Help! Second stage car seat to fit VW Beetle?

[BringMeThatHorizon]

I have a 2006 VW Beetle - two doors, no isofix. My DS is 14 months and is very close to outgrowing his first car seat (MaxiCosi), so need to find a next stage car seat that will fit in the back seat.

I want to keep him rear facing, but due to the curve of the back window and the extra height of second stage seats because of the big base that seems to be on every seat, I'm struggling to find one that I can reach over the top of to manually belt in.

Plus every seat that does technically fit essentially make the front passenger seat unusable as there's no leg room at all.

Getting a new car isn't an option at the moment but might be in a couple of years, so ideally I'd want a seat that can be used with or without isofix, so we don't have to buy another one when we do manage to upgrade.

Does a seat like this - small enough to fit in a beetle, seatbelt not isofix, rear facing, isofix potential for the future - exist? Does anyone have a beetle and if so what do you use?

I've been to Mothercare and they were no help, didn't have anything suitable. The only Halfords nearby is a small one with a tiny range on display.

Back in 2011-13 I had a 2002 beetle and used a maxi cosi priori. It worked because it had a narrower base than many toddler car seats. However it was forward facing and didn’t have Isofix.
I wonder if rear facing would be really difficult with the low ceiling and no rear door?

Have a look at the Apramo One, think it covers all your requirements plus it spins so easier for a 3 door car.

Have a look at the kiddy range ( you might need an independent shop to physically look at) really compact and narrow, they also used to do really well safety wise even compared to Isofix. Dh is a car trader so we always have different cars, admittedly we didn’t have a beetle convertible and the kiddy range saw us through all sorts of awkward cars!

It’s not long until they are out the annoying car seat phase so it’s not always worth swapping cars for that. Have you physically looked for the isofix bolts? Vw were early adopters and a lot of them have them but no label, we recently sold our a3 convertible and that had the bolts but no label.

Thanks everyone. I think the rear facing bit might be the problem!

The Apramo One looks like it could be a good option and the option for seatbelt or isofix is what we want, but only rear facing until 13kg.

We have a second car that my DH drives to work, so this one is mainly used for nursery pick ups and local journeys, so maybe I just need to look at forward facing ones as well.

@EvilPea I'll definitely check out the kiddy range, thank you! I haven't looked for the bolts or ever noticed anything, just assumed that they were there as it wasn't labelled, but I will have a proper look now!

You need a compact seat which allows for the recline of the back seats so the Britax two way elite or Axkid Minikid or Move would be options. The other option would be to disable the passenger airbag and rear face in the front passenger seat. It's perfectly safe and legal, and quite common in countries like Sweden with much higher standards in car seat safety.

Also if you want to look at seats you'd really need to go to an independent car seat retailer or somewhere like the in car safety centre if you can get to one. High street retailers still have very little knowledge of rear facing seats.

Kiddy aren't making car seats any more unfortunately. I think Tea is right and if you're keen on rear facing it's definitely worth looking at 25kg limit seats. They tend to be a bit more compact to fit and friendly to cars with shorter seatbelts.

Here's a list of specialist retailers, hopefully there might be one near you?

www.carseatadvice-uk.com/specialist-retailers.html

Just had a google Bertie and I’ve seen they went bust, I’m really shocked, that’s a real shame they were some of the safest and best seats around.

It did bring up plenty of people selling them, but obviously you may not feel completely happy buying something with no manufacturer backup.

I think they were just too slow on the rear facing route, impact shields have had their day really. I did have a Kiddy seat several years ago with impact shield and loved it, but I wouldn't use one now.

Their infant seats with the lit flat were brilliant, but extremely expensive for a seat that gets 12-18 months use (if that) and I can see why they ended up unsuccessful once other companies started producing lie flat seats much cheaper.