Car seat meltdown

[teadevotee]

Ok, so bear in mind that I'm 35 wks, my dad died two months ago and we moved house last week. Normally I could deal with this sort of thing easily (by shouting) but the freaking car seat seems like it's going to be the thing that sends me over the edge.

I bought the icandy cherry after research and recommendations, primarily because it's light (I have a bad back) and fits in my Mini One, and I wanted one that you could slot the car seat into.

So this means I need a maxi-cosi car seat. Easy peasy.

So today I go to mothercare to buy the bloody car seat and they say, well actually, mini one doesn't feature on the list of cars the maxi cosi isofix will fit. You need to ring mini to see if they will let you fit it.

And sure enough, Mini One does not even appear as an option for fitting on the Maxi-Cosi website. (Cooper does).

So I ring mini - both the dealer and the national line - and neither of them know what I'm going on about.

Plus, it hardly seems like the most reliable thing in the world to have a phone conversation with the car manufacturer. Surely you need a written guarantee to have any kind of comeback if there's a problem?

So WTF am I supposed to do and WHYTF is this so complicated?

[BikeRunSki]

Can you not fit it with the seatbelt?

I thought the difference between the One and the Cooper was in the engine rather than in the interior? (we used to have a Cooper).

[sazm]

go to halfords/other baby shop and ask them to try it in your car and see if it fits,mothercare should have offered (if it was possible to try it out),
if the isofix version doesnt fit,get them to try the belted version out.

[justforinfo]

If isofix isn't listed then go to Halfords and try the seatbelt version, try and speak to someone experienced on the child seats too rather than someone who has gone through training and only knows basics, good luck x

[saoirse86]

I thought mothercare let you try car seats out.

Either go to John Lewis or Halfords or somewhere to see if the isofix works (presuming you're talking about the base because the maxi cosi seat doesn't matter, it'll fit any car). Otherwise just get the non-isofix base. Problem solved!

If you're not sure the isofix base is called "easyfix" and the non-isofix base is called the "easybase" or "easybase 2".

The maxi cosi adapters will fit the maxi cosi carbrifix, maxi cosi pebble or cybex aton (from mamas and papas, also available for cheap at Argos). The cybex aton comes with an isofix or non-isofix base. It doesn't have mini at all as an option on the cybex website but you could ask in M&P if you can try it out. I think they charge £5 which is redeemable against your purchase.

HTH

Any good luck with the baby!

[TRLChildSafetyCentre]

Currently, all rear facing infant seats (0 and 0+) that attach to the ISOFix connectors in a car, are "semi-universal".
When you buy a car seat you need to check whether it is "universal" or "Semi-universal". You will find this information on the EC approval label (All seats have to have one).
"Universal" means that the car seat should fit in most cars (it's always best to check before you buy though). "Semi-universal" means that the car seat has to come with a vehicle list, because it uses something extra for performance. Quite often, this "something extra" is a foot prop that goes down to the floor of the vehicle.
The car seat manufacturer has to check that a "Semi-universal" car seat will fit in each vehicle that is on their list. If the car is not on the list provided by the car seat manufacturer, the the car seat should not be used in that car. Hope this helps.