Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Car seats

Confused about car seat regulations? Find baby car seat advice here. For Mumsnetter-approved essentials, sign up for Mumsnet Swears By emails here.

Infant carrier / Stage 0 car seat for VW UP/SEAT MII

5 replies

LauraLoveGood · 16/01/2021 17:57

Hi ladies,

I am six months gone. I have the a 3 door Seat Mii - which is the same as a VW up and a Skoda Citigo.

I need a car seat for my little one - I was hoping to
visit a pram showroom type place to try car seats in my car - but so worried with lockdowns that I won’t get to do that.
I have risked it and ordered what is meant to be a compact folding pram to fit - but if it doesn’t, it at worst will inconvenience me and be a hassle - whereas an ill fitting car seat could potentially risk baby’s safety and I’m not willing to take that risk !

Has anyone got experience of car seats with this car please?

Many thanks x

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
LouiseTrees · 17/01/2021 00:16

Is it after a 2011 plate? If so I think you should get this Isofix base
uk.joiebaby.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2015/10/2016.01_iBaseAdvance_FittingList.pdf

LouiseTrees · 17/01/2021 00:19

It can be bought at John Lewis along with this car seat www.johnlewis.com/joie-baby-i-gemm2-group-0-baby-car-seat-pavement-grey/p4927348

LouiseTrees · 17/01/2021 00:20

I have both in a VW polo which granted I understand is bigger but it does say the base fits a Mii.

BertieBotts · 18/01/2021 14:02

I don't have experience with the car. You could try joining the group Car Seat Advice UK as they usually have good car-specific info there, although the waiting time to post can be long.

In general with an infant carrier, assuming you want to use a base, I'd say you're looking at 4 potential issues with fitting.

1: In a 3 door car, you need the seat to be easy to put on and off the base and press the release button. Therefore the release needs to be accessible from underneath the car seat and from the front of the vehicle, rather than positioned for easy access from the side door. You could just ask for general recommendations in that case of infant seat/base combos they have found work well for 3 door cars :)

2: Slope of your rear seats. It's common for car rear seats to be sloped, but if the slope is too steep, this causes an issue in terms of the car seat being too far upright for the baby. You might want to measure it and see if it's more than 5-10 degrees (you can use an app called Clinometer to do this). If it is more sloped, a base which can tilt would be recommended. The two I know of are Joie i-advance base (as linked by Louise) or Britax flex base. The Joie base works with all Joie infant seats except for i-Level and Juva. The Britax base works with their newer seat, Babysafe 2 i-size.

3: Storage boxes in the rear - unlikely in a 3 door, but if you have these you may be unable to use any seat which uses a support leg.

4: Front seat space. Infant carriers can take up a fair amount of room which can be a consideration if you have a taller driver or passenger. However, the easy fix for this is simply to use it on the side you can move the front seat further forwards. It only really becomes a problem once you have 2 children.

Another solution for a 3 door car can be disabling the airbag and belt fitting the infant seat on the passenger seat. This is often flatter, and the only consideration is then choosing a seat where it's easy to fit using the seatbelt, as you may be doing it a lot.

BertieBotts · 18/01/2021 14:07

It's very very rare to have problems fitting an isofix base. The only real safety issue will end up being the angle of the seat, and this isn't a problem in all cars. You could always go for one of the flex bases just in case, as they work even in cars that are totally flat. However I'm not a huge fan of the Joie infant carriers, especially their earlier models, as they tend to crunch the baby up which isn't best for their positioning. i-Gemm 2 is supposed to be better, and i-Snug. But if you want to be totally safe, get the Britax.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page