Baby car seat

[alexstanleyv50]

Hi all,

So for once I'm not looking for something to fix the car... instead I'm now on the hunt for the correct baby seat for a 2004 V50.

I found out recently that I am to be a dad and want to make sure I have everything possible to make sure they will be safe and I would ideally like to get hold of a Volvo manufactured car seat for my motor.

However, can I please ask you all for a little info on none Volvo baby seats that you may have used and if they are better/worse than the Volvo ones.

Ta!

[richardk213]

Hey, i cant comment on volvo branded or approved seats. i became a dad 18 months ago and we used a maxi-cosi pebble car seat (well recommended). You can buy a isofix base for the seat, but its another £120 or so. We used the seat belt method and once in its very secure. I did notices that when we changed to the volvo (from a skoda fabia), the seat belt was a bit too short, but the seat will still fit.

We are now on the maxi-cosi tobi, which can work with the isofix base, or again with the seatbelt

Maxi cosi and britax are well regarded car seat manufactures, though i believe maxi cosi will fit a larger number of pram frames

hope this helps

[iainmd]

Agree with the recommendation of Maxi-cosi and Britax.

We used the following, all of which were excellent:

1. Group 0 - Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix with ISOFIX Base
2. Group 1 - Maxi-Cosi PrioriFix (ISOFIX)
3. Group 2 - Britax Kidfix (ISOFIX)

We tried a multitude of others with much less success. If your car doesn't have ISOFIX points it can easily be retrofitted by a Volvo dealer. It cost me about £70 and it's well worth it. The seat is securely fixed to the car, won't fly forward in an accident if there's no child in it and it's not belted in and gives peace of mind that you're no only relying on the seatbelt for your very youngest.

For group 0 & 1 I believe Maxi-Cosi now do a FamilyFix base which fits both a baby (group 0) and toddler (group 1) seat. Might be worth looking into.

For group 2 you'll find it the most problematic when the time comes. The flat base of the Volvo S40/V50 seats is not very wide and the seat bolsters raise either side meaning that you're limited in the number of safe car seats you can get. We went through a barrowload of cheaper seats, none of which sat straight and were safe to use. The Britax Kidfix is the only one we could find with ISOFIX that had a narrow enough base to sit straight. I have a feeling that the Volvo group 2 seats are re-branded Britax.

Hope that helps.

Iain

[mpt]

Just to add my 2p worth but I think the Volvo seats are Britax anyway, why pay more for a Volvo tag?

For our first we used a maxicosi (forget the name) and base as that fit well onto our oyster stroller with 2 adaptors. When the little one got too big for it we got a britax maxfix extended rear facing isofix seat which he can use until he's 18kg which is usually about 3-4.

If you look into it extended rear facing is much safer, I think its the law in Sweden until they're 7 and even in the States its law until 2.

For our second we used a cybex aton 2 and base which from personal experience is much easier to fit than the maxicosi we had.

I would definitely recommend the isofix simply because of the ease, if your car doesn't (ours is a 54 plate and didn't) they are cheap to buy £30 when i got mine and a piece of p*ss to fix.

[Sasha94]

We have a Maxi Cosi CabrioFix on an EasyFix base and used ISOFIX in my old S40 and it all worked very well. My 2p worth though is that it made a rubbish car for a young family. Our iCandy pram took up the whole boot, the back doors didn't open very wide so getting the little one in and out was a chore and with the seat in my driving position the car seat touches my seat making removal even more hard work! The driving position I concede is unusual as I have a bad back and get my osteopath to set the seat for back support but the issue of the small back doors that don't open wide bugged me. The XC70 I replaced it with is so much better even though it is considerably larger of course!

[The Thong]

I used to get the Recaro child seats. They're really well made and off good protection from side impact.

http://www.recaro-seats.co.uk/child-seats/

TT

[iainmd]

Just ensure you try the seat in your car first to make sure the base isn't too wide for the seat base.

[v70stu]

And make sure, whatever seat you fit, you fit it properly. I read in the local paper this week that the police and council did some safety checks the other week and out of over 100 cars checked carrying children only about 3 had their seats safely fitted. That's a bit worrying.

[Wooders]

I found I had to purchase an actual isofix fixing point to my 2005 S40,10 min job to fit and means you can use any isofix Base and seat.

http://www.volvopartshop.com/rear-se...06--4688-p.asp

[Bendolfc]

Avoid the Volvo branded seats, the reviews for them on Which are terrible.

I went for the Maxi Cosi Pebble on the 2wayfix base so he can continue to be rear facing in the 2waypearl until he is a bit older. Pain to buy though as Maxi Cosi won't allow them to be sold online so need to get it from a proper place, and Mothercare wouldn't sell it to me because my S40 predates ISOFix being standard so isn't on the Maxi Cosi fitment guide. Ended up getting it from an independent place with no issues and have an email from Maxicosi saying they will update the fitment guide after speaking to Volvo who confirmed retro fitted IsoFix brackets are secure enough.