Extended rear facing in Qashqai?

[Carshoppingnightmare]

Hi
In the process of buying a new (2nd hand car). Found a Qashqai that is the spec I'm after and has everything I want. Baby will be moving from infant carrier to next stage seat withing 6 months and I want to rear face as long as possible.. I'm aware the cabin space on a Qashqai isn't that huge so wanted to know if anyone has experience of an ERF seat in the back? Would the front passenger have any space? We've tried our current seat (Cybex t cloud Isofix) in the back of the Qashqai and the front passenger has sufficient leg room (not loads but ok). I can't try the next stage car seat as I haven't bought it yet but how would an Axkid or a Besafe compare size wise? Would the front passenger have much leg room (husband and I are both tall) or do I need to rethink the car??! Thank you

A Qashqai is a mid size car no? It'll be fine. I ERF my 4 yr old in a fiesta and DH has long legs. I just googled and a fiesta is 40cm shorter than a Qashqai.

@Nooa yes, but from what I've read the cabin space in a Qashqai is very small for the size of the car. I've looked on a FB car seat advice page and lots of people saying an ERF seat didn't give enough room for the passenger. Reassuring that space is ok in a fiesta. Which car seat do you have?

Graco Turn2me 360.
If you can get to an actual shop they will often let you try the seats in your car.

Cybex Cloud is a pretty big infant carrier, so you should find most next stage seats take up less room, even rear facing. We went from Cybex Aton 5 (which is not as big as the Cloud) to Joie 360 Spin in a Suzuki Swift, and found that when the Joie was reclined the room needed was about the same as the Cybex, then when the Joie was upright it needed less space.

Axkids are more compact than Besafe. Besafe seats are enormous. I'd probably look at the Minikid 2 and check if you have an Axkid stockist near you using their website, so you can try things out.

When space is at a premium, you want to set the front seat to the position you want it to be at and then fit the child seat. Make sure the front seat is not reclined. It is also worth having one of the Minikid seats rather than the Move/Movekid because the Move only has two recline positions, upright or reclined, whereas the Minikid seats have in between settings as well, so you can experiment with what increment of recline is optimal between supporting your child and giving the front passenger room.

Lastly remember for a younger child, you don't need extended legroom on the ERF seat so can fit it more compactly. Then as the child grows and does need more leg room, they don't need as much of a recline.

we have a besafe izi plus extended rf in my qashqai and it’s fine for legroom in front

@BertieBotts thank you very much. Ordinarily I know the best thing to do it go to a car seat specialist and try some seats...but we obviously can't do that as we haven't bought the car yet! But looks like we have options. And thank you @RubyFlewToo

Hi, I have a quashqai, I'm 5'9 and my husband is 6'4, we have our 3 year old in a axkid move seat, there is sufficient room for my husband to sit in the front with the seat behind whilst keeping the seat in the more reclined position.

What I'm thinking though is that presumably if your child is currently in the Cybex and you know that the Cybex fits, just about, you could keep them in that initially and go and look at a specialist once you've got the car.

Cybex Cloud is a massive seat so unless your child is already over 2, I would guess they have more time than you'd think in it.

Quashqai is also a vv popular car :) So most ERF specialist retailers will have fitted seats in it before.

@BertieBotts yes, we've still got a while in the Cybex yet. My baby is almost 1 but very large, 98th centile. 78cm and 11.5kg

We can easily fit the Axkid Minikid 2 or 4 (goes till around age 7). We tried the BeSafe Stretch and the Britax ERF one and they were quite a lot bigger and couldn't be used on extended leg room settings and tge front seat had to be way forward. We love the Axkid seats.