What to do in my 2 seater car!

[Staceroo]

It's probably very early to worry about this as not due until November, but I currently drive a 2 seater Vauxhall Tigra.

From what I can see I'm faced with 2 options...

1. Sell my tigra, hopefully get enough money to pay the finance off (i think I will get just about enough for it to pay this off - maybe a few hundred pounds short). But this will mean I can't afford a new car, so will probably opt for leasing a car.

2. Keep the Tigra. But this leaves me with 2 problems, one is that I don't think the boot is big enough for a pushchair plus all the baby bumpf! And secondly, there is no option to turn the air bag off. From what I can see in the manual, you have to by a car seat with a special vauxhall transmitter... has any one heard of this before?

My dh does have a company car which we can use when we go out together, but in the day when he's at work I need something for me and baby to get around in.

Any advise, much appreciated.

How much driving will you actually do in the day?
If you are planning trips away ( I visited my mum a lot on mat leave, she is 250 miles away) you'll need the boot space. I live in the countryside too, so I drove a fair bit too during the day to baby activities.

There are some buggies that go surprisingly small from 6 months + (Quinny Zapp, Petite Star Zia, Baby Jogger City Mini) - mayBe investigate those?
I'd be concerned about the air bag issue. And do Vauxhall make car seats in all szie groups like this? IF not, you are going to need to replace/do without your car at some point soon anyway, Group 0 car seats only last about 8-12 months. I'd still be concerned about relying on a transmitter to disable the airbag in an accident.

I felt the same about the 'transmitter'! It just doesn't sound very reliable!

If I think about it I probably won't do a lot of driving in the day without DH. Visiting family etc, is always done when we're both off at weekends, so I could live with the push chair issue, as I'd only use car for going to the shops etc. And hopefully lots of fun mum and baby things like swimming etc!

Thanks for the advise, useful things to think about which hadn't crossed my mind. Guess I need to do more research into what seats Vauxhall do and how it works!

No experience of the Vauxhall 'transmitter', but I did have a Mercedes badged 0+ seat with a special transponder in the base that de-activated the airbag while the seat was in place. I had checked with the in-car safety people in Essex to find out if the transponder system was reliable. I had absolutely no problems with the seat and comms with the car's computer, but it was expensive though.

I bought a more practical car when the baby was ready for the next stage seat.

By the way, congratulations Staceroo. I bet you have a nice mummy hatchback/estate within a couple of years!

lol at BIkeRunSKi! Not quite in people carrier mode yet, but thinking of a 5 door hatchback! Maybe an Astra or something!

I really really want a Prius, as dh used to have one as a company car, but only had it 3 months before changing jobs! :-( Think they're a bit too expensive though!

Arabicabean sounds like the same kind of thing doesn't it? Thanks for the reassurance that these things are reliable. As it may be I can't sell the Tigra, and would hate to be stuck walking everywhere in the winter!

you would be able to get a switch fitted at your local vauxhall dealers to turn the airbag on/off, you would need to call them for a price though,as it seems to vary a huge amount depending on how difficult it is to do it (about £200 + though )
so would depend how expensive the car seat from vauxhall was.
a group 0 carseat would last until about 15months,then you could put the next stage carseat in the front too,so you wouldnt have a major problem,if you had to hold off a hile before you can change your car.

theres a few pushchairs sutable form birth which are pretty small folded - bugaboo bee being the post popular.
theres also the bebe confort streety (similar idea to the bee,but much cheaper)
petite star zia
m&p luna (personally HATED mine for my 16mo but might be ok for a newborn)
m&p pilko/silvercross 3D
baby jogger city mini

A Group 0 car seat will only last to 15 months if you have a very small baby! Pretty much all the babies I know were in Group 1 by a year, and DS (admitedly 91st centile for height) was out by 9 months.

yup,my 3 were in their infant carriers until 16/18months.

bikerunski - although the babies you know were into group 1 seats,that doesnt mean they had actually outgrown their infant carriers,it just means the parents moved them into the next stage seat.

Ok, sorry, I stand corrected. DS's head and feet were dangling over the end of his Group 0 at 9 months.

my lo's feet were dangling over the edge from about 4 months,but so lons as their head isnt its fine.
my ds1's infant seat (chicco) was fab when he was little but his head was over the top at 7months,i changed him into a britax and problem was solved :)

Keep the car! Don't forget babies dont have feet so they don't use the footwell. This is where bags and shopping goes.

Buy a cheap 2nd hand buggy for the boot. Yes umbrella folds mclaren or mamas papas do lots. Or bugaboo bee is pretty small as is micro mini city jogger.
These buggies are all in John Lewis. Where do you live, can you get to a John Lewis to test the boot?
They will happy cooperate if you ask them (might need a quiet time slot tho)
Also there are several huge mothercares around but in my experience, they are utterly crappy and don't actually stock anything at all.

I reckon the baby jogger micro Citi mini (make sure micro) would be a good bet. And the maxi ciao car seat fits on it t

Keep the car! Don't forget babies dont have feet so they don't use the footwell. This is where bags and shopping goes.

Buy a cheap 2nd hand buggy for the boot. Yes umbrella folds mclaren or mamas papas do lots. Or bugaboo bee is pretty small as is micro mini city jogger.
These buggies are all in John Lewis. Where do you live, can you get to a John Lewis to test the boot?
They will happy cooperate if you ask them (might need a quiet time slot tho)
Also there are several huge mothercares around but in my experience, they are utterly crappy and don't actually stock anything at all.

I reckon the baby jogger micro Citi mini (make sure micro) would be a good bet. Excellent brand of buggy, wins every review going And the maxi cost car seat fits on it to make it a tracked system. Actually fit bee too. But these are but costly! But some 2nd hand bargain to be had on eBay.

Re airbag. You need dealership to turn it off. Which is possible but might be expensive.

Just dont turn into a terrible driver looking at baby next to you all the time!! You can ignore them in the car. It's the rules!!

Great! iPhones! Sorry

Wow, loads of fab advise everyone! Thanks!

I hadn't thought of asking the shops to test things out in my boot.