Car seats for a Mini Cooper

[MeganMama28]

Hi all 👋
We're expecting our first baby this summer and I'm becoming overwhelmed with car seat decisions, especially as we can't pop to a halfords and try them in our cars atm! I have a 5 door mini cooper and would like to buy a car seat soon. My partner has a bigger Honda. We go between the two quite often. I was thinking to either:

1. Get a seat with an extra isofix base to transfer between the two. The problem is my partner is 6'2 so the car seats I've seen where you can get an additional isofix base sticks out more so he'd struggle to sit in front of it in my mini (unless anyone knows some that are less bulky?!)

1. Get two seats without isofix bases and leave them in the cars.

1. Get a car seat with a fitted isofix base (which is smaller - the joie 360) and just move it between the two. But will this be a pain?!

Changing my mini (or a shorter OH!) is definitely not an option 😂 Any help would be greatly appreciated!

TIA x

We have this exact same decision and we've opted for the Cybex Atom 2 (came with our travel system) and we've just picked up another base to leave in the other car as we're also between the two.

My husband is 6ft 3 but the chair can still got 3/4 the way back at least so he can be almost normal. The other option is for DH to sit in the back with baby as my chair isn't that far back and he has about the same leg room..!

I have a Clio though so I'm not sure how they compare to the mini (but are pretty small)

@Babyshine2020 ah fab thank you! Almost identical situations!

Where did you buy the base from?

Car seats are a pain for tall people to sit in the front. My DH did almost all of the driving when we had small babies in RF seats, with the baby behind the passenger. There needs to be a decent gap between the back of the seat and the infant seat. Most recently in a VW Tiguan, so not really a small car, just one of those things really!

@MeganMama28 we got a base with the travel system (Mamas and Papas deal) and then managed to pick up a brand new in box base on eBay from a baby shop that was going bump (unfortunate, but we got it for £70 instead of £130)

Something like the Joie Spin is smaller though, and as soon as baby is big enough you can just rotate for the extra leg room but I think you're husband is just going to have to suck it up (unfortunately). I feel as though we're going to be out in hubby's car as a family and just me, baby and the dog in my car. He had a pick up truck though and I'd argue he has less space on the back!

These tall partners should come with warning stickers 'not compatible with baby seats' 😂

@Babyshine2020 yes just looked at the joie spin again and it definitely sticks out a lot less than others - think we may go with that. Unfortunately the isofix base is fixed so will either have to get two (the price is quite reasonable luckily) or keep moving one between both cars. But at least OH will be able to fit in too!

@homeschoolchaos I think we may have to do the same as both of you and mainly stick to his car! It's a good excuse to be the passenger instead too hahaa!

We have a small car, and how fitted the Maxi cosi mica for new baby. Its a swivel fixed in the car option, but is fairly compact.
Dh is very tall, so we have also fitted it behind the passenger seat. The passenger seat can actually still go fairly far back, and dh can sit comfortably in the passenger seat still, but for driving he likes and needs the seat back even further.