Citroen C4 Picasso and ERF carseat (longish) - help needed!!

[angelpuss]

Hello

We are currently in the process of changing cars as we now need something bigger. We are also at the point where our 13 mth old DS is growing out of his infant carrier (although he's still got time left as his heads not at the top yet).

Now here comes our problem. We want to keep him rear-facing. Our first problem is buckle crunch (where the buckle is over the bar of the seat when fitted correctly thus making it unsafe in the event of an accident). This prevents us from putting any RF seat that is fitted using the seat belt in our current car because of the way our seatbelts fasten (and could even be a problem for FF) and we don't have isofix points.

One of the car's we were looking at has been ruled out again due to buckle crunch and isofix only being put in if requested from new.

So, our final choice was the Citroen C4 picasso. The seatbelts are perfect. The problem now is that there is underfloor storage, which prevents you from using anything with a supporting leg - putting both isofix and any seats with a leg out of the equation.

Does anyone have any experience of using an RF carseat in a C4 Picasso? We have been looking at the MaxiCosi Mobi and the Britax Multitech with the Mobi coming out in front at the moment.

Obviously, we know that we need to get any seat fitted correctly by someone who knows what they are doing, and thankfully we're lucky to have a local supplier. However, we need to make a decision about a car and obviously need to ensure that we can fit a carseat in it before we buy anything!

Confused is an under statement - so if anyone could give us any help then we would be grateful

[angelpuss]

We know that both of the seats mentioned above have a supporting leg! was just wondering if anyone had any experience of using them with the underfloor storage door open (is the base of the compartment flat or bumpy? is it smooth metal which is suitable for putting the supporting leg on? Is the supporting leg long enough!) or in the middle position of the back seat.

Thanks x

[Iscreamtea]

According to the carseat chap I spoke to in Kiddicare some isofix seats have a rear tether, which our Citroën grand Picasso has anchor points for. Alternatively the centre seat has no under floor storage so could have a supporting leg. I'm sure I've also read about inserts for the storage areas to make them work with supporting legs, or that you can take the lid off and have the leg going to the bottom of the compartment.

[Iscreamtea]

X post slightly, sorry.

[angelpuss]

Thanks Iscreamtea will look into the inserts for the storage area idea as that could work

[DiscontinuedSocks]

I had a belted izi combi in a c4 grand picasso, in the centre rear seat. The support leg was placed forward of the storage compartment.This arrangement meant that the front seats could not be moved while the seat was in place, and have to be at the same place on the runners. The isofix version did not fit due to the support leg being on top of the storage comparment. AFAIK you cannot currently buy fillers for the citroen underfloor storage. You can't put the support leg inside the storage compartment as the leg is too short.

Other seats I tried were a Brio Zento, but this meant that the front seat had to be pushed too far forward to be comfortable. Although it technically fitted it just wasn't practical.

The Britax two-way elite fitted in the side seat. This is possibly the best option. The only reason we didn't get the TWE was that we had a child on the other side and wanted a passenger to be able to use the seat easily, so the izi in the middle enabled this.

All of the above seats were checked in my car at Rayleigh. Having said that, the car we had was one of the first c4 picassos, and they have changed them slightly now so please do check!

[angelpuss]

Thanks DiscontinuedSocks

Good to know that a passenger can comfortably fit in with the car seat in the middle as that's one of the things that we were worried about.

Have actually emailed Citroen to see if they have any suggestions. May have to see if we can do another test drive and go to our local carseat supplier and test the seats in it (which is what we did yesterday to rule the Ford C-Max out of the equation!)

Haven't actually found anywhere local that stocks the Britax TWE, only the Multitech - but not sure if they are the same seat just with different names!

[nicm]

hi, i had the same thing when i had a grand scenic and it had underfloor storage. ended up with the britax two way elite as it has no support leg. i wasn't sure about it at the start but when i rang the essex road safety officers one of the ladies had the twe in their picasso, i thought if they use it, it must be a good seat. i too wanted the mobi as i'd always had maxi cosi seats but it wasn't available here when i bought it. the only place to find the twe in the uk is belfast or milton keynes. the mt and twe are different seats.

:)

[angelpuss]

Thanks nicm

I guess that's the TWE out of the question as don't think that we can travel down to Milton Keynes, unless our local shop can get hold of them (they stock most of the others available so will have to ask them). I think that the Multitech has a supporting leg :(

[nicm]

you could either ask on the rf forum, phone the in car safety centre or the essex road safety team-i spoke to someone called vicky and ask them if they have fitted the twe in your car. or maybe someone on here has the seat in your car? then you could order it online and fit ot yourself.

the mt does have a support leg, although it might reach the bottom of the storage? i have a hi-way 2 which apparenly has the same length support leg as the mt, i can measure it for you if that helps?

:)

[angelpuss]

Didn't know there was a RF forum...will go looking there after!

However, we don't actually have the car yet!

We're looking at getting a bigger car because of all the crap you carry round when you have a LO so that we have a bit more room for everything and the C4 Picasso is currently the chosen one. But we really want to go down the RF route and are finding it very difficult at the moment to get one that's suitable.

If you could measure the leg that would be great, then at least when we go and have another look at them we can check and see. :)

[nicm]

12345, that might be better as op would need to check if the support leg was the same length as the hi-way 2! also there's gale force winds outside and i don't fancy trekking out in the dark with a torch and tape measure lol! but i'll do it tomorrow.

:)

[angelpuss]

Thanks for all your help.

If you could measure the leg on your MT onetwothreefourfive that would be great, then at least we have some idea of whether it would potentially fit.

How do you find the MT? The only thing that puts me off it is that there's no recline...is this an issue? DS always looks uncomfortable when he's asleep in his infant carrier and don't like the idea of him slumping forward!

[MoTeaVate]

Have you considered a Honda FR-V? No storage boxes, 3 full size seats and isofix . How many children do you or are you intending to have?

www.rearfacing.co.uk is a goldmine of information.

Also, do bear in mind only a v small number of the RF seats on the market have passed the highest standard of Swedish crash test, the 'plus test' that measures collision forces on the child's head and neck area: The BeSafe Izikid X3, the Klippan Kiss (also called Duologic) and the Acta/Graco Belogic.

[nicm]

Hi, sorry I have taken forever to reply but the leg from the base of the seat to the floor is 44 cms and the total length is 78 cms. That is on the hi-way 2, hth.

:)

[justforinfo]

I've not had time to read all posts yet so sorry if repeating same old crap but the Fiat Multipla fits the Britax Multi-tech beautifully :) Yes it's ugly not as pretty but a very practical car and has 3 seats in the front as well as the back!

[SuzysZoo]

Sorry - no time to read all these posts. I went to the Essex in Car Safety centre with my Citroen c4 - needed to get 2 rear facings for twins. in theory could have got one in the middle of back seat (no underfloor) but that blocked all view out of rear so in the end all we could fit in were two Britax Two Way Elite's (one behind driver, one behind passenger. My middle daughter sits in a booster in between these two (she gets in via the front doors as the two seats block off access from rear doors.