Joie stages + Ford Focus

[riotlady]

Hi :) I’ve had a joie stages since my daughter was born as I wanted a car seat that would last and that would do extended rear facing. I recently bought my first car (2010 Ford Focus) and was shocked to find it doesn’t fit! There’s enough room but the seatbelt is nowhere near long enough when rear facing.

According to the instructions, the seat needs to be at recline 4 when used rear facing, no matter how old the child is. If I put it to incline 3 (more uptight) I can fit the seatbelt round and everything feels stable. My other option would be to turn her round to forward face but that feels less safe.

I can of course also buy a new car seat but another £200 or so would be a real struggle for us and I couldnt do it until Tuesday and need to take her to nursery tomorrow.

You definitely need to have it on recline 4. It could tip up if it's on recline 3. The recline is part of how it fits safely.

Have you tried this short belt method? It sounds like there might be just enough room to do this.

We have had this problem with Ford Focus. We got a little seatbelt extender from eBay which worked fine and wasn’t expensive.

Short belt method is from 2:22 onwards.

The seatbelt extenders aren't safe to use, they can come apart if you have a crash. If you're still using that I'd try the short belt method and get rid of the extender.

I have tried the short belt method, that’s how I’ve got it in other cars but nothing doing here. I guess I’m going to have to turn it round to forward facing.

Ah :( Yes I think so in that case. That would be the only safe way to do it. What about trying it in the front? Can you disable the airbag?

@BertieBotta absolutely no idea, will have to google! Not sure if the front seatbelts are actually any longer, I might give that a go tomorrow

Do you have the manual for the car? It might say in there. I know in ours (not Ford) there's a little switch inside the glove compartment which you turn with the key.

The good thing about the front is you can move the seat back to get more room in the seatbelt. As long as the seatbelt is still anchoring the car seat down and back you can do this.

Otherwise if you end up needing to get another seat I can look up what's available for a bit less money for you. You can get quite a few rear facing seats for less than £200 although hopefully you won't need to buy one at all! How old and heavy is your DD?

Another thought, if you have any other seats available e.g. One in grandparents car, maybe you can swap?

My daughter just got this car seat and struggled to get it her focus. I read up about it and Ford are notorious for having short seat belts.
Anyway I managed to get hers to fit it's a struggle but it's in.
So I pushed the front seat forward and pushed the back down, got in and pushed the baby seat with my knees and the seatbelt fit. It's a bit fiddly to get the seatbelt into the gaps on baby seat, I worked up a sweat lol.

@BertieBotts yes, I’ve found the manual! Going to have a go getting it in the front after work. I’ve read that being in the front is less safe than being in the back, and obv forward facing is less safe than rear facing, but I’m not sure how to weigh up rear facing in the front vs forward facing in the back? I think I probably will end up getting a new car seat eventually because I’ll be worrying about it either way

DD is 2 years old and about 2 stone I think. We don’t have any other car seats available, I just learnt to drive and this is my first car so before that we were just chucking the joie stages into other people’s cars when we got a lift anywhere. I’ve managed to get in some quite small cars so I was shocked when I couldnt get it in this one!

Thank you so much for all your help, you’ve been very kind :)

According to this Swedish (relevant because they ERF routinely) car seat website, the only dangerous thing about being in the front is the airbag, so if you turn it off, then it's no more dangerous than the back. In fact it may be safer as the structure of the car will be stronger/reinforced.

www.carseat.se/2010/05/28/are-car-seats-in-front-seat-safe/

Actually this is a slightly better article

www.carseat.se/rearfacing/position-in-vehicle/

I managed to get it in the back!!! I saw a couple of people saying they had managed it with a lot of pressure and wriggling so summoned DP out to help me. Thank you everyone for the advice x

Oh! Amazing! :)

Hi OP, are you still on here? I have a 2007 focus and was just about to buy the stages, is this the one you eventually got in the back? And any tips if so? I am so stressed about seats 🤣 xx

Yes, we still have it actually as reusing for my second! It fits fine forward facing but rear facing is a bit of a mission to get it in- once it’s in, it’s in, I wouldn’t reccomend it if you need to change between cars a lot.

Basically you just need to muscle it. Don’t do it the normal way of putting the lap belt across, plugging it in and then stretching the rest round the back as that doesn’t work at all. Put the lap belt and the bit around the back into position with it unbuckled, then extend the seatbelt as far as it’ll go, push down on the seat and buckle it in. Helps if there’s two people- one to pull the seatbelt out and push down on the seat, and one round the other side to get it buckled in.

It gets easier once you get the hang of it- it seemed literally impossible when I started this thread whereas now it’s a pain in the arse but doable.

For £200 it’s really earned it’s money to be fair, had my daughter aged 2-5 and now she’s in a HBB and my son uses it

What's your budget and the age of your child? Does your car have Isofix? The Joie stages is pretty notorious for the long belt path. And there are newer seats available now which fit the niches that the Stages used to be the only option for. No sense in getting that one if something else would work better.

Thanks for the tip about fitting the belt to the seat before buckling it in, Vickyb2022. I was following the instruction booklet and couldn't see how the seat would fit, given the length of the Focus seatbelt. As you say, it just fits at full seatbelt length. If fitting it on your own, I recommend that you extend the seatbelt to its full extent and then put a clip on it to stop it retracting while you work.