Car seat query! Age 4-12 car seats in Ford Focus Mark 2

[twinnietwintwin]

Looking for someone who has tried to fit two Britax Romer Kidfix car seats in the back of a Ford Focus Mark 2! Our twins are ready to upgrade to age 4-12 car seats and have been highly recommended the Britax Romer Kidfix by two friends. However we drive a Ford Focus Mark 2 and would ideally like to be able to have someone sitting in between the twins at the back of the car if needed. At the moment they are in Maxi Cosi Pearl Pro seats and only a pretty slim adult or child can squeeze into the back. The Britax Romer measurements say they are 54cm wide which is 7cm wider than Maxi Cosi says it is - but the Britax has this side impact protection thing and I don't know if the 54cm measurement includes that - has anyone tried to fit this car seat into this car? Alternatively can anyone recommend an age 4-12 car seat that fits two seats in the back of a Focus leaving a reasonable amount of space in between? Thank you in advance - went to three shops today and none of them had a display model.

The older Kidfix seats e.g. the Kidfix 2, Kidfix 3, Kidfix SL are quite wide especially in the shoulder area and aren't that comfy for an adult to sit between. The newer Kidfix i-size is much slimmer and you can fit 3 across in most cars, so more space for someone to sit between.

Ideally you would get them fit checked first as it's not only the comfort of the adult but whether or not the booster fits your children well with the belt having a good routing, and whether they are comfy given that they will hopefully be using these seats for a long time. You also want to check if you can extend the headrest to the highest point and still fit it in the car - some cars when you extend it up it hits the ceiling, meaning you lose out on the very top settings, which is very annoying! You also want to check how they interact with the headrests in your car. Ideally if you can you want to keep the headrest on, turned backwards if necessary, but in some cars this causes it to interfere with the booster seat in which case it is better removed.

Have you looked on the Britax website to see if they have any stockists near you which aren't chains? Often the chain stores are less helpful with fitting etc whereas independents are generally better. Or you could also look for any local "car seat centres" or "car safety centres" - there are a few dotted around the UK.