Baby seat / CD changer

Hello All,

Having seen and read postings on problems fitting baby seats due to short seat belts I thought I'd post my updated findings on having spent half an hour with numerous seats .....

The Brittax range of rock-a-tot does fit as mentioned before but also and easier, the Mammas & Pappas seat at £70.

Finally ... I bought my SE estate a year back now and it has this black moulded cover in the boot on the left side. It always seemed to be getting in the way and taking up valuable space but I thought it must be covering something for a reason. On having to dismantle half the boot to replace a rear bulb yesterday this cover came off to reveal a Volvo CD changer unit much to my suprise ! So for any other drivers that have a similar cover in the boot and don't know what it's hiding, it may be worth looking before fitting a sony system under the seat !

Cheers,

Craig

[Networkguy]

>Hello All,
>
>Having seen and read postings on problems fitting baby seats
>due to short seat belts I thought I'd post my updated findings
>on having spent half an hour with numerous seats .....
>
>The Brittax range of rock-a-tot does fit as mentioned before
>but also and easier, the Mammas & Pappas seat at £70.
>
You don't mention which car you have but I was made aware of this issue myself just before Networkguy Jnr arrived 2 weeks ago.

A chat with my dealer concluded that

The Volvo option is not worth the money
Silver Cross seats also fit

In addition to this, we ended up the the Mothercare travel system which comes with a car seat and this is a perfect fit in the back of my S70.

As the mother in law works for Mothercare, we spent the afternoon trying various seats and found that some of the Britax ones had quite a bit of movement (although were still safe), the Silver Cross ones were about the same as the Britax but the Mothercare travel system (although being a bit tight to fit), once in, was rock solid with no sideways movement at all.

Of course in an ideal world, I would have gone for the ISOFIX option but my car doesn't have it.

Hello,

Car is an 850 Estate, we had a mothercare seat from our firstborn but it's far too tight to fit in the rear. We had a similar response from the shop we went to where he mentioned about volvo making their own seats to fit, hence the buggers put shorter seatbelts in the cars !

Cheers,

Craig

Sorry to start this thread up again, but am having the same baby-seat vs seatbelt length dilemna. Would be interested to know which of the Mamas & Papas seats it was that fitted. I have a 99 V70 and, so far, only the Graco seatbase has fitted.

Has anyone had the extended seatbelts fitted by a dealer or otherwise?

Cheers

I too had the same problem with my 93 850. The belt in the front is too short. I bought a Mamas and Papas travel system and the seat fitted in the back fine but not the front.

Now have a MaxiCosi Priory XP (as my daughter is too big for the other one now) which fits fine. However, before I bought it I checked out the Which? guide to car seats. The results shocked me. I could not believe how many of the seats are unsafe and that compulsory testing is limited. Apparently they don't even have to do side impact tests.

If anyone would like the report please e-mail me and I'll see if I can attach a copy by return.

Regards

Andy

andy.donnelly@ctcplc.com

I found that any car seat I bought for my little fella would fit in both the S40 and S70. He sits in a Brittax First Class seat now. I found theat the other sweedish car maker had belt to short for most car seats.

[Networkguy]

>Now have a MaxiCosi Priory XP (as my daughter is too big for
>the other one now) which fits fine. However, before I bought
>it I checked out the Which? guide to car seats. The results
>shocked me. I could not believe how many of the seats are
>unsafe and that compulsory testing is limited. Apparently they
>don't even have to do side impact tests.

Likewise I have just 'upgraded' to the XP (for the same reasons) but you obviously didn't catch the worse bit of safety research which was actually published by Volvo 3 months or so ago.

Put simply, all the research is very clear in that you should never put a child under the age of 3 years old in a forward facing seat.

Of course, none of the main vendors in the UK make a rear facing seat big enough.

So I rang Britax and put this to them.

There response was that they agreed 100% with the Volvo research and also pointed out that in some countries this is actually the law but even though it is proven to be safer, as the UK legislation does not say they have to make rear facing seats, they don't bother.

They did however tell me about a place in Milton Keynes that imports such seats from Sweden and guess what. Even though they are imported, they actually meet all the legislation for the UK.

If you have a child under the age of 3 years old in a forward facing seat, DO NOT read the Volvo publication on this subject as it will upset you.

PS

If anybody wants a copy of this publication, mail me and I will send you a copy (1MB zipped PDF).

Whilst I wasn't aware of the report by Volvo I was aware that young children should not really face forward in a seat. I mean, if adult occupants could face rearward too they would also be better off in a front collision, and adults are better able to support their own bodies. Therefore, a young child, unable to support their own head properly, is not going to fare very well in a front end collision.

Having said that though, one thing that always worried me when my daughter was rearward facing, was that if someone hit the rear of my car (something which I have less control over than a front end collision), then the force of the impact would force her head towards the back of the car whilst her shoulders would be held in place. If facing forward when hit in the rear, at least there would be protection behind the head.

Whichever way you look at it I suppose we take a huge risk every day when we put out kids in the car. However, until the government give us a safe, clean, reliable public transport service as an alternative, we will all have to continue using our cars.

I'd be very grateful if you could e-mail me a copy of the report. My daughter isn't even 1 yet so I am preparing to be shocked. Also, do you have the details of the company importing Swedish child seats?

Many thanks

Andy

[Networkguy]

>I'd be very grateful if you could e-mail me a copy of the
>report. My daughter isn't even 1 yet so I am preparing to be
>shocked. Also, do you have the details of the company
>importing Swedish child seats?
>
With pleasure but you will have to send me your email address first as one cannot send attachments via the board.

Thank you Networkguy. Very informative and very shocking. I know that Volvo sell an own brand baby seat in the UK but I don't think it is rearward facing which is interesting.

As far as my current seat goes I am very happy with it apart from the fact that it can only face forward. It's easy to fit, one of the safest in its class, has some very useful features and comfortable for my daughter. The only gripe, don't know if you've experienced it yourself, is trapping my fingers when adjusting the seating angle of the seat. I somehow manage to do it every time.

I usually fit the seat in the centre of the back seats because I figure that would be the safest place in a side impact.

Once again, thanks for the info. I'm going to look into it further and will keep my eyes out for a rear facing seat.

Regards

Andy