Buying a Multimac + Minimac Seata Abroad

[filip989]

Hi everyone!
Writing from Croatia and hope to get some help with the Multimac car seats, as I really cannot find anyone here that has one.

We have a 3.5 year old and are expecting twins in November.
We own a 2011 Citroen C4 Mk2 and a 2018 Hyundai i10. So small and smaller when 3 children are involved.

Our first plan was to sell the C4 and buy an MPV, but I was disappointed to find out how little we can realisticaly get for it. And we'd at least get a 2 years younger MPV so the peice difference is quite large, plus we'd be buying a fairly oldish car with certainly over 100k miles on the clock.

So I found out about Multimac, contacted them for some info (the customer service couln't be better, I'd buy it just based on that) and I'm closer to getting it now than a new car (we need to test the boot for some double strollers, but if we find one that'll fit and leave room for a couple pieces of luggage for vacations, I'll get the Multimac).

It is quite pricey, but it's half what I would have to pay for a bigger car and individual seats.
It's very pricey considering it's not a seat you can simply sell on if it doesn't work out. And if it doesn't, I'll still have to get a bigger car. I don't think I'll ecer be able to sell it here cause the new one, with 2 Minimacs would come to a total of 3-4 average monthly wages here.

What reassures me is that I've never found a post where someone said it was a bad fit. So I guess you can always make it work. I'd like to get some opinions on that if someone owns it.

Another, more important thing is crash test. I know it says it should be safer than conventional single seats, but what worries me is that there are really no test reports available easily for public.

I received a link from Multimac for one such testing. It was performed by which.co.uk but I don't have a subscription. If anyone has seen it, I'd like to know what they said? No need to sell me anything, just a short overview if safety is really that high.

And finally, I'd be interested to know if there is any knowledge about one being in a real traffic accident and how it held up, how does insurance cover it in UK (though I don't think a single insurance company in Croatia is gonna want to ensure it, eapecially since we don't have a representative here and I'd have to install it myself) etc. Having asked that, I do hope no one did have an accident.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure about crash testing but the major drawback to the multimac is that it can only rear face to 13kg which is the same as an infant carrier. Obviously rear facing to at least 4yrs is the safest option and the only way to minimise the risk of serious injury in a car crash. Unfortunately no matter how good a forward facing seat is, it will never be able to protect a child from serious injury in the same way.

Have you looked at other cars that will fit 3 seats across but aren't MPVs? Something like a Mondeo or a Skoda Superb can be good options.

If you join 'Car Seat Advice uk' on Facebook and search for 3 car seats, there will be lots of posts recommending cars which fit 3 across the back. A lot will be MPVs but there are other cars as well.

Well the main problem here is that we have a citroen which are really low on value, mainly still due to problema in the past. We love our c4, it's been great for us and didn't think of replacing it for another 5 years.

But I did think about replacing it for an older car of same value. That way, we can still get a new one in 5 years and have no additional expense now.

I could realisticaly get around 6000€ for the c4, mayve less if I wanted to move it quickly. And that kind of money would get us a 2007/2008 mondeo estate or s-max. I might even get an s-max in titanium trim if I add a couple hundred euros in with the swap.

So we are looking at that option (plus, I did always want to drive a ford) , I would rather get an s-max in this case and be done with it. I see a lot of people fit 3 across in a mondeo, but the middle seat still looks very narrow to me, so I trust it's possible to fit them but not too easy.

We'll see. I think we might even take the C4 for a child seat fitting one afternoon. If we manage to find two 0/1 rear facing seats up to 4 years that can fit around our eldest's seat, we would be golden. In 4 years the eldest would go onto a booster, the twins would go into group 2 seat and we would be in a posotion to replace the car almost as planned.