No passenger seat leg room

[Happynappy1]

We have a joie 360 car seat my partner installed it in the car a month ago and it had it facing forward until baby is born. Baby is due soon and my partner moved the seat rear facing but it now means no leg room for the front seat. I’m happy to sit in the back if needed but are there any other solutions. We have a Mazda.

I don't believe so. The car seat has to be rear facing, to be safe it has to be tilted back which means your front seat has to be pulled forward to give it enough space. You can't really compromise. Are you keeping this car long term? Could you trade it in for a longer one?

Unlikely as it’s a very bulky seat.

Any more space behind the other seat - driver's seat?

Is the front seat reclined at all? That can make it touch the baby seat meaning you need it further forward. You could sit the front seat more upright (this is safer for the adult passenger anyway) and then you might gain a bit of space back.

You do need the Joie 360 on the fullest recline and rear facing for a newborn baby. You can't have it sat more upright until they are sitting up well, and most cars don't have isofix in the centre so you can't move it there like you could with a belt fitted one. Honestly, I found that when it's on the fullest recline, it took up as much space as our infant carrier type seat so you probably won't gain any space even if you changed to one of those seats for now.

The seat is allowed to lightly touch the front seat, but it shouldn't be pushed up against it with either baby seat/adult seat causing the other to move.

Can you take it to a specialist car seat fitters and get them to help you? We have lots locally from the big department stores (John Lewis) down to small independent family run ones.

From my memory of the Joie 360 the seat itself can slide backwards and forwards to get it in the correct position over the rear passenger seat (so that the "leg" touches the floor correctly), have you got it on maximum extension or something like that? I really would get someone who knows what they're doing to look at it.

Oh yes, good idea to check it's pushed in as far as it can be for the isofix base. This is important to do for safety anyway.