baby seat problem with nissan Qashqai

Katykat

Hope someone can suggest something here to save me spending money i dont need to. I have a 2011 Quashqai & also a 4 month old grandson. his parents have a car seat that is fitted with ISO fix system. My car has this option. However, in order to obtain the base to fit the seat into, I have been told that I have to buy the first size car seat that comes with the base, then when baby is 9 months old, then buy a bigger car seat to fit the same base. This seemed very expensive for me as I will only have him in my car occasionally & even then only for another 5 months till he's ready for bigger seat. So, I went to Mothercare ( & Halfords) and looked at the seats that fir from birth to 4 yrs, but heres the strange thing. Because nbaby is still under 9 months, he has to have the seat facing backwards and the seat belt doesn't stretch enough to go around the seat. Its OK if the seat is facing forwards, but thats against the law. Both Mothercare and halfords say they havn't come across this problem before so it must be a problem with the car seat belts. So, I went to the dealer & guess what, ha, they havn't come across this before either. I cant believe that I'm the only person who has had this problem, but if anyone else has, how did you deal with it? One option is to put the car seat in the front but i would have to keep turning the airbag off and to be honest, I'm not all that comfortable having a baby in the front seat.

chunkychocky

Which car seat do his parents currently have him, and therefore which base are you looking for? Maybe we can help you find one more cheaply than having to buy the stage 1 car seat and base now.

My in-laws had a Toyota Rav4 which had ridiculously short seat belts that meant that the stage 0 car seat wouldn't fit too...so they had to buy a base for the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix car seat that we had at the time.

esmerobbo

I have the same car I don't have a problem with my Nieces child seat in the front only I have to slide the seat right back!

Katykat

Chunky, his parents have a travel system which includes a whole gamut of things, pram, pushchair, car seat etc. Not sure of the make, but irrelevant anyway as baby will not fit in that seat much longer. They then have to buy the next size up. Esmerobbo, I don't really want to ride with baby in the front.

dean2oo6

Hi, I am a car seat fitting expert and can confirm the Nissan Qashqai has poor compatibility with most car seats on the market. I have fitted thousands of seats into many different cars and the Qashqai is definately the worst. Once they go forward facing then a Maxi Cosi Tobi is pretty much your only option for a seatbelt fitted seat. And like you said, as the child is 4 months your safest, but most expensive option, is to buy the base (Familyfix), reverse facing seat (cabriofix or pebble), then forward facing seat (pearl). Its quite amazing as it should be a great family car but they make the seatbelt webbing just too long on the buckle end!

There will be no cheap option for you I am afraid.

Katykat

Thanks dean. I eventually bought a Nania seat from amazon and also bought a seat belt extension. However, in the end I didn't need the belt extension. The seat fits in the rear facing position OK, albeit a tight fit, but that seems better to me. Havn'y tried the forward position yet as baby is too young.

dean2oo6

Ah, Nania. Not good!

1jim

dean2oo6 wrote: »

Ah, Nania. Not good!

Hi, am thinking about getting crossover and qasquai is one on the list, do you think you would get an adult between 2 kid seats..... And on that note do you think our existing brittax seats will fit, they are isofix for age 3-11 I think?

Paperbird

http://www.kindseats.com/expert-opinion

Sagaris

Seatbelt extensions are for use with adult passengers and not seat belts, just as well it wasn't needed!

plane_boy2000

Rear facing seats are really important. In an ideal world you should keep little ones rear facing until they are 4+ but so many people appear to be in a rush to get them into the next seat.

I'm really surprised that the seatbelt in the cashcow wont fir around. Is there an option to turn off the passenger airbag and fit the seat in the front?