Car for extended rear facing

[Carseatconfused]

My 5 month old is on track to outgrow his infant car seat a lot sooner than I was expecting. I’d like to keep him rear facing as long as possible and so have been thinking about getting an Axkid Minikid, but am open to suggestions for other car seats.

I currently drive a Toyota Yaris and am planning to get a bigger car soon. I’m looking at a VW Tiguan or a Nissan Qashqai. Does anyone know how well a Minikid car seat would fit in either of these? I have a tall DH so need the passenger seat to be useable for him. I’d also happily take any other recommendations for cars that work well with ERF seats.

Not the Quashqai! It's called a reverse TARDIS in car seat circles because it's so miniscule inside.

I've just done a search for you in my car seat groups for Tiguan and the consensus is not a good choice for tall adults with ERF seats.

The ones I've seen recommended instead:

Skoda Superb (great cabin space)
Volvo XC40 / XC90 (Volvos are Swedish so even have tether loops built in for Axkid type seats)
Ford CMax (esp Grand) / Galaxy
VW Sharan / Passat
Honda CRV
Mazda CX-5

And in general a recommendation to go for Estate over SUV type.

Axkid Minikid is a great choice BTW :) I'd also look at Britax Max Way Plus as it's a bit more compact but still great for safety and comfort.

That’s exactly the information I was looking for! Thank you

I see you have suggested a Mazda CX-5, which we had thought about. My DH currently drives a Mazda 3 and he will be doing nursery drop-offs. Do you think that will be ok with a Minikid or Britax Max Way Plus? (Hoping two new cars aren’t required )

I'm sure it will be fine if the infant seat can fit in there, the ERF seats don't take up a huge amount more space.

Best thing to do is to try and find a local stockist and do a test fitting in order to see how much space you've got in there. Axkid have a search for stockists on their website. If your baby is only 5 months old you should have plenty of time to wait for stores to open up again :)

My max way plus fits in the back of a fiesta. My DP is 6ft2 and it’s a squeeze for him to sit in front of it but I’m fine at 5ft6

I have a Ford Kuga and a britax Maxway behind the driver seat (I am 5'11), as the Axkid wouldn't fit at all, and the maxway behind the passenger wouldn't give my partner enough room (6'1'').

We have mini kid in a cx5. I sometimes sit at the front (5.5) and go about comfy. Wouldn’t do a long drive tho

My Skoda Octavia estate and bmw 3 series estate fitted well

@Keiki
Sorry I’m jumping on this post, how on earth do you fit the max way?? I have a kuga and I cannot for the life of me figure out where to attach the tether straps??

I'm interested in this thread too. We have a 3.5 year old currently rear facing in an axkid move in the back of my mini one. My 6ft 3 DH can just squeeze in in front of it. We are expecting number 2 and we are looking for an estate car - currently considering a ford focus, toyota auris, vauzhall astra estates. Does anyone have a rear facing car seat behind a 6 ft 3 driver in these cars? Thanks!

Just in case it helps anyone else out there…

We ended up getting a 2021 Tiguan and an Axkid Minikid 2. The car seat is in its most reclined position without the wedge or extra legroom and there’s enough space for my husband to sit in the passenger seat. It actually takes up the same amount of space as the infant carrier we had before. I’m not sure if he could drive comfortably if the car seat was behind the driver, so we may have to rethink if we have another baby

I imagine an estate would be better for legroom, but we can’t have one in our current living situation. I also find that having a higher up car is more comfortable when strapping my son in.

I strongly recommend the Minikid & little peas pram centre in Dunfermline, who did a great job fitting it for me