Maxi cosi car seat doesn't fit in our Ford focus!

[PreggyEggy]

I had this problem! I brought a Maxi Cosi Pebble, but assumed I'd have no problem fitting in in our 99 Renault Scenic, it's a huuge car! But alas, I couldn't fit the seat belt around it. Nightmare, as I'd already taken all the packaging off the Pebble and couldn't take it back! And our car doesn't have isofix points.

Don't panic...I only realised after I went to Halfords, and bought a car seat they had, and had it properly fitted so I knew 100% it fit, but there's a trick to putting it in the car.

When I tried to put it in myself at home, I had the exact same problem as with the Pebble, the seat belt seemed waaaay to short. Angrily, I compared the two car seats, and the where exactly the same size!

Flipping through the manual for the 2nd car seat, I read that in some cars with shorter seatbelts, you may need to lift the car seat forward to get the belt around the back, and then push it back down again once it's secured to make sure it sits flush with the seat of the car. I tried it on the Pebble, and it worked!

Naturally, I wouldn't do it with a baby already in the seat...you'd probably need to put the seat in and then the baby. But I was happy, since it meant I didn't waste the money on the Pebble! I didn't mind the 2nd car seat either, as it was £15 in a sale and so my inlaws can have it in their car. Bargain really!

Anyway, I just thought it would be worth trying. Hope it helps!

edit: I've only just read through the whole thread and see you've chosen an Easybase, so I'm going to say thanks for posting this thread, because I didn't even know about them! I'm going to go look them up and see if they're worth it.

 

[bunnyg82]

edit: I've only just read through the whole thread and see you've chosen an Easybase, so I'm going to say thanks for posting this thread, because I didn't even know about them! I'm going to go look them up and see if they're worth it.

Heehee, you're welcome!

We did manage to get it to sort of fit by tilting it but we weren't happy with that as it would be such a faff to try and do it that way and I wasn't comfortable that it was safe enough.

Defo look at the easybase, to me, they are so worth it as there is no doubt that your baby is safe in their seat and in the car x

 

[Fish&Chips]

I'm so confused. We have a Ford Focus 2001 plate and according to that website we can use Maxi-Cosi with a 3 point safety belt. Is that the usual safety belt as if so, surely that will mean it will fit?

I'm a bit worried as we've been promised the seat by my dh's brother and they only plan to give it to us 2 weeks before my due date. Obviously I've been telling me dh that we should make other plans as it's too close.

Any advice would gratefully be received!

 

[pichi]

fish&chips - it means that you can just use the seatbelt to attach the seat to the car - and you could also go for an easybase if you wanted to as well because the easybase doesn't need Isofix brackets to be installed in the car

if you want the ease of getting bubs carseat in and out of the car i'd totally reccomend a base

 

[Fish&Chips]

Ah ok so the seatbelt will fit round it?

 

[hayley x]

we have the maxi cosi and it fits our ford focus perfectly with and without the base we have the base but it definately fits without and the base was 'optional' xxx

 

[pichi]

Ah ok so the seatbelt will fit round it?

yeah - according to the maxi cosi site it will anyways you could go to halfords and get a test fitting?

 

[Fish&Chips]

We were meant to be borrowing one from my dh's brother but it's not available for a while. Might see if we can get one sooner to be safe. Thanks for your help. x

 

[Elphaba]

Interesting thread! We have a V reg Renault which doesn't have Isofix either. Does anyone know if the non-Isofix Easybases are only compatible with Maxi-Cosi carseats or with other brands too? We're thinking of getting a Britax travel system.

you would need to get the britax base hun x

Thanks Suzi. The Britax base is Isofix though. Their website indicates that not of their seats for young babies are compatible with our car so I guess that also means not even with seat belts.

no they do a seatbelt routed base as well hun x

Thanks, hun. Think we're going to get this. We checked out our local pram shop and the Britax carseat fits our car with just the seatbelts too.