Car seat safety question..

[sparklytoes]

Hi, We tested out our car seat today and realised that the seat belt is not long enough to go round it (ford focus) without having to tip the seat slightly. Its a primo viaggio one from mamas and papas and apparently we can solve the problem by getting either a sure fix base or an iso fix base. We had not planned to do this though as it seemed an awful lot of money just to save the hassle of using the seatbelt to secure it (£100+). Has anyone else had this problem? Do we just need to get a base and be done with it? I have no clue really...!! Any advice from experienced mums??
Thanks

Did you buy it in-store? Did they check the fit for you?

I would see if you can take it back. If not, get the base. £100 is worth it to keep your baby safe.

well, you need the seat to be safe.
so you have 2 options:

1. get the base. if the seat is part of a travel system you'll probably really appreciate having the base anyway because the seat will then just clip in and out.

2. if it is not part of a travel system then return it and buy a seat that fits in your car.

I have a car with a short seat belt in it, decided the hassle of trying to put the car seat in with a short seat belt was not worth it and bought the base for it. Will be well worth it when I don't have to faff around for ages trying to get it right every time I want to remove the car seat. And I won't be using the seat as part of a travel system either. I just couldn't be doing with the hassle.

Yep, we bought it in store as part of a travel system. At the time I didn't even realise that a short seat belt might be a problem. The isofix base might be a better option if we do go for the base as apparently it will do the next size car seat up as well whereas the surefix one will only fit this one. We had been told that seat belt extenders might be an option, but I'm not sure about the safety of this?

What model Focus is it? I had an original Focus and a maxi cosi seat. The belt just about stretched round it but it was a known problem and I thought it had been sorted. I mean why tf would you make a short seatbelt? What's the point?

depends if you're sure of what seat you'll want to move onto.

admittedly i am a bit of a car seat nut, but when the baby outgrows the infant carrier I owuld then move to an extended rear-facing seat, because they're so much safer than forward facing seats.

just something to bear in mind... do research now on which car seat you'll change to, because if you don't want a M&P one then you won't need the isofix base necessarily...