Child car seat in back of 944

[amrbose14]

To my surprise, my daughter's car seat (2.5 years) fits in the back seat. I thought this might be of interest to others with children. I've previously fitted a baby seat in the front, but never bothered to try this. I'm rather pleased. If we get another seat like this for my son in due course (currently 5 months old) then the 944 will fit two adults in the front and two kids in the back.

The car seat is a Britax Nordic Two-way elite. It was pricey (£200) and was actually bought to go in the back of our focus. It's unusual for a seat that fits toddlers in that it can be fitted rear facing (in the focus at least). My wife is somewhat risk adverse when it comes to her kids...

Anyway, first time I've heard of a full size child seat fitting in the bck of a 944...

Chris
87 220T

 

[sawood12]

My Brittax Freeway also fit fine and was the seat that came up against the 944/968 on Brittax's on-line car selector. Though it fitted OK I was unhappy about the installation. I couldn't get the seatbelt tension tight enough and I felt the baby was too close to the seat in front. In my view there is not enough protection for the baby - the child's seat can rotate forward in the car seat enough so the baby's head would impact the rear of the seat in front in the event of an accident. These seats depend on the ability of you to be able to tension the seatbelt enough so the seat is securely fixed in the car so you can't waggle the seat - it should be firmly fixed with no slack. Unless your installation is different and you are able to achieve enough tension so the seat cannot rotate forward then I'm afraid I would not recommend anyone put their babies in the back of these cars - they are no safer than just putting them in the car seat without a baby seat.

 

[amrbose14]

With the car seat belt alone I know what you mean, although this is actually pretty tight (after ALOT of asdjustment and refitting etc.). However, there are extra straps that come with mine which are designed to go through the frame of the seat in front when it is used rear facing. I've used these straps to go around the folding half of the seat. They prevent any forward rotation of the seat. So there are in total three straps (the car seat belt and two addtional) fixing the seat in place. It cannot rotate forward at all. I *think* it's pretty safe. Though obviously not as safe if it were rear facing.

I'll try to take some more pictures later of how it is fixed.

Chris

ORIGINAL: sawood12

My Brittax Freeway also fit fine and was the seat that came up against the 944/968 on Brittax's on-line car selector. Though it fitted OK I was unhappy about the installation. I couldn't get the seatbelt tension tight enough and I felt the baby was too close to the seat in front. In my view there is not enough protection for the baby - the child's seat can rotate forward in the car seat enough so the baby's head would impact the rear of the seat in front in the event of an accident. These seats depend on the ability of you to be able to tension the seatbelt enough so the seat is securely fixed in the car so you can't waggle the seat - it should be firmly fixed with no slack. Unless your installation is different and you are able to achieve enough tension so the seat cannot rotate forward then I'm afraid I would not recommend anyone put their babies in the back of these cars - they are no safer than just putting them in the car seat without a baby seat.

 

[marcoturbo]

More pics are welcome...

This set up looks really batter than my current Romer Vario or Prince set ups.

 

[deafasapost]

does the coupe have 3 point belts or lap belts?

 

[amrbose14]

Lap belts. These clearly do not limit the degrees of freedom like a 3-point harness would. Britax only spec the seat for up to 18kg for a lap belt, but 25kg for most other set ups. As Scott pointed out - with just the lap belts the seat can rotate forward. I'm not clear whether therefore Britax consider this rotation OK for children under 18kg!

ORIGINAL: deafasapost

does the coupe have 3 point belts or lap belts?

 

[amrbose14]

The view from the boot. The two extra straps wrap around the folding bit. I guess this is a weakness in the set up, as this does not hold the chair to the chassis. However it does completely stop the forward rotation which can occur using only the lap belt.

Chris

 

[amrbose14]

This is the view from the front, with the fabric pulled back from the polystyrene. The lap belt to the lower left loops through the frame and around the back of the seat. One of the extra belts can be seen here too, looping to the inside of the frame where it buckles, and out again.

Chris

 

[amrbose14]

This is the other side of the seat showing again the lap belt and the third strap. It's hard to see in the photo that there are two different belts here - the lap belt and one of the straps that wraps around the 944's seat back.

The only way I can see of improving this set up at the moment is if the extra straps went round something attached to the chassis, instead of around the folding part of the seat. I noticed alot of foam on the floor immediately behind the seats. Anybody know what's beneath that?

Chris

 

[JamesBall]

You could always retrofit 3-point belts to the back. I had this done to my '87 Turbo.

