Why do car manufacturers not build in seats suitable for children, I mean adaptable seats

[Fliight]

so you could have it as a child seat or an adult seat - possibly by means of a removeable safety bar across, extra padding and so on - or even cars with permanent child seats in, that could be swappable with factory/dealer fitted adult seats as your children grow up?

I have often wondered this!

Because it would cost a lot of wonga to develop, and not everyone needs them so wouldn't want to bear that cost I guess.

Some cars (Volvo XC90 springs to mind) do have a built in booster seat though.

some cars do, the seat alhambra has the option of having a built in child seat. i assume it is the 9-18kgs one as it has a 5 point harness and side head support. the seat then folds into the back of the seat and an adult can then sit on it. my frind had a volvo (v50 i think?) and she had booster seats that popped up and then used an adult seatbelt.

Oh interesting...come to think of it our old 122s had booster seats I think.

I didn't know Seat did them. Will have a look.

I do wonder though about the issue of people not needing them - surely most cars are built to order these days? Ours came with naffola dark windows and alloy rims but we got the last one on the shelf, as it were! Could have ordered a much more demure version if we'd been prepared to wait a few months.

We looked at a VW Sharon that was a couple of years old nearly 7 years ago, and that had built in baby seats. I don't know if they still do, though.

I've been in cars that have built in seats, I can't remember the make though, possibly Renault. Built-in seats don't seem to have as good side protection IMO.

Lots of black cabs have built in booster seats that fold down in the middle of the seat like an arm-rest. Again, not much in the way of side-impact protection but better than nothing.

Our older Galaxy has built in adaptable seats, but they have stopped doing them now and we don't have them in the newer style one.

I suppose because cars tend to be in use for around 20 years or more, but advances in safety in carseats have improved so much over the last 20 years that it seems silly to build them in, because in 20 years' time they will be obsolete.

Although I suppose that the overall safety of cars has increased over the last 20 years immeasurably as well.

But I still think that most parents would probably be more likely to spend £100 on a bang up to date carseat than upgrade their car to a more modern (but not brand new) model with a half-decent carseat built in.

vw do them too