Anyone have a baby and a Mini Cooper?

[batfish]

I have a Mini Cooper hatchback and a I love it but I'm having a baby in October - we have always talked about exchanging it for something more sensible but I would love to keep it and also I've only had it a year so will have lost quite a bit of money on it. So does anyone have one and manages to fit in a baby seat and a pram/buggy? Apparently the front seat has isofix and can disconnect the passenger airbag and maybe I could lay down the back seats to make a large boot, crazy idea?!

[Hadron21]

I ended up selling the mini (I loved it too). The car seat I could cope with but we looked like idiots with my husband in the back holding onto the seat park of the pram as we could only fit the base in the boot!
Take your car to the pram showroom to see what fits in and go from there.

[Me624]

I am only 10 weeks but planning to keep my gorgeous Mini Cooper as like you it's very new and we will lose a fortune on it if we trade it in. DH has been researching prams that will fit in the boot and once I get passed 12 weeks we will go and try some out. Plan is to put the baby seat on the passenger seat with the air bag turned off and one seat down in the back for the carrycot - once it's out of the carrycot, I think it should all fit in the boot.

The mini is my car so the baby and I will only be going out in it when it's just the two of us. DH has a nice big car for family trips!

[toohardtothinkofaname]

Not a mini but I have a small Peugeot 207 which has hardly any boot space. Buggy chassis fits in no bother if you pop a wheel off and buggy seat can sit up in the back leaving seat spare for partner Mothercare will let you load in the buggy to test it out if you pop along.

[JustinsBrother]

I swapped my Mini Cooper for a clubman. I had loads of room in the clubman so I'm sure I would have coped in a Mini Cooper. There are a few very compact pushchairs on the market.

[Me624]

The problem for me (and poss the OP too?) is that I bought the car earlier this year on finance. I simply can't afford to trade it in for a clubman or countryman - DH phoned them to check and we would have to pay £4,000 in depreciation. They said they might be able to wrap it up in a finance deal on a new car but that would make the monthly payments go up to an unaffordable level especially when I'm on mat leave. So we're just going to have to make do

[Allthefours]

I sadly changed my Mini Cooper for a far more practical fiesta. My mini was a 58 plate, it didn't have isofix in the front and car seats never fitted right in the back. There are several pushchairs that will fit in the boot, mostly with the parcel shelf removed though. Our local mamas and papas store has a mini boot in their showroom so you can try various models etc. good luck with your search, I really miss my mini but our October bundle has taken priority!!

[UsernamesSoHardToChoose]

I kept mine til dd 12mths but then changed it as was pg again and no way to get double pushchair & two kids in!
As a 2nd car it's great. I did end up putting dd in next car seat at 10mths as lifting her into back in maxi-cosi was v heavy (and I was pg) but if you have ISO-fix in front that would make a real difference as babies have to stay in first car seat longer now don't they?
Only warning re folding boot down is if you had an accident everything that is loose could fly forward hitting you & baby in front.
I had icandy peach, the frame would fit (wedge) in boot with parcel shelf off and seat/carrycot went in passenger footwell.
John lewis usually let you try car seats and pushchairs in your car - try before you buy!

[Junosmum]

How good are you at Tetris? A friend had a mini and a baby and got the husband, baby, pram with carry cot and husbands scuba diving stuff in- they put one of the back seats down. It worked well for them.

[GuybrushThreepwoodMightyPirate]

I think you're goig to need a babyzen yoyo. It folds down to the size of aircraft hand luggage. I'm guessing that would fit in your boot?

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

I have a mini one. I can fit Dd (8 months) and ds (5 and in a highback booster) in the back. I have a baby jogger city mini which fits in the boot and various slings. I love it but I've been asked many times when I will be getting a bigger car for the kids

[burrito]

A bugaboo bee fits perfectly in a mini clubman! Having got it at the toddler stage it actually reduces the lifting of kids as they just climb in.

[Candycoco]

I've got a mini and have a maxi cosi car seat base permanently on one of the back seats which I could not be without as having to climb in the back to do up an infant car seat with a seatbelt would drive me crazy. Much easier to just click it on and off.

I keep my parcel shelf off and have a mamas and papas sola2 which fits in the boot with the seat unit still on it if you take off one of the back wheels. If I use the carry cot, I put that on the other back seat. It can be a faff but I couldn't change my car either so just make do.

