Car seats and 3 door cars - possible?

[Margo34]

Love our little old car, but only 3 door.
How practical (or impractical) would it be to use a carseat in the back of a 3door? Anyone else in this situation? Can't really afford new car atm!!

Horrific, I'd avoid at most costs!

If you do, get an isofix base and infant carrier.

It's possible but very difficult. I would try to buy a 4 /5 door car if at all possible. I know you say you can't afford it but if you sell your current car maybe you could get something more suitable?

Also does the little car only have a little boot? That's going to get annoying...

Of course you can, if you need to. It's not like a classic car or a sports car, those are the real tricky situations!

A 3 door is not practical but is is doable if you have to.

How old is your car and does it have isofix? Is this for a newborn?

It's not as easy but it's far from impossible, I managed for a bit before I changed my car, I had to get something older for the money but I couldn't get the pram in the boot properly so that influenced the decision. I found climbing in from the opposite side to where you're putting the seat helped give space to do what you needed to.

It’s doable but not pleasant. Although if you were looking at ERF it could get very impractical.

Also, can you turn off the airbag? If so you can use a car seat in the front, which can sometimes be more practical. It means the second adult has to get into the back via the driver's side.

We had two under twos in a 3 door car. It wasn’t a problem. And we didn’t have isofix.

We only got a larger car when we got out the baby seat for dc3 and realised it didn’t fit in alongside two toddler seats.

We’re doing it. It’s not ideal but completely doable as long as the front seat passenger is happy to sit quite a way forward. We have isofix and lean through to clip it in, it’s not a big deal. But we did choose a small pram deliberately as the boot size could have been more of an issue than 3 doors.

I did it. Its awkward but possible.

Glad to know it's doable and not totally impossible! It is a 2008 fiesta with 100k+ miles on the clock so very much doubt I'd get much if anything for it by selling to fund a new car! 🙈 I think we'll just have to put up with awkward until we can afford a newer car (doubt we'll ever be able to get a brand new car though)!
We haven't got a pushchair yet but have been factoring in boot space when looking online, don't want a massive travel system anyway and were hoping we might get away with just having a sling/carrier and car seat so maybe not even need a pushchair?! We've inherited a cybex Aton base fix - is that the same as isofix?

@BertieBotts

Also, can you turn off the airbag? If so you can use a car seat in the front, which can sometimes be more practical. It means the second adult has to get into the back via the driver's side.

I didn't think you were supposed to use car seats in the front and they should be in the back as long as poss? Not sure where I got that from though.

I've a fiat 500 and find it to be no problem, for a small car the boot is pretty good. I have a Joie stages seat (not isofix) and find that it works fine for us.

What pram did you get out of interest @ToffeeAppleCaramel?

If you have isofix, a spinning seat might make it easier

Good to know, thanks @Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies!

Also, rear facing in the front with airbag off is perfectly fine and just as safe as in the back if you ever need to do it that way.

It's okay to have a seat in the front if you can turn the airbag off.

Some cars have a key slot so you can do it at home and others (like mine!) can only be done by the dealer. (Or maybe a garage, been a while since I looked into it.)

Depends. We have an VW up (as our second car, not main car) and it's fine with DC1, who is almost 4. Have had it for nearly 3 years so didn't have it when he was a real baby when I imagine it would have been very awkward to get him in and out, he's always been able to climb in and out himself with a bit of help and I can clip him in by just reaching over from the driver's seat.

I used to have a Corsa and when we took our niece out on a day out it was an absolute nightmare trying to get her car seat in and out as the passenger chair didn't fold forward very far.

In terms of pushchair we had a GB pokit that we got for holiday as it folds up really really small but can only be used from 6 months onwards. Tbh our main pushchair is quite big so we didn't really use it much, and even when we did we only used the chassis with the car seat attached so that might be a good option but will obviously limit the amount of time you can be out for as babies aren't meant to be in them for too long. But I suppose if you have a sling aswell you could just take them out the pushchair and pop in the sling as and when.

@Margo34 we got a babyzen YOYO. I’ve seen people say they would only have it as a second / travel pram but we’ve been totally happy with it as our only one. We use a sling a lot, as you plan to, and that’s better than any pram for proper countryside walks. For everything else the YOYO has been great for us and it’s tiny folded.

The Aton base fix is an isofix base yes, but it can also fit with seatbelt. Isofix refers to the method you use to attach the base (or later the full car seat) into the car. You can do this with a seatbelt by following the blue guides on the seat (make sure to read the instructions, you can download them if they're missing) or, if you've got an isofix-compatible car, isofix is dead easy because you just pull out two metal prongs on the back of it, push them into holes in the seat and they clamp on tightly to a metal bar attached to the car's chassis so it's absolutely solid, really easy to do, will turn green to show you you've done it correctly. It was designed to be idiot proof and it is! There is most likely a fitting video on Youtube for the base. Then the seat just clicks on and off.

Make sure you find out if it's the base fix or base 2-fix. The base fix takes the Cybex Aton car seat and the base 2-fix takes the Aton 5. No other current baby seat will go onto it, they're specific only.

The Cybex car seats go on Maxi Cosi adapters, so they fit most popular prams/travel systems. It's not my favourite car seat for a newborn though. It's really high safety rating but I was disappointed with the head position and DS2 outgrew it fairly early, he is tall though. But the bases are £££ so it kind of makes sense to stick with what you've got.

It's actually quite a good base for a 3 door car because the release button is at the front, although the carry handle is supposed to be down which might be a bit awkward. I'd check with Cybex whether it's OK to just leave it up for ease of getting the seat in and out.

It's safe to put a child seat in the front IF you can disable the airbag, it's the airbag which makes it unsafe.

Oh no my mistake sorry.

The Cybex Base-fix is the isofix only base for the Aton. There's a separate one for if you need to fit it with seatbelt.

It's the Base-2-fix that can be fitted with either seatbelt or isofix (not both at once).

So you'll want to check if you have isofix fittings in your car, because if not, you won't be able to use that base, you'll need a seatbelt fitted one.

But here's the video anyway. Mute it because the music's annoying and there's no explanation. Base part is from 0:46 to 1:33.

Be careful following Aton links on youtube because they've called their American seat the same thing even though it's a completely different seat. Check the accent :)

Thanks @BertieBotts that is really helpful info! It's the Aton Base Fix (not the base fix 2).

Do you happen to know if the base will be compatible with other car seats or only with the cybex aton car seat? We have been offered the base and car seat second hand (known history - from family) but they're about 7 years old ish.

Thanks again!

Only the Cybex Aton for that one. There's no problem with using a second hand car seat if you know the history of it. Some manufacturers have a suggested time limit of use for their seats, I don't know if Cybex do.

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