Old Ford Fiesta (R reg 1997) car seat saga!!

[sassylassie]

OK, please bear with me on this - it's going to be a long post, well probably more like an essay! But hopefully it'll be mildly entertaining for anyone who's had a similar frustrating experience!! :o

My DH and I had a very, errr... entertaining day yesterday trying to sort out a car seat for our DC1 due in January.

The day started with an appointment at John Lewis at 9.45 to test the fitting of a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix or Pebble. (We'd decided on the Baby Jogger City Mini and so were looking at car seats to go with that.) Neither fitted in our Fiesta - the seatbelt was MUCH too short even with lots of fiddling. The Maxi Cosi seat belt base also proved not to be an option due to buckle crunch. :( To top it all, the Baby Jogger City Mini didn't even fit in our boot fully assembled. We asked if the back wheels could be removed - the JL rep said no (which later proved to be untrue!).

Next move: DH rang our local Ford dealer to enquire about replacing the seatbelt with a longer one or getting a seatbelt extension. They told him that as of the last 3 years Ford no longer do longer seatbelts. We also discovered from reading online that it is illegal to use plug-in seatbelt extensions with a child car seat. As we were nearby we popped into the Ford dealership to look at some new cars (we were pretty desperate!), but left with me almost in tears due to a really obnoxious salesman who was ready to consign our beloved Fiesta (which only has about 30k miles on the clock) to the scrap heap. After this I was more determined than ever that we would have to find a solution to the problem. I really don't want us to have to try to find the money for another car just to deal with this!

Next stop Halfords as we thought they'd know more about cars and fittings and we might be able to try out some other car seats in our car. By this point we'd almost given up on the idea of getting a car seat to fit the Baby Jogger. :( The guy at Halfords seemed really knowledgeable and told us what he'd recommend is going to the Mobility Centre as they would sell longer seatbelts for large people with mobility problems and we could get one of these fitted by a garage or do it ourselves. Failing that we could go to a breakers yard and get a front seat belt from an old Fiesta and fit that in the back.

So off we went to the Mobility Centre. The woman there basically just looked at us like were nuts and said "Err no. We don't sell seatbelts."

DH then suggested that on our way home (by this time is was about 2pm!) we should go to our local garage and ask about this idea of getting a front seatbelt to fit in the back (as DH was a bit suspicious of what the Halfords guy had told us) and the mechanic told us in no uncertain terms that this was a) not safe and b) wouldn't work anyway as the fittings are different. His advice was to "just google it". As if we hadn't tried that already! I was really demoralised by this point and had pretty much lost all hope.

We went home for some much-needed lunch and by chance I found an article in the pregnancy/baby magazine I'd just bought about choosing car seats and an ad for the Britax B-Agile travel system. I looked up the B-Agile online and it seemed to have great reviews and a good alternative to the Baby Jogger City Mini. I started to think this might be a better option anyway. My DH also found that people in forums were saying that the Britax car seats fit their old Fiestas and Ford Focuses which had short seatbelts. We rang an independent retailer listed on the Britax website and they had both the B-Agile and the Britax SHR Plus II in stock and were happy for us to try them in our car. So we got back in the car feeling quite optimistic and headed off to the shop.

The woman at the shop was brilliant, very helpful, but no the Britax car seat would not fit (not even close!), despite lots more fiddling. Unfortunately she didn't have the Britax belted base in stock so we couldn't try that. On a positive note we really liked the Britax B-Agile (thought it seemed a lot more sturdy than the City Mini) so we were keen to go with that, if only we can find a car seat option that works! The lady at the shop said she would ring Britax on Monday to check whether the base will work in our car and then order it in if we got the green light. She also said that loads of her customers (esp. with Ford Fiestas and Focuses, even new Focuses!) had had this problem and many people had left her shop in tears!! Apparently, some garages will fit longer seatbelts, but not official Ford dealers. So I guess if the Britax base doesn't fit either (or we have buckle crunch again), we'll need to ring around some garages.

The other alternative (short of buying a new car) seems to be fitting the seat in the front passenger seat, but to do that we'd have to permanently disable our airbag (no option on our car to switch this on and off) and we know it's not as safe as having the baby in the back, so we're really not keen on that option at all.

By the time we left the shop it was 5 o'clock! What a way to spend a glorious sunny day. :(

Phew, apologies for the ridiculously long post! Who would have thought this could be so complicated? (And why can't Ford get their act together if so many people have this problem?)

Would love to hear from anyone else who's been through or going through anything similar, and of course any solutions MN-ers might have!! :-)

[Ilanthe]

My DS went in the front seat using a Maxicosi Cabriofix in MILs R reg Fiesta which we have had to borrow a few times. There is no air bag fitted at all though so nothing to turn off. He loved being able to look at DH as they drove along. I understand your reluctance at the moment but it is probably safer than fitting a new seatbelt or buying a cheap seat.

If you still have the car when your DC goes forward facing I can confirm the Kiddy guardian pro fits in the back with no problems at all.

[notfarmingatthemo]

this base with the car seat that goes with it may fit. My friend had to have this one as it was the only seat that didn't have buckle crunch in her car. Did very well in safety tests as well.

[justforinfo]

Bit of a long shot, but ford fit ISOfix for £70 (we had it done in our 02 focus) that may be worth looking at as you wouldn't have to faff with seatbelts and buckles at all then :) I know its an extra expense but no headaches :D

[sassylassie]

Thanks everyone. Lots of possibilities there! :) The woman from the shop rang back to say that the Britax rep and their tech guy had both said the Britax base would probably fit so she's ordering one in and we'll go and try it when we can.

I think plan B is the replace the seatbelt option.

We'd still like to have something that we can put on our Britax B-Agile buggy if we can, so not considering incompatible car seats just yet, but that would be Plan C! Ditch the travel system idea and just try to get any seat that fits. Don't want to go for a bottom-of-the-range one though, unless there's one which happens to be dead cheap and somehow doesn't compromise on safety, comfort or build...!

justforinfo Unfortunately the engineer at the Ford dealership told us we couldn't put ISOfix in our car as it's too old, but you can with the ones post 2000s.

[justforinfo]

Ahhh ok, thats good to know at least :) I'm glad you've got it sorted! Now you can kick back and relax..... lol!

[sassylassie]

justforinfo Thanks, I can't quite relax just yet though. We've been assured that seats/bases will "definitely fit" so many times before now we've given up believing it until we actually see it. I've even heard that seatbelt length is not an exact science and the cuts can be different on each individual car (same model, same year etc)! Anyway, I think it'll be a couple of weeks until we actually get to try it out [holding breath]...

[sleepevader]

Also length can vary from seat to seat so try both!

[sassylassie]

Hi folks, quick update. Good news - yesterday we tried the Britax belted base in our Fiesta and it fits! Yay! :o This was such a relief, so we've now ordered the Britax B-Agile pushchair (competitor to the Baby Jogger City Mini), car seat and carrycot, which was our first choice, so it was nice not to have to compromise or buy a standalone car seat. The B-Agile seemed really nice and light and maneouvreable and very easy to fold, but it also seems quite sturdy, so we're very happy with it. For anyone out there who's really struggling with a very short seatbelt as we were, and finds that NOTHING fits when it comes to newborn car seats, I can really recommend the Britax belted base as an option. It has a different fitting from the Maxi Cosi base and requires very little seat belt, so it's not a problem.

Phew - one less thing to worry about! Now on to all the other stuff...