If I go to the supermarket etc I normally take the pram out of the car first and leave it at home, or put one half of the back seat down, slide the pram into that and then the shopping goes in the boot.

It's ok if you don't have a lot of other passengers you need to take!

[Goldiefawn]

We have a 2 seater MX5 which obv has a small boot. I took the car to the pram shops to try different ones out. We ended up with an icandy peach as it fitted when the wheels came off. We disabled the passenger airbag and the maxi cosi pebble fitted with the isofix base.

[lauraa4]

I have a fiat 500 and was worried about this too! Going pram shopping next week to see what fits!

[LucyLocketX]

I had a bugaboo bee, which fitted perfectly in the mini boot, with both seats up and parcel shelf on. And I put DD in the front passenger with airbag deactivated. After 12 months I finally admitted to myself that I needed a bigger car and traded up.
Six years on and I still have the bee, for DS now. It's the best pram/pushchair ever!

[CherryGarcia1]

Hi! I had a Mini One that I loved and used it with 2 children. I turned the airbag off on the front seat and had baby in beside me. I also was able to fit a Bugaboo chameleon in the boot with the wheels off. Really miss my mini!!

[ScienceRocks]

I didn't have a mini but I did have a fiat 500 when I had dd2. I got a baby jogger city mini, which fitted fine into the tiny boot if I popped a wheel off, and there was still a bit of room spare! I had fixed car seats in the back for dd1 and dd2. It was absolutely fine. Later on I had a Quinny zapp and that was also fine, in fact there was loads of room spare in the boot.

[Littlemissjt]

Book an appointment with john Lewis. They were useful with recommending what fits and taking prams, seats, etc down to their collection point in car park to see how well things fit.

[LorryHen]

I've got a fiat 500 and tried all the prams in mothercare and the one I went for was the mothercare orb. I tried bugaboos and silver cross but they just took up too much room. The orb was really impressive and the only one where the chassis and carry cot both went into the boot

[batfish]

Ah I should have said that we already have the pram - Icandy. Bought it when I was fully intending to give up the mini but now it's getting closer to me having to (I'm coming up to 32 weeks) I'm resisting!

Very good point though about not wanting to have loose stuff in the back seat in case of an accident. And I also don't really want to be trying to wedge stuff in and take wheels off etc - guess it is going to be easier for me to get a more sensible car and just take the hit on the cash

Thanks for the replies

[Me624]

Well we went to Mothercare yesterday and I think I might have to have a rethink. Prams are not a problem - the iCandy Peach and the Bugaboo Chamleon both fit fine in the boot.

However car seats, which I thought would be no issue, are a real problem I don't know about older versions but I have the 2014 model and the front seats do not move forward far enough to get a baby seat in the back! You can stuff it through with some difficulty but that's not going to be possible when there's an actual baby in it. We tried the maxi cosi cabrio which was the smallest one they had in Mothercare, and it simply doesn't fit. Online research isn't throwing up any other suggestions, so I really don't know what I'm going to do now.

[batfish]

me that is good news that the icandy fits in the boot, we haven't even tried it as I assumed it wouldn't! My cousin works for mini and she said that the front passenger seat has isofix so if we turn off the airbag then we could have the baby seat in the front. Is it OK to do that though?? Not sure what the rules are, I don't live in the UK so it probably doesn't matter here but I would still like to align to UK safety regulations! I am 6 weeks from giving birth and have still made no attempts to get rid of my car

[Me624]

batfish I think I've found a solution after a lot of research yesterday! The maxi cosi cabriofix fits - we tried the pebble in mothercare and that doesnt. There's another one called the Cosatto Hold that also fits well. It isn't going to be easy getting it in and out - isofix base will be a must - but it's doable.

I originally planned to put the baby in the front, but the people in mothercare really scared me. They said that turning the airbag off is no guarantee that it won't go off in an accident. I am sure the risk is tiny but it made me start to worry. I'm going to give mini customer services a ring though and see what they say about it.

[Me624]

Oh and batfish I forgot to say, the iCandy peach does fit in the boot but you do have to take the two bigger wheels off. It's really really easy though, they just slide out, not a hassle at all. The whole pram is amazingly easy to collapse and put together again!

[BikeRunSki]

Mini make baby car seats to fit this cars