Protective Seat

[IWanders]

Hi, we have a 7 seater car a ford galaxy and will be needing to put one child in what is effectively the boot. The worry is about the impact the car seat would have to take if we had a rear impact collision and the harm that our child could be in.
So I was wondering if any other mums had to resort to the fourth seat in the boot and what is the safest/strongest car seat we could use. It would be for a 3 year old we are currently looking at the mamas and papas cybex pallas as it looks very strong and sturdy. But any recommendations would be amazing as I am scared to use the boot seats but have no other option as we can't afford a people carrier.
Thanks for any help, and this is my first post so hope what I'm asking is clear. Thanks again.

i'm not entirely sure it's a question anyone can answer because IIRC crash tests don't usually involve a rear-end collision.

what ages are your other children?

My others are baby, 2 and 5. I thought that might be the answer, as rear collisions are our biggest worry which is why the roll bar looked like such a good thing on the cybex pallas. Thanks.

see technically you should be putting the oldest child in the least safe position. so that would be the 5 year old.
I can see the dilemma though, because high backed boosters maybe seem to offer less protection in a crash than a big car seat?
but then the child is younger/smaller, so any impact will have a bigger effect.

i had this exact same discussion with a group of people on FB the other day and it's a really hard decison to make. points that were made during that chat included:

is it safer to have the eldest in the front?
statistically you're more likely to have a head-on collision. But the front seats on modern cars tend to be very well designed in terms of keeping the occupants safe. you also are much further back from the impact, especially if you are able to push the passenger seat as far back as it will go (this will depend on the car seat behind it)

the likelihood of a high-impact rear-end collision is low. But if you were unfortunate to have such an accident then your child would be in the crumple zone. BUT, the Galaxy is a relatively "high" car, so unless the vehicle hitting you was also "high" then the impact may well be quite low down, so less effect?

How easy is it to get children out of the back row if you have child seats all across the middle? If you're hit from behind how will emergency services access the child in the back? time could potentially be wasted having to remove a seat from the middle row in order to lift the chair and get to the back

In some countries (France, I believe) it's against the law to have a child under a certain age in the front seat. But in others it's considered as safe as in the back seats- Scandinavian countries take this viewpoint and their general attitude towards car safety seems to be a lot higher than ours!

Ultimately there is no real answer I don't think! It's all different sets of risks and you just need to weigh them up and figure out what is best for your own family.
For example, I know if I had my 3 year old in the very back row it would potentially be very distracting as he'd be shouting for stuff all the time whereas my 7 year old would be quite happy back there reading/playing games.

As for the original question, I still don't know the answer i'm afraid

In addition to what TIY says:-

Could you get a rfing car seat for the 3y if it has to be this child in the back? Then any impact would be further away from the child's head (I'd rather legs squashed than head!)

These are the points I have been considering the role bar looks good on the cybex as it offers protection for head and neck, our 3 year year old would be best in the back as the eldest can watch the youngest for me, and entertain them. My 3 year old is good at amusing himself.
I think if we had a bad crash, or the car rolled in the winter (heaven forbid) it would be hard getting anyone out of the car in that situation. We had a look at the cybex today and it is very solid, and easier to get open then a harness if the clips jarred.
I realise there is no real answer as this is why I am tormenting myself with the dilemma and have appeased myself with a better solid car seat is the way to go until we can exchange our car for a more suitable mini van style vehicle.
I haven't seen any rear facing toddler seats on the market, perhaps I have not been looking in the right places, and putting my daughter in the front wouldn't work as I can't sit in the boot, lack of leg space is too uncomfortable.
The only saving grace really is we don't make journeys longer than an hour unless we really need to, and I know hopefully in a couple of years we will be able to exchange our car.
Thanks for your help I will look at rear facing car seats and see if we can disable the front air bag when AI am not travelling.

greentrees, yes the boot on the VW sharan/seat alhambra is a fair bit bigger than on the Galaxy

vw own seat, so the sharan and the alhambra actually are the exact same car

the Ford galaxy is completely different

no, as far as I know they've always had differences, although admittedly the old versions of each look very similar.

they're made by completely different companies so it's hard to see how they would just happen to make them identical.

it's quite sad that I know so much about them. have been researching 7 seaters lately and I know more than I ever wanted to. i need to just choose one already! lol

hmm ok further delving reveals that the Euro Ncap 1999 test on the VW Sharan states that it did in fact share the "
same body, interior and running gear with the Ford Galaxy and Seat Alhambra. Neither were tested here, but it is anticipated that their performance would be near-identical"

interesting! it didn't get a good score.

however, in 2006 the Ford Galaxy was given an updated test, and here it does not mention it being the same as the VW/SEAT so I think it must have changed slightly as it is given a 5 star rating on that test.
they do normally say if it's the same as another model, because the updated (2010) VW Sharan test still says it's identical to the Seat Alhambra

So that has given me another runner for potential car in the form of an older Galaxy (but not too old lol)

as you can tell, I have a tendency to over-think things