C30 with forward facing toddler seat??

[olliemayo]

Does anyone do this? If I buy a C30 I will be taking child number 1 to nursery once a week, in a forward facing seat, she is more than able to climb in herself, and get into the seat, I will reach in to to up her safety shield. Is this a mad idea in a 2 door car or do people do it?

Whatever car I buy will be a Volvo I just need a smallish car because I have to do 80,000-100,000 miles of driving in the next 5-6 years.

[parallaxerr]

Originally Posted by olliemayo

Does anyone do this? If I buy a C30 I will be taking child number 1 to nursery once a week, in a forward facing seat, she is more than able to climb in herself, and get into the seat, I will reach in to to up her safety shield. Is this a mad idea in a 2 door car or do people do it?

Whatever car I buy will be a Volvo I just need a smallish car because I have to do 80,000-100,000 miles of driving in the next 5-6 years.

It's not a mad idea and plenty of people do it, provided she's over the age of 3 or 15kg. It is advised to move the seat as far back as possible if there's an airbag fitted, otherwise it's no different to sitting them in the rear (in a correctly spec'd child seat).

My wife did it for a short time when I couldn't drop off or pick up, but then we px'd her car for the S40 I'm driving now and I gave her the Land Rover

[olliemayo]

Sorry to confuse, I meant putting the child seat in the rear seats and reaching through the gap created when the passenger seat is folded forward?

[Tear101]

i have a 3 year old in the back a couple of times a week and its no problem for me to reach in and buckle him up. one foot in the rear footwell to stop the passenger seat sliding back and its fine.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by olliemayo

Does anyone do this? If I buy a C30 I will be taking child number 1 to nursery once a week, in a forward facing seat, she is more than able to climb in herself, and get into the seat, I will reach in to to up her safety shield. Is this a mad idea in a 2 door car or do people do it?

Whatever car I buy will be a Volvo I just need a smallish car because I have to do 80,000-100,000 miles of driving in the next 5-6 years.

You must never put a child in a seat in the front unless you have an air bag switch on the left edge of the dash , you can see it with the door open .The rear is always the correct place for young children , you don't get tempted to play with them whilst driving too !
If you must put them in the front and can turn the air bag off the safest position is a rear facing seat if the child is between 9 and 25 kg in weight .
It is not as easy as you first imaging seating a child in a car .

[olliemayo]

Thank you everyone's advice. Again, I perhaps worded my post improperly, I didn't intend to make use of the front passenger seat at all, as my day bag and coat tends to live on it. I was intending to make use of a rear seat with the child seat so fitted.

The child seat in question is a front-facer only model that uses Isofix mountings, along with the car seat belt and a safety cushion shield thing which are all the rage now. I was more aiming my question at how do folk get on with children in the rear seats of a 2 door car since access is not so straight forward.