Three Car Seats to fit Vauxhall Zafira - 2004 model? Please help

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Have two children, age 2 1/2 in maxi cosi rodi xp (?) and 5 1/2 yr old in maxi cosi booster seat. Will need to fit a rear facing seat in as well by end of april 08. Cant do front cos air bags. Would ideally like to fit 3 seats in back without using two rear seats. Anybody have a rear seat with two forward facing ones. Can you tell me the makes. The only site that seems to give any advice is Britax and neither of theirs look ideal due to possible problems re length of seat belt for rear facing one.
Used to have a lie flat - no longer want to use due to safety concerns.
Please help!!

Phone Britax, their staff are very knowledgeable about workable combinations. I've had various permutations of rear, front and booster seat but the models are discontinued so of no use to you.

have you any isofix points? I find the duo plus so narrow that I can fit three seats across the back.

We ended up having to use the back 2 seats in my mums Zafira, we could not get the Britax Evolva 123, a Britax Elite and an Eclipse across the three middle seats.
Onlt thing i can suggest is go to Mother care or Halfords or John Lewis and try loads of combinations out.

Thanks for your messages. I have found britax generally very informative so that's a good idea. Im sure we would know if we had isofix points - I dont think we do unless they are somehow hidden under the seat. I will probably have to spend an afternoon at halfords or mothercareworld. What make is the duoplus, XENA? Is it difficult/costly to get isofix points fitted and does that stop you from putting the seat in another/someone else's car?? The vauxhall car salesman when we bought the car was completely useless. We took our old car seats out of our old car and spent time making sure they fitted, but that was when we only needed two!!

we had a graco booster for ds1, a mothercare highback booster for ds2, and a bebe confort creatis for when dd2 was a baby.

i think isofix was fitted as standard in zafiras from 2005 onwards.

We used to have a Britax Rock-a-tot (rear facing), Britax Renaissance (5 point harness) and Btitax Kid (seatbelt) across ours. Now the children are older, we can now fix the Renaissance with two Kid seats across the back.

Tbh, it is a pain fixing the seatbelts when they are all in a line, and it means the kids can't do it themselves, so we tend to have one seat either in the front (when it is only 3 kids plus one adult), or on one of the rear seats (especially if it is a long/night journey and we don't want the children poking each other all the way and keeping each other awake).

The Zafira is narrow - can't deny it - but therefore easier for parking, than other models, but I suspect even wider cars with 3 proper seats across the back will be a bit of a squeeze and a faff with belting up.

Hmm, not sure that helps (esp as I am not sure the Rock-a-tot still made - it was a seat without a base iykwim?).

We have a rodi xp (high back booster), Tobi (harness) and Cabriofix (rear facing). They all fit really well. However, you cannoy use the cabriofix with the easyfix base - there's not enough room!
We have the Rodi in the middle so that the seatbelt can be done before the cabrio is put in next to it. Does mean you have to take the cabrio out to let the middle one in/out of their seat, or it is very fiddly.

We also have tried with a Britax Evolva 123, but this particular seat is very wide. Found the Tobi to be the narrowist and safest stage 2. Britax hiliner is a good stage 3 and is narrower than the Rodi, but not sure if they make them any more?
HTH

Thanks for your helpful comments AnAngel, Katepol and tinytomummy- Im glad to hear that it is possible! Im just going to have to spend a day juggling different seats I think. I suppose its not really such a big deal for a 5 yr old to jump in to one of the boot seats - just a nuisance with a pushchair /and or any luggage. I can imagine future nightmare of them all poking and fighting each other if 3 in the second row and me being worried about the baby. When we bought the car it seemed massive!! We had a nissan Micra before!! Hopeflly we can avoid having to buy a minibus.

Hi all I am Having a few problems myself with Vauxhall, I have a 52 reg and 2 children aged 5 & 3 and one on the way, I am not sure what to do re middle seat as it only has a lap belt?? and I don't really want to use the boot seats.
I spoke to Vauxhall and they were totally crap and told me basically tough sort it out yourself.

any ideas or carseats, or harniness that can be used for extra safety??? any help would be great

We can get 3 car seats comfortably across our 07 plate zafira. A maxi cosi rodi xr (for a 4 year old), a maxi cosi priori (for an 18 month old) and a britax first class si (rearward or forward facing from birth to 4 years). We put the maxi cosi priori in the middle seat. It is a reasonably tight fit but not hard to do the seats up.

Sans1, not sure re your query sorry. best bet would be to go to mothercare/halfords and see if they have any seats that operate off a lap belt only fitting. I know that the maxi cosi priori gets its 'grip' to hold to the seat off the lap part of the belt but don't know if this means you can use it only with a lap belt iyswim.

One other thing that people could consider is a new seating system called multimac. Its meant to last from birth to 12 years tho is expensive, about a grand i think. Still it could be cheaper than a new car and or lots of new car seats over the years? it could be a solution though for those who are struggling to get 3 seats across the back of their car. Another mumsnetter drew my attention to it, here is the link:

www.multimac.co.uk/home