Mini Cooper and pram system! HELP!

[MacMac123]

Right, does anyone know what the deal is with a Mini Cooper and a car seat and a pram that actually fits into the boot?
I have a mini and I am NOT NOT NOT getting rid of it. I have discovered that the Bugaboo Bee fits into the boot with the parcel shelf down (I auctlaly got them to put it in the boot from the shop to prove it to me) and I believe the Mamas & Papers Luna fits too. Does anyone else know if it actually genuinely does fit, or of any other from birth prams/push chairs that do?
Also, what is the deal with the car seat? Does the general maxi cosi seat not fit either? Cripes! There is a gap in the market for someoen to invent push chairs/car seats/prams that fit into a mini - there are so many women that drive minis it seems ridiculous that its such a pain.
Anyway, if anyone is less clueless than I am please do let me know!

[ten10]

The maxi-cosi fits, but I don't know about the front facing, next size up seat

[thomasina1]

Oh thank you so much MacMac123! I have a beloved Mini Cooper too and we bought a bugaboo bee without actually checking that it fitted as we figured that there wasn't really anything much smaller anyway. Phew!

We have had the Bee since the weekend so that saves me checking for myself. Love it by the way, seems great as you can clip the maxi cosi car seat onto it. Only downside is that it doesn't lie entirely flat but it is supposed to be suitable from birth.

[PInkyminkyohnooo]

I saw a mini cooper with a front facing car seat in it the other day. It was a red and white seat, possibly a reccaro?

The thing to look for with the maxi cosi is the length of the rear seatbelts- sometimes they are a bit short.

Halfords are really good at fitting car seats- you could try them all out there with one of their seat fitters, very helpful when we were making sure we'd get 3 seats in our car.

[bikerunski]

Don't BMW make a special baby seat for the Mini Cooper? I'm sure we looked into this when we had Mini Cooper, just to be sure as we were toying with the idea of starting a family. Mini became a Polo a few years later, which shorlty became a company Audi A4 a few weeks before I am due to go on maternity leave (only 3 weeks now), so now probs there!

[lillypie]

What about a Zapp? Folds really small and the Maxi Cosi car seat fits the frame.

[theirmum]

i would go for a Zapp it will fit easily with room for shopping from birth you can use it with the maxi cosi car seat

[dinkystinky]

We have a mini cooper and I was in exactly the same position as you in that I refused to get rid of it. We used a maxi cosi (plus foam roller to help it fit better) and a Quinny Buzz for DS (chassis fits in boot with wheels off and you can squeeze the seat on the rear seat - v easy to detach - didnt like the Zapp as has tendency to tip over if you put anything on the handles and there's nowhere to put shopping). Recaro car seats also fit in Mini cooper apparently.

When DS grew out of maxi cosi rear facing car seat, we tried the Mini Cooper car seat (forward facing) - he HATED it as there is a stupid ledge that the belt goes through that goes over their lap. We went to Halfords and got a Britax Evolva 123 Ultra car seat that fits perfectly and he likes.

Did LOTS of research as to what buggies would fit in a mini - the Aria, the Loola Bebe-confort and the Dash pushchairs would all also apparently fit in there. Try the minigoes2.co.uk website as there are usually a few threads on there about this.

Now pregnant with no 2 so sadly will need to get rid of the mini now as now way will be able to fit all 4 of us in there for holidays away....

[VinegarTits]

I have a rather large Maxi-cosi isofix car seat in my mini (you would be suprised how much you can fit in it) and my quinny zapp fits nicely in the boot, obviously the boot is quite small, so not a lot of pram space, but the car inside is bigger than most people realise, So you should find you can fit most standard size car seats in it.