New baby and new car on it's way.

[L14MDP]

Thanks for everyone's help and advice so far.

It might sound nuts but I have just had my second child and decided to sell my RS6+ estate and get an Elise R. Planning on picking it up this Friday and hoping for some nice weather.

Has anyone put a forward facing child seat in their Else and if so was it just in an emergency or regular use. Mine will have an airbag and just wandering in case I need to take my 3 year old anywhere.

Thanks

Liam

[Gooby]

My little boy is a regular passenger in the lotus, has been since he was a few months old, he is now 21 months. Seems to go to sleep pretty quickly in the 'liz. It is made a hell of a lot easier with the soft top on but still doable with the hard top. I have pretty unforgiving suspension but it doesnt upset him. The only problem is there is no space for a plam / stroller when you get to B.

[athomp04]

You should never put a child in the front passenger seat with a Lotus fitted with an airbag (whichever way it is facing) having spoken with the factory and dealers on this subject - I faced the same problem so will be looking at a pre 2007 model when the time arrives.

[L14MDP]

Gooby - Do you have airbags in yours?

[Gooby]

L14MDP said:

Gooby - Do you have airbags in yours?

Nope
Shouldnt you be able to de-activate airbags. I have not heard of a car where you cant turn off the air bags....

[Grinnders]

Gooby said:

L14MDP said:

Gooby - Do you have airbags in yours?

Nope
Shouldnt you be able to de-activate airbags. I have not heard of a car where you cant turn off the air bags....

Not owned a Porsche then? If not "key" fitted from the factory a Porsche dealer cannot disable it through the software and charge £600 to retro-fit the key switch and gubbins.

The nanny state we live in eh?

[elise73]

Gooby said:

L14MDP said:

Gooby - Do you have airbags in yours?

Nope
Shouldnt you be able to de-activate airbags. I have not heard of a car where you cant turn off the air bags....

My Golf enables me to disable the passenger airbag with the key from inside the glovebox.

BTW, what you need to do is buy my 2005 elsie R - my 3 year old loves it but needs must and all that - 2005 111r for £14k with no airbag to mention.

[Loudman]

Is this for a second (toy) car? If I was in that position now I'd get a honda SC one (this doesn't really help with baby compatibility, but thats sort of not the point)..........save money in the long term.

[Gooby]

Grinnders said:

Gooby said:

L14MDP said:

Gooby - Do you have airbags in yours?

Nope
Shouldnt you be able to de-activate airbags. I have not heard of a car where you cant turn off the air bags....

Not owned a Porsche then? If not "key" fitted from the factory a Porsche dealer cannot disable it through the software and charge £600 to retro-fit the key switch and gubbins.

The nanny state we live in eh?

Hi Grinnders!
It isnt really down to a legislation thing. Because a babies head is very soft and an airbag deploys in milliseconds and is designed to catch the mass of a adult scull, when the airbag hits an infant, it makes one hell of a mess.

[Chris_S]

Fully agree with above.
Just for reference there is no key or fuse to remove to disable the passenger airbag on a post 2007 Elise! Dealers cannot help and the official word from Lotus is do not put a rear facing child seat in an Elise. Saying that I've seen Lotus employees driving Elise's with small children. You can disable the airbag by disconnecting the battery and disconnecting a purple connector behind the cover panel on the left side of the dash. The airbag light remains on however. I take no responsibility for anybody doing this mind!

[Gooby]

Chris_S said:

Fully agree with above.
Just for reference there is no key or fuse to remove to disable the passenger airbag on a post 2007 Elise! Dealers cannot help and the official word from Lotus is do not put a rear facing child seat in an Elise. Saying that I've seen Lotus employees driving Elise's with small children. You can disable the airbag by disconnecting the battery and disconnecting a purple connector behind the cover panel on the left side of the dash. The airbag light remains on however. I take no responsibility for anybody doing this mind!

Official lotus line seems to be "dont crash"?

...

good advice!

It isnt the problem it was with first generation airbags. They were awfully violent affairs. Now we have seatbely pre-tensioners and more finese in the way an airbag is deployed and importantly deflated it isnt the problem it was.

It is worth noting that airbags are designed to work with seatbelts. Early airbags in the states caused a number of decapitations because the americans dont seem to like wearing seatbelts. A person with large mass continued moving forward in an unrestrained fashion when a car hit a solid object and stopped. The fast moving person then met a very fast moving airbag moving in the opposite direction. In many cases, in relativly minor accidents this was enough to rip a head clean off. Much to the surprise of other occupants in the car and emergency services.

Edited by Gooby on Tuesday 28th September 19:40

[bing]

Gooby said:

My little boy is a regular passenger in the lotus, has been since he was a few months old, he is now 21 months. Seems to go to sleep pretty quickly in the 'liz. It is made a hell of a lot easier with the soft top on but still doable with the hard top. I have pretty unforgiving suspension but it doesnt upset him. The only problem is there is no space for a plam / stroller when you get to B.

Same as gooby my boy loves it!!! I have a late '05 111R so no airbags. I was thinking of getting an exige s at one point but they come with air bags and when I called up Lotus they said they wouldn't deactivate it for me!!!!

Edited by bing on Wednesday 29th September 13:00