You often have to pull your seat forward and sit the back ramrod straight to get a rear facing car seat in. My experience is with a 2006 hyundai elantra, so I can't speak to other vehicles, glad you can afford something newer. This was several years ago. We also chose carseats that we could afford and were rated highly for safety. They were very wide. There was absolutely no way to get a person, even a child, in between the car seats in a 3 rear seat sedan. That's when we decided we needed a minivan.