Car seat, is this normal?

[barnallo]

We had a joie I spin in our car which worked fine.

We recently got the same one and put it into our bmw (smaller than our other car) and it seems really tight? It struggles to recline properly as the back of the seat of the car is more upright than the one in the other car. Dd’s legs seem more constricted in it when on the same position as in the other car. Is this just a difference in the way the car seat is sitting in each car or is there something wrong with this new seat?

I'd be concerned about what might happen if you had an accident if child is already constricted.

What bmw is it? I had a joie 360 in a one series and that was fine although the passenger seat was limited in how far it could go back but the I spin is that much bigger so it might be that it’s too big for the car

Yes this is a worry if forward facing. Less so if rear facing.

It might just be a difference in the slope of the seats? You could post on one of the car seat safety Facebook groups for advice? Or ask your retailer assuming you bought it somewhere decent
But some car seats are more difficult to fit correctly in certain cars...is there a manufacturer fit list for this seat?

It is because the vehicle seats are a different shape. That's why you are meant to test it in the car before buying (in reality very few people do this, so please don't think I'm criticising you - just pointing out the origin of the advice).

Fit lists are not really of any use for this, annoyingly.

You might find the Britax Dualfix or Cybex Sirona Gi better - or you could look at ERF/tethered seats like Britax Max Space Pro or Axkid Move. They can be adjusted for much more leg room.

The other thing you can do is swap the seats around just to check if you have the same issue in both cars.

Did you check that car seat is compatible with that particular vehicle? Because car seats are not universal, I only know this because a seat I had was compatible with one manufacturer but not another due to the seat shape.

The problem is that they say they are now - the Joie i-Spin is an i-size seat and if OP's BMW is newer than 2013 it will likely have i-size seating points on the two outer sides of the second row. Supposed to be plug-and-play compatability, no more fit lists! But in reality you'll still get a different fit with the same seat in different cars.