Car for 2 rear facing seats

[Mishy1234]

Atm, DS1 (will be 3 in feb) is in a rear facing seat and DS2 is still in his infant maxi-cosi. We currently have a BMW 1 series and a VW Polo. The passenger seat has to be quite far forward to fit in the DS1's rear facing seat, so I'm worried about what to do when DS2 grows out of his infant carrier (to allow enough room for the driver). I'm hoping he'll fit into it up to 12 months and beyond, but he's a chunkier baby than DS1 so I would like to be prepared.

Does anyone have 2 rear facing seats in the same makes of cars? Also, if you have 2 rear facing seats in another make of car, which make is it?

I could move DS1 into a forward facing seat of course, but would prefer not to. DS2 will be 1 in June, so it would be a little way off for DS2 to hit 4 and he has a slight build so not sure if that would make him more likely to suffer injury in a ff seat than if he was chunkier.

In any case, DS2 will definitely have to go into a rear facing seat once he's out of his maxi-cosi.

??? confused, usually at 9 months kids move in to forward facing (group 1?) seat til they r 4 years

you get extended rear facing seats so they dont have to forward face until the age of 4.

A friend of mine has 2 Britax TWE RF for her twins in her VW Passat estate and there is bags of room in both the pasenger and driver seat for her and her DHs legs. Shes had them in her sisters golf before as well, although leg room was a bit more limited it wasnt impossible!

We had 3 rfing seats in a Mazda Premacy (TWE/First Class/Nordic Secura) just fine. Two is a breeze (can even fit an adult in between).

I have had the Britax 2 way elite in my mums ford focus and it was fine. I wouldn't see 2 being a problem.

We have the Britax and a maxi cosi cabrio in a scenic at the moment but will be getting a 2nd rear facing seat for ds2 when he grows out if infant carrier. Obviously the scenic is bigger though.

What seat is your ds1 in now?

Flojo Extended rear facing is 5x safer than forward facing and now I (and other people no doubt) are hoping that soon it will be a case of "Usually a child remains rear facing until around 4yrs old" and very rare that a 9month old gets turned forward facing.

I don't see that happening for some time though unfortunately.

we have a britax 2 way elite and a besafe izi combi in the back of our Volvo V70

The britax is by far the easiest to fit, most versatile and takes up the least room

Thanks for all your replies and apologies for my delay in replying.

The main issue is the legroom on the drivers side (we currently have our larger RF seat (Graco Duologic II Isofix) on the passenger side and DS2 in his Maxi-cosi infant carrier on the other. We have 2 cars, a VW Polo and a BMW 1 series. I would prefer not to have to change the cars if possible, but definitely want DS1 to remain RF until he's at least 4.

I do like isofix seats, but not against having one if it was the best fit.

thisisyesterday- does the britax 2 way elite take up less room than the besafe?

depends also on what height the drive is,
im 5ft 7,and i couldnt get my maxicosi cabriofix behind me in a focus,never mind a larger rearfacer!

We have the same problem sazm with our ford escort. We're looking for a new car now, thanks to the dappy cow who crashed in to DH recently and wrote the escort off!

Been wondering about this myself
Watching with interest.

Thought you might be interested in the feedback I got from a car seat supplier in Sweden.

Basically they said that they would deactivate the airbag in the front seat and put one rear facing there and one in the back. Has anyone done this? I REALLY don't fancy having a toddler beside me when I'm driving. I think I'd find it quite distracting.

I think I could drive ok with a rearfacing seat behind me, but don't think DH could.

tigermummy35- I'd be interested to know what you're looking at. Do the people carrier types have more room than conventional cars?

I've heard of some place which supplies and fits rear facing seats, so I might give them a call for advice. If I get anything useful I'll post it.

Thanks Mishy, we're looking at Renault Megane estate's, Scenic's, Citroen Xsara Picasso's and a couple of other bigger cars, to accomodate the huge amount of "stuff" babies need, but also a rear facing seat, as DS is going to outgrow his infant seat in 2-3 months (well below the 9 months we anticipated!)

My idea to everyone who can afford to do it is to buy a Volkswagen Caravelle or a Renault (Grand) Espace. This is the simplest, safest but one of the most expensive, ways of transporting one's children. The car seats themselves can be turned to face backwards allowing all children of any age to be facing backwards in normal child seats. I also think that MUST be safer for adults to be rear-facing in an accident for the same reasons it is for a child - that being tthat the whole of the part of the seat touching the human's back takes the force of a front impact accident rather than just the part of the human body directly behind the seatbelt material. Does this sound logical to all?

Daren - You cannot install child car seats (even boosters) on a seat that faces rearwards unless it explicitly says you can use the seat on a rear facing car seat in the manual.

Most car seats aren't tested for this as the crash forces are completely different depending on the direction of travel and the seat could fail. You also wouldn't be able to claim for any injuries/replacement seat as you were using the seat contrary to manufacturer's instructions and the insurance would be void.

You are right that it is safer for everyone (with the possible exception of the driver!) to rear face whilst travelling (train/bus/car/etc).

We've recently bought a new car so that we can comfortably fit 2 RF seats in, plus to get more boot space.

We found the easiest ones to fit a Britax Two Way Elite into were the people carrier type. We had no problems in the Ford C-Max, the Renault Senic and the Vauxhall Mervia (the dealership didn't much like us trying them all though!!). We didn't look at the Xsara Picasso really because that is bigger than we need, ditto the Zafira.

When we looked into estate type cars we found that some seem to be longer in the body, giving more space in the back seats and some seemed the same as the non-estate type cabin, just with a bigger, longer boot. We went for the Ford C-Max in the end because we got a good deal, but would have happily gone for a Meriva (excellent ability to move back seats around) or the Renault Senic (spacious cabin but didn't like the boot so much).
Our RF seats don't have the support leg so it wasn't a problem for us, but some cars have those under the floor storage compartments and I think they are best avoided if you have a support leg on your seats.

My brother has the VW Passat estate and I can get our RF seats in that no problem, leaving enough space for my 6ft1 brother to drive with no issues. A friend has the Ford Focus estate and that is a bit of a push, OK with one RF seat but think it would be not great with two unless the driver was quite short.

Daren No, I remember looking into that, but if a seat is FF then it is only approved and tested for moving FF in a car, it isn't just a case of turning a seat around.