Rear facing car seat in middle, but it’s wonky?

[fakeflower]

I have the joie steadi rear facing seat for my daughter. It’s strapped in with a seatbelt and feels secure. I have put it in the centre seat as I read this is safer, plus it means I don’t have to move the seatbelt out of the way to get her in. It also allows more space for an adult passenger.

however the seat is lob sided. When I look at it face on its leaning to one side. Is this unsafe?

No advice on the seat but have you checked the manual for your car to see if you can fit a car seat in the middle seat as some don’t allow it.

I guess it will be due to the shape of your vehicle seats. If it doesn't sit lopsided when placed loose on the seat, but does when it's installed, it could just be that the tension of the seatbelt is pulling it into that position.

Is it being pushed out of the central position by another child seat? If you push the seat to the side, is there any wiggle room which can help straighten it out? If you push the child seat into the seat cushion, and pull the slack out of the lap belt through the buckle, does that make it sit any straighter?

And where is the seatbelt anchored in relation to the seat - I mean, for the lap belt, where it comes out of the car on one side of the seat, and where it plugs in on the other side. Are these points either side of the child seat or are they sort of underneath it? Is the buckle resting on a hard plastic or metal part of the seat?

You could send photos to Joie customer services and they should be able to advise on whether the fit is OK.

The middle seat being safer is slightly outdated advice, it comes from a time when car seats didn't have side impact protection and neither did the back seats of cars - these days your car seat if it's R129 certified has side impact protection and a lot of cars have side curtain airbags. I suppose there is still a physical benefit of being physically further from any potential collision but it's still only going to be safer if the seat can be correctly secured there.

Thanks for your help. Good idea to email joie! It’s R44 tested so im not sure about side impact protection. I know my car has side airbags that work for children though.