Car seats in vans (newborn)

[millymally]

Me and my partner have a two seater small van as our only vehicle (for our business).

Our first baby is due in June and as far as I can tell we have a few options:

1. Get a three seater van where the seats are all across the front (transit style). I know the airbag/s would have to be removed (or disassembled - not too good on car technical words!) but would this be safe otherwise?
   
   
2. Get a bigger van that has a row of seats behind the front two passenger seats (this would be much bigger to drive than I'm used to but I'm sure I could figure it out!)
   
   
3. Get a big estate car type thing and hope the back has enough room for the stuff we need to cart around!
   
   Has anyone had experience of putting a car seat in a van? Is it safe? Particularly with a newborn baby? Drive wise we're looking at between 1 - 4 hour journeys twice a week max.
   
   Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[princessbear80]

As long as the airbags are turned off, and there is space to properly fit the car seat in the correct way, I think you’ll be fine. My partner has a car seat in his van, but we’ve only used it since DS turned one for nursery drop offs, so no experience of newborn car seats in a van. For long journeys you’ll need to break them up as four hours is too long for a newborn.