 

[amrbose14]

Yes, now I know that it at least fits I begin to see some point in this.

ORIGINAL: James Ball

You could always retrofit 3-point belts to the back. I had this done to my '87 Turbo.

 

[sawood12]

Looking at your photo above and the way the extra straps loop round the back of the seat to prevent the forward rotation of the child seat I would have thought that this would be a better option than a 3-point belt setup. There were two main problems I had with my seat installation

1. the seatbelt buckle strap was too long meaning the actual buckle was too high up the side of the seat chassis, so as the belt came through the back of the seat it couldn't loop round the chassis meaning you couldn't tension the lap strap part of the 3-point belt against the seat chassis. This meant you had a good couple of inches of movement of the child seat chassis before it was restrained by the lap strap part of the 3-point belt.

2. as there is no depth of padding in the rear seat you can't compress the child seat into the rear seat so without the springiness of the seat pushing back against the tension of the seatbelt firmly fixing the child seat in place, the seatbelt tension couldn't be maintained and ended up being quite slack meaning the seat could rotate a good few inches forward before tensioning the seatbelt. In the event of a real crash this would mean the baby's face would probably impact the back of the front seat before the seatbelt actually did anything.

At least in your installation, even though you may not be able to firmly fix the child seat into the car seat, at least you can tension those rear belts preventing, or greatly limiting, the forward rotation of the child seat. I'd proably stick with what you've got rather than installing 3 point belts.

 

[912UK]

I just got a 3 point childs seat belt designed for our cars made by quickfit seat belts from Bill who used it in his 912 for a bit. I intend to fit this in the back of the 944 cab with some other child safety features you can buy. When i added in the child seat it was making him too high and his face was inches from the seat in front. this is not right. So I have just put him ( 3 ) in the seat and a 3 point made for children. Much safer and he does not feel clostaphobic ( sp sorry ) as he has his own bit of space.

When i got to America next I will pick up some childs 4 point belts and fit them in the back of the 944 not totaly by the book but I would rather have them sat deep down in the orgninal seat with a 4 point harness like I had as a kid than balanced up high on a make shift set up..I think yours looks good until their legs get longer.. and poss Coupes are better for this job than cabs.

 

[amrbose14]

ORIGINAL: 912UK

I just got a 3 point childs seat belt designed for our cars made by quickfit seat belts from Bill who used it in his 912 for a bit. I intend to fit this in the back of the 944 cab with some other child safety features you can buy. When i added in the child seat it was making him too high and his face was inches from the seat in front. this is not right. So I have just put him ( 3 ) in the seat and a 3 point made for children. Much safer and he does not feel clostaphobic ( sp sorry ) as he has his own bit of space.

When i got to America next I will pick up some childs 4 point belts and fit them in the back of the 944 not totaly by the book but I would rather have them sat deep down in the orgninal seat with a 4 point harness like I had as a kid than balanced up high on a make shift set up..I think yours looks good until their legs get longer.. and poss Coupes are better for this job than cabs.

Sounds good. Post some pics!

 

[amrbose14]

ORIGINAL: sawood12

Looking at your photo above and the way the extra straps loop round the back of the seat to prevent the forward rotation of the child seat I would have thought that this would be a better option than a 3-point belt setup. There were two main problems I had with my seat installation

1. the seatbelt buckle strap was too long meaning the actual buckle was too high up the side of the seat chassis, so as the belt came through the back of the seat it couldn't loop round the chassis meaning you couldn't tension the lap strap part of the 3-point belt against the seat chassis. This meant you had a good couple of inches of movement of the child seat chassis before it was restrained by the lap strap part of the 3-point belt.

2. as there is no depth of padding in the rear seat you can't compress the child seat into the rear seat so without the springiness of the seat pushing back against the tension of the seatbelt firmly fixing the child seat in place, the seatbelt tension couldn't be maintained and ended up being quite slack meaning the seat could rotate a good few inches forward before tensioning the seatbelt. In the event of a real crash this would mean the baby's face would probably impact the back of the front seat before the seatbelt actually did anything.

At least in your installation, even though you may not be able to firmly fix the child seat into the car seat, at least you can tension those rear belts preventing, or greatly limiting, the forward rotation of the child seat. I'd proably stick with what you've got rather than installing 3 point belts.

I was thinking that a 3 point belt would be useful but still using the additional belts. but perhaps a 3 point fixed (no inertia reel) would be better. Thinking ahead to when I can start using booster seats, it might be better to have a fixed seat belt.

Chris