BMW with no lap belts - how do we fit the car seat base?

[Happy501]

Hi, I'm new here and would really appreciate some advice please. We have a Graco 0-3 car seat with a base and tried yesterday to fit it in our BMW 3 series (baby due on xmas day). When we got into the car, we discovered that all 3 seats in the back only have the shoulder strap, there aren't any lap belts, so we can't follow the instructions. Has anyone else had and overcome this problem?

Very grateful for any help!! Thank you

are you sure it needs a lap belt to fit the base? Lot's of cars don't have lap belts so i would be very surprised if a car seat manufacturer made a base that was only suitable for a lap belt. I don't wish to be rude but have you checked the instructions properly? What Graco seat is it?

sorry, just realised, so might mean that the seat belts in your car are from shoulder to base only and don't have the additional lap belt part? I thought you meant that your car seta needs a lap only belt. Sorry. Is you car a sporty version? Is that why the belts are different??

Just as a test, I've put a random 3 series into the fit-finder on the Britax website, and it returns only Isofix seats - whereas for my car, which does have Isofix, it returns a mixture. Which leads me to think you can't use belts to fit carseats in that kind of car ... I honestly can't think how you'd do it without lap belts.

IMO you can't. Call the car manufacturer and ask or try your manual. It will probably tell you about Isofix points and may have a footnote to the effect that you can only use Isofix...

Unless it is a very old car there are two sections to the belt when you pull it forward, the shoulder and lap formed by a sort of triangle with the buckle at one corner. You should be able to thread the lap part of this into the base and leave the shoulder section as is rather than need literally just a lapbelt. hth

You should be able to use it like LIZS says, I have a BMW and my first stage car seat/bases fitted no trouble? My friend has a 3 series and sounds a bit suprising car seats would not fit as it is one of BMW's 'family' cars???

Thanks everyone for your replies, we've had another good look and have fitted it fine - just a case of getting the instructions tangled I think! Thanks so much for taking the trouble to advise