Car seat and base for fiat 500

[Reeva1988]

Hiya,

I’m looking to see if anyone has experience of a car seat and Isofix base which fits in the back of a 3 door fiat 500?

I have seen online that a maxi cosi cabrio fix and the base both fit but I’m not if I’d be able to put the passenger seat back whilst it was in? The only reviews I have found online show it with the passenger seat bent forward so no one can sit in the passenger seat at the same time.
Thanks

It can be done but my god it's tight. I assured everyone I'd be fine to keep my beloved Fiat 500 with a baby as I bought a pram specifically to fit in the boot and it did fit but I had to take the wheels off.

In reality when my baby was 6 weeks old I was at the car dealership trading it in. It was far too hard and cumbersome to manage.

I'm sorry if that's not helpful if you have no option to change cars but if there is anyway you can I would.

Also meant to say it was the maxi cosi car seat I had

When are you due? The very best thing to do is go to a shop that has a large selection of car seats and try them out in your car until you find one that fits. This is tricky in lockdown, so if you have time to wait until the shops open again this might be the best thing to do.

The good thing is that unlike prams you don't have a huge lead time on car seats, shops usually have them in stock unless you are set on a specific colour, even then it is usually only a couple of weeks' wait time if you want a specific one or you might be able to find the colour you want online.

It's not only the passenger seat space that you want to check, it's taking the seat in and out to check that it's comfortable within the door space that you have, and also what angle the seat sits at in your car. If you have sloped back seats, then you can find that a rear facing seat tilts the baby too far forwards and then their chin will fall onto their chest which is really bad for their oxygen saturation levels. There are phone apps which will help you measure an angle - the max angle should be 45 degrees from flat. Closer to 40 is better. Some seats also have a level indicator on the base or on the seat itself which will help you see if your car is suitable without needing an app.

If you can disable the airbag in your car, you can also fit a baby seat in the passenger seat which can be nice with your first as you can see them a bit easier (as long as this won't be distracting). However most cars don't have isofix in the front, so you'll need to fit the seat directly into the car with seatbelt, or find a base which fits with seatbelt - a few do, most don't.

Thanks all for your advice . @unfitbits which isofix base did you have with that?

@BertieBotts I am considering just turning the air bag off and putting baby in passenger seat ..... even though I’ll have to strap the seat in I’ll only be using my car when partner is at work so May get the base and keep that in his car .

I’m not due until June so think I may do as you said and wait for other shops to open so I can try more seats and bases . Went to one shop today but not much choice to try there and then .

Can I ask what prams you went for? I’m undecided between the Bugaboo bee and Cybex Mios. Both fit in the car boot fine, just seems to be the car seat which is now the issue!

I had the 2009 model fiat 500. The isofix base didn't fit but the family fix base does, and the cabriofix (?) Car seat. The passenger seat goes as normal, though it's a wiggle to get the car seat in- go through the driver door.
Pram wise we have a city jogger baby tour lux, fits in the boot too. We had it with the carrycot, it also fits in though obviously detached.

We've only just traded in the car when DD was 14 months old ☺️

@KnobJockey aw thank you! You’ve made me feel a bit better about it! Lol .

Think I’ll wait for shops to open and go try the family fix base with cabriofix seat. Looks like it’s my only option!

"I’ll only be using my car when partner is at work"

Why doesn't partner take the Fiat 500 to work?
Surely whoever is looking after the baby has the bigger car and whoever is alone in the car has the Fiat 500?

I didn't see the family fix base in the shops, I bought mine from eBay second hand. It can't be used with any other car seats except for the cabriofix I believe, so you can get them second hand easily

I'm sure it won't be your only option. The Cabriofix is OK but it's not the most up to date seat. People had that when my 12yo was little! A lot of the infant seats are around the same size.

@NameChange30 partner needs bigger car for work purposes.

Thanks all. Hopefully something will work for me in the end! If not I’ll not use a base and strap seat in manually x

The base makes the seat take up significantly more room in any case and doesn’t make it any safer as long as you are confident you are installing it correctly with the belt - it’s there to reduce user error/for convenience, but doesn’t actually increase the safety rating.

I had a maxi cosi Pearl or pebble (can't remember which) with isofix in my fiat 500. We could use the passenger seat but DH didn't have much room. However, I did have to tip the baby seat to nearly 90 degrees to get it in!

We had a Cybex Aton Q and base with a Fiat 500, fit fine - DH and I are both around 5’8 and could sit in the passenger seat in front of it. In fact when we switched to a much bigger car once DD was about a year old I found it really difficult to get the seat in and out having got used to the 3 door angle of putting it in!

@Reeva1988 I had the iso easy fix base.

My pram was the bugaboo chameleon which fit if I took the wheels off. I have a memory of doing this in the poring rains which was grim! Maybe if I'd bought the bugaboo bee like I'd considered it wouldn't have been so bad! I did struggle but I also had a c section which may also have made things more difficult and why I decided to trade

Good luck with it all

@gothicsprout do you know which base you used ? Thanks

Cybex Aton Q only fits on the Cybex Base Q. But it's not a current model - the Q range is superceded by Cybex Aton M / Base M or Cloud Z / Base Z.

For Cybex the pushchair adapters are the same as Maxi Cosi, so you can use the following brands of car seats on the pram, unless stated otherwise, all seats produced by them.

Maxi cosi
Cybex
Joie (except Juva)
Nuna
Besafe
Recaro (the two combination seats need an interim adapter)

And then a couple of one offs:
Axkid Modukid Infant
Venicci Ultralite
Cosatto Dock

For Bugaboo you can get Maxi Cosi adapters which fit the above list, but also Britax adapters, so you can also use Britax infant seats on them.

I had a maxi cosey in mine with a base and the passenger seat was as far forward as it could go. It was snug but it worked