like a Britax). Also since it's not on a base, it looks a bit more "big kid-ish" so older kids often prefer it to seats that sit up on a base.

And please do consider keeping your baby rear-facing past the minimum of 1 year and 20 lbs - rear-facing provides significantly better protection to the neck and spine, particularly for young babies and toddlers - please check this link for information from the Certified child passenger safety techs at the carseatblog: http://carseatblog.com/?p=5168

We have the Graco Nautilus and love it. As I will not need to buy another carseat since it will grow with my daughter until she no longer needs a carseat.
Before purchasing the Nautilus, I had actually purchased the Sunshine Kids Radian since we had 3 kids in carseats at the time. Well right after we purchased it I found out about the Graco Nautilus and it was much cheaper than the Radian, so I sold the Radian and purchased the Nautilus.

Only problem I ever ran into with 3 carseats in the back or 2 seats next to each other was when they needed to use the seat belt and not the harness on the carseat, you needed to squeeze your hand between the seats to buckle to seat belt. If they are all using harnesses than you are golden.....

We have had a Roundabout for just over 3 years now (and used by 2 kids) and love it. Our daughter is really big for her age, so we've almost outgrown it at 2 years-old even though it says it can handle more height/weight.

We, too, have a Pilot, and can easily fit an adult (my mom is not a small person) between both car seats. The other is a Graco Nautilus. We've had both a 2008 and 2011 Pilot, and it fits great in both models (depending on which you have).
Most of the space issue is related to how the latches are situated vs. the actual make of the car. We found the Pilot to be a little more generous than other vehicles in where the latches were positioned. Our neighbors have a 2010 Pilot and have also had 3 kids across the back including an infant at times.

Would highly recommend the Britax and have little advice to give otherwise.
Good luck!

I have a Cosco carseat that is more narrow than others. It's lightweight and pretty cheap (less than $60). You can find it at Wal-Mart.com or Amazon.com.