Child Car Seats

Bit of a boring post - but important

I've a V70 Classic (2000) and I'm in the process of getting a new car seat for my little girl whose is 8 months and just starting to get a bit too long for her Britax Rock-a-tot.

As she's a little on the light side in terms of weight, only 8kg, this means she needs a rear facing car seat until she's over 9kg.

Being the concerned father and liking Britax cars seats generally (my little boy used a Britax Club Class Extra rear facing in the days when I used to drive an Audi A4) I checked the Britax website and found that they specifically DO NOT recommend fitting this seat rear facing in a V70 (reason unknown - something to do with the side air bags or the very short seat belts - I've actually tried it and though a bit of a struggle getting the seat belt round the back of the of the seat it does appear to fit) and just out of curiosity I checked the rock-a-tot and bloody hell Britax also state that this should not be fitted in a V70

I'm puzzled and worried as cannot find any rear facing seats for my girl and a bit nervous about driving around with the rock-a-tot in the car.

Does anybody know why Britax are so negative about fitting their car seats in a V70, or got any recommendations as to which seats will fit (rear facing) - I'm even desparate enough to thing about ringing my local dealer and seeing if Volvo themselves do car seats for kids under 1 year.

Obviously the V70 has a centre fitted car seat for over 3s but to be honest it doesn't look that comfortable and neither of my kids are old enough or big enough to use it, but surely as half the reason most people (like me) get a V70 is for the transport of the family there must be baby seats out there that can be used, rear facing.

I even tried a Mamas and Papas Sicuro today (£110 !) but the seat belt wasn't long enough, lucky really as the fabric was particularly gut renching.


So has anybody put their kids in the car and what did you use ?

If your trying to fit the seat on the front seat, then most baby seat manufactures' don't recommend any car fitted with a front passenger air bag, even if it can be disabled. I assume your V70 has but I have an 850 so I'm not sure. I am using a Mothercare rear facing seat in the front of mine as it doesn't have the passenger air bag. This came as part of a push chair and only just fits with the seat at it's highest setting and fully back. The rear seatbelts are far too short. Hope this helps.

Dave

[cootuk]

If you've got front airbags on the passenger seat, then I would assume you'll have to put the baby seat in the rear..I would hate to see what an airbag could do to a baby....my wife is going mad that she won't be able to see the baby in the rear when she's driving as we have side airbags in our 850 (though I have seen mountable mirrors as an accessory).
Mothercare will let you try the fit of different baby seats, though they don't have a database of what fits which Volvos.
Personally I got a 2nd hand Volvo baby seat for the first year, then will look for a forward facing rear baby seat.

[rstrang]

This subject has been discussed here before:

I seem to remember people talking about seat belt extensions available from Volvo. Might be worth doing a search of the forums and archives.

The integrated seat does work well but of course children need to be of an appropriate age and size.

Richard