V50 Child Seats... Help....

[Dors27]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me/advise me.

I have recently purchased a V50 (2005reg) and I am now having problems trying to find a child seat that actually fits!! The car seat (Britax) I have now has fitted numerous makes of cars including a Yreg V70. The problem being with the V50 is that numerous makes of child seats cover seat buckle or restrict said belt clipping into buckle...

So I was wondering if anyone else has come across this problem...

I spoke to Volvo UK who said try their seats... But truly I dont want to buy another seat!!!!

Thank you....

[iainmd]

Been there, done it and won the t-shirt my friend. We've had battles with the bolster cushions and the norrow flat base on our S40 & V50. What we finally ended up with (that fitted properly without deforming the seat cushion or sitting squint on the seat):

Group 0 - Rear facing (baby): Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix (Isofix)
Group 1-2 - Front facing (toddler): Maxi-cosi PrioriFix (IsoFix)
Group 2-3 - Front facing (enfant): Britax Kidfix (Isofix)

For the first 2 you don't need the seatbelt anyway so clearance wasn't an issue but it needed the base to be narrow enough not to deform the cushion foam.

For the last one the kidfix is still a slight fiddle to get the seat belt buckle round (only because the armrest slightly gets in your way - the buckle itself is clear of the seat base) but after extensive research and Mothercare allowing us to actually try all their models in our own car it was the best we could find. The base fits the width of the flat part of the seat cushion. The only thing we found that was better was the Britax Adventure (non-Isofix). It was a breeze to get the buckles round but I wanted Isofix to keep the seats in place.

Hope that helps. It took us years to discover all that. We have 2 kids but 9 seats as a result of bad purchase decisions!

Iain

[iainmd]

I should add that I see Britax now make a Kidfix XP with no armrests. That looks much the same as a Kidfix but would eliminate any remaining challenge in getting the belt buckle in.

[Dors27]

Iainmd - am glad that somebody else has gone through this too...

I spent 3.5hrs yesterday trying different seats in Mothercare & Halfords.. I didn't come across the Britax Kidfix (not in stock!!) so I will now have a look at the two you have recommend. I even considered purchasing a belt extension but am not sure with regards to how safe that would be!!!!
Thanks again for your help & I will keep you posted...

[MacV50]

I use Kidfix too and it was tight but my girls both managed to get themselves belted in.

Would recommend Kiddicare for the seats as they were much cheaper then anywhere else when I bought mine.

[iainmd]

I too researched buckle extensions as a possibility until I found a good fit but the consensus was that they are a very bad idea. The child seat is developed to have the belts placed in particular way over the seat and moving te buckle upwards changes that.

Also, there's always the possibility of quality around such things and the associated safety risks that could follow.

Ultimately there's nothing better than a correctly fitted seat (or so all the experts told me) ;-)

[marccowley]

Ive got the maxi cosi family fix isofix base with the pebble ontop, fits perfectly, and so does the pearl. Dont know if this helps or not as you said you dont want to buy another seat