17 replies to this topic

[stevelane]

Hi all - Need to draw on anyone else's experiences on the above.

 

A little bit of background. We have a 53 plate Citroen Xsara Picasso as our sensible family car and it has done us well for a good couple of years. We have one boy of 2 and a half and it has all the room we need etc.. He sits in a seat belt mounted car seat which is very secure.

 

We recently found out that we were going to be parents again and got a little bit of a shock when we found out it was twins! At first we thought we were OK with the Picasso as it has three separate seats in the rear and the two outer seats both have isofix mounts on them so no need to upgrade as the car seems to be going well.

 

However, after a little bit of research the headaches begun!

 

Many parenting forums have said that many MPVs may have Isofix but shouldn't necessarily be used as there is an underfloor storage and the third leg of the  Isofix base sits on top of this- It is said that in an accident this would push through into the storage causing the baby seat to roll.

 

Common sense says to me that if you open the storage compartment and mount the leg onto the floor below that this would be the same as having no compartment at at, however, no professional seems to be able to confirm this and my wife isn't comfortable with my common sense.

 

So if we can't resolve this we may have to look for another family car (similar size) but just at a time when money is really tight.

 

I would be looking for a car with three proper seats in the back, with isofix mounts, and no underfloor storage compartments on a restricted budget of about £2000.

 

Can anyone advise whether a) they have come against this with picassos before and what did you do? and b) what other cars could I look at?

 

I do have this on a picasso forum too but that doesn't seem to get much traffic so I thought i'd pick the brains on here as this is really beginning to frustrate me.

 

I should add that if we were only having one then we would happily just use the seat belt mounted seats but as my wifes life is gonna get considerably harder in many ways I wanted to use Isofix and try and make going out an easier experience for her.

 

Any ideas? 

[Tamworthbay]

Can't comment on the Picasso, but my wife has a mazda 3 and that has three Isofix points in the back. Not sure if all models do, hers is the rarer saloon version but would be worth looking at the hatchback. You could easily get a good one for £2000 and they are always at or near the top of reliability surveys.

[cubby1701]

congratulations on the twins. I know how you feel. My twins are 16 months. You may find as we did that you cant get 3 child seats across the back seat so we had to change our car to a Chevy captiva any advice I can give you please feel free to pm me

[stevelane]

Can't comment on the Picasso, but my wife has a mazda 3 and that has three Isofix points in the back. Not sure if all models do, hers is the rarer saloon version but would be worth looking at the hatchback. You could easily get a good one for £2000 and they are always at or near the top of reliability surveys.

Nice car, I like them. Not sure that we would have enough other storage though as we would have a double buggy etc, it's already a bit tight with the picasso so I think we should stick with that sort of size.

[stevelane]

congratulations on the twins. I know how you feel. My twins are 16 months. You may find as we did that you cant get 3 child seats across the back seat so we had to change our car to a Chevy captiva any advice I can give you please feel free to pm me

Pretty sure we are ok but I suppose I should check. Thanks for the offer of advice, I feel we will be needing it

[djdanmk]

I got my car seat from www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/ they were very helpful and tryed lots of different seats in my focus estate to make sure they fitted ok and we liked how they worked. They also checked to make sure the seat we finally chose was approved for use in my car.

[stevelane]

I got my car seat from www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/ they were very helpful and tryed lots of different seats in my focus estate to make sure they fitted ok and we liked how they worked. They also checked to make sure the seat we finally chose was approved for use in my car.

thank you, the essex branch is just up the road to us and the wife is going to ask for some advice from there in Thursday but they are only open three days a week so just looking at a few options before that. I have heard they are very helpful

[stevelane]

Have checked that all the seats go in and they do but, putting aside the inconvenience of putting the belts on if the isofix cant be used, they really don't seem stable with belts alone

Edited by stevelane, 19 April 2015 - 03:49 PM.

[djdanmk]

I had to ring and book a time to try out seats in my local branch. Iv had an isofix baby and now toddler seat and mounting them is very easy. My wife likes the piece of mind also that the seat is held in place correctly and not having to worry she might not of put the belt round the correct way.

[stevelane]

I had to ring and book a time to try out seats in my local branch. Iv had an isofix baby and now toddler seat and mounting them is very easy. My wife likes the piece of mind also that the seat is held in place correctly and not having to worry she might not of put the belt round the correct way.

yeah we have to do the same. At first I was only worried about the convenience for my wife, she will have enough on her plate with twins whilst I'm at work without having to put two in seats, but now I've seen them with the belts in I'd rather have the peace of mind that they are secure too

[90BHP]

In My Discovery 3, the ISOFIX just worked from the rear click in part, there was no front bar at all. Is this a feature of all new ISOFIX seats or just a particular model you are looking at ?  there was also a rear (behind the headrest) clasp if required for certain seat models. Again not needed for the Britax seats we had at the time. My youngest is now 9 1/2 so long out of little seats.

[stevelane]

In My Discovery 3, the ISOFIX just worked from the rear click in part, there was no front bar at all. Is this a feature of all new ISOFIX seats or just a particular model you are looking at ?  there was also a rear (behind the headrest) clasp if required for certain seat models. Again not needed for the Britax seats we had at the time. My youngest is now 9 1/2 so long out of little seats.

I had heard of some that don't have the leg but whenever you do a search most of them do. We also needed to take into account what buggy she wanted and the seats had to be compatible with that. She wouldn't usually be so fussy but with a twin buggy there was so much more to take into account so we are kinda limited to a maxi cosi system that we bought, we thought it would be ok with the car.

I think the strap that you mention is for 'top tether' systems and there doesn't seem to be any points for this.

[freaker]

What type of double buggy are you thinking of using ?


Freaker

[humph]

Watching this as my brother has exactly the same scenario, and the same problem. The problem we seem to be having is two fold, firstly the underfloor comartments, secondly having a car wide enough to get three baby seats in (more specifically two baby seats and a toddler seat). To date we've ditched the isofix idea and are looking for Ford S-Max.

[stevelane]

What type of double buggy are you thinking of using ?
It's some mountain buggy thing, she bought it as it's the narrowest one and takes a buggy board for out toddler too

Freaker