Hi all-
I just wanted to pass along a piece of unsolicited advice to those who are needing to buy a rear facing infant seat soon...

We looked very hard and decided on the Britax Handle With Care and it it works extremely well in our 98 XC.
The reason that we chose it is that (1) it has a FRONT tether (not a rear tether as so many toddler seats have (2) it seems more solidly planted than the seat/base combos that we tried.

Well, it turns out that the seat fits the XC back seat extremely well and it really easy to get in and out once you get the hang of it. The XC has seat belt buckles that are specifically designed for child seats so you have the option for them not to loosen as you tighten the lap belt. That makes cinching the seat down very easy. I believe that I can probably take the Britax in and out of the XC almost as fast as most people take to lock in a regular infant seat into its base. (It takes about 15-20 sec to do everything.)

But the best part is how solidly it locks in place. with the front tether, it really is easy to get it far more firmly planted than most car seats. Not having a base makes it a lot more firmly planted too... By the way, the XC has a knob on the inside of the base of both front seats that look like they were made for a tie down point for the front tether. (European car known for safety designing a car for the most popular car seat in Europe maybe?)

In any case, I strongly believe that this is the best rear facing infant seat that we looked at. I would recommend it to anyone.