Rear facing child seats and cars

[Phils-Fast]

Where my rear facers at?!

After that cringey introduction i thought id get slightly more serious. I have 2 girls, one nearly 4 and one about 16 months old. We have rear faced them since birth as its far safer than front facing.

• Trigger warning*

Don't all attack me, you are free to front face as and when its legal but the statistics say that a child rear facing is 5x safer in an accident than forward facing. A statistic, I simply cant ignore.

So rear facing a baby, the seats aren't too big and we all seem to cope until they can forward face. However, if you want to continue forward facing after 15months your looking at big seats with big price tags!

The cars and car seat situation.
I have a 2012 Skoda superb mk2 estate. I bought it purely because i knew that the rear legroom is pretty much unrivalled. It has 2 Britax safeway-M seats fitted. id be suprised if any other car can fit these easily, they're bloody massive!



The wife has a 2012 Mazda cx5, with 2 axekid minikid seats fitted. They fit well but push front legroom a bit as a passenger but comfy enough for shorter journeys.

I also own an F82 m4, its a great car and we could use for the family as and when (one axekid behind the passenger and 15month infant seat behind drivers seat) the problem arrises, now our youngest has outgrown that seat i cant fix the larger seat behind me so limits/stops the cars family use.
I've had a 3rd car as a toy for the last 4 years and i personally don't get time to use it with small children. I'm not loaded, so its depreciating in my garage getting about 2k miles a year use and i'm paying someone to service it, while it sits unused.



Now the question.

Does anyone else rear face they're kids past the legal requirement? do said people have a fun/nice car? are the fun cars used seperately/without kids or family?

So i'm left with the idea of selling 2 cars and combining them to make a fun family car. 2 obvious choices.

First a mk3 superb 280 with the haldex 4x4. Great rear leg room again with all weather grip and family comfort. Thoughts? will it be too tame?

Second a f31 bmw 335/340i (x-drive) same as my m4 minus what makes it really fast. did i mention id prefer estate/hatch as i have 2 huskies :-)

Can i have my cake and eat it or am i stuck in this situation? granted a good situation but one i feel like my m4 is underused and superfluous.

[The Selfish Gene]

thanks for thread - this is interesting.

I have a 18month old - that is just about out of his second seat which is on a isofix base.

I mentioned rear facing for the next option and Wifey said don't worry about it, but well I do.

So - as I'm about to drop whatever the next seat cost is (a grand?) should I be going rear facing, I'm guessing yes.

All I know is, as someone that has crashed mutiple racing cars, I always, always aim to go into the barrier backwards!

[Phils-Fast]

Love the reply, especially aiming to end up backwards in the armco... if you cant see it happening it hurts less?

There always the statement of ''we didn't rear face years ago'' or ''if it was safer it would be law''

Well, It is law in Sweden, the country that gave us Saab and Volvo, some of the safest cars produced. I'm sure people thought you didn't need seatbelts or airbags once upon a time.

They do what's called the Swedish plus test on car seats and the vast majority of common car seats cant pass it. They have studied accidents involving children and deemed it law.

I'm not trying to scare anyone but the internet allows some good information sometimes. After reading that, i sold my dream car as i knew id never let the kids in it.

[JAMSXR]

Similar situation, although the second child is still in the oven. My wife has an X1 that we use as the family wagon and day to day duties. Rather than getting a 3rd fun car, I ended up with a fun (occasional) daily that can handle family duties - FL5 Civic Type R.

RE rear facing seats, I was happy to put them forward facing, but after my wife pointed me towards the data I couldn’t really argue. It scuppered my plans for a 911 but thankfully the Civic is fantastic. It has far more space compared to my wife’s X1 and will happily take a rear facing seat behind the driver without me adjusting my normal driving position (I’m 5,11).

I would recommend looking at the Avionaut Sky 2.0. It’s compact for a rear facing seat and will take children from birth to 125cm/25kg.

While I have a young family I can’t really justify a 3rd car, so employing a fun daily has worked well. Annoyingly the X1 is a little cramped for me with a rear facing seat so we’ll need to get something bigger at some point.

Edited by JAMSXR on Tuesday 28th November 12:01

[wombleh]

We had ours rear facing in my car until they were about 5 or 6 and used that for any long/motorway journeys. I had to get rid of my impreza as it was tiny inside and rear facing seats wouldn't fit with a 6 foot adult in the front. One problem is that extended rear facing seats with decent leg room for the child are massive, some barely fit in my 5 series. I think our last was Britax Romer Max Way and that was much better on space, but child had to sit cross legged so not so good on longer journeys. Not a show stopper as just take breaks, but I can imagine a particularly fussy child might kick off a lot.

We used front facing in the wifes car a few years earlier as it's smaller and wouldn't fit extended rear facing kit in, only used for local journeys around town so lower risk.

[The Selfish Gene]

I haven't seen the specific data - but it does seem intuitive to me, that not having anyone's head firing forward with the loading of Gs in a frontal crash is better.

Surely having head against rear of a seat in a forward crash is better, and on the road, one would assume most crashes are not going in backwards.

I know this is more of a what car thread - but please feel free to put links to what seat!

Wifey has a Hyundai Kona - so should be enough space for the rear facing seat I would hope

[Phils-Fast]

JAMSXR said:

Similar situation, although the second child is still in the oven. My wife has an X1 that we use as the family wagon and day to day duties. Rather than getting a 3rd fun car, I ended up with a fun (occasional) daily that can handle family duties - FL5 Civic Type R.

RE rear facing seats, I was happy to put them forward facing, but after my wife pointed me towards the data I couldn’t really argue. It scuppered my plans for a 911 but thankfully the Civic is fantastic. It has far more space compared to my wife’s X1 and will happily take a rear facing seat behind the driver without me adjusting my normal driving position (I’m 5,11).

I would recommend looking at the Avionaut Sky 2.0. It’s compact for a rear facing seat and will take children from birth to 125cm/25kg.

While I have a young family I can’t really justify a 3rd car, so employing a fun daily has worked well. Annoyingly the X1 is a little cramped for me with a rear facing seat so we’ll need to get something bigger at some point.

Edited by JAMSXR on Tuesday 28th November 12:01

Thanks for the reply, a civic type r is in consideration, albeit an fk8, my budget wont stretch to an FL5 sadly.

The new Britax seats in my superb go up to 7 years or 36kg so they're huge.

i asked the missus if she would keep the superb and i can sell her cx5 and m4 for new car funds and she seemed keen.

More on the FL5 i bet thats a great car on uk roads, the m4 is a little skittish in the autumn winter months.

[Phils-Fast]

wombleh said:

We had ours rear facing in my car until they were about 5 or 6 and used that for any long/motorway journeys. I had to get rid of my impreza as it was tiny inside and rear facing seats wouldn't fit with a 6 foot adult in the front. One problem is that extended rear facing seats with decent leg room for the child are massive, some barely fit in my 5 series. I think our last was Britax Romer Max Way and that was much better on space, but child had to sit cross legged so not so good on longer journeys. Not a show stopper as just take breaks, but I can imagine a particularly fussy child might kick off a lot.

We used front facing in the wifes car a few years earlier as it's smaller and wouldn't fit extended rear facing kit in, only used for local journeys around town so lower risk.

sorry, i neglected to say im 6'1 and my wife is 5'8'' so we use a bit of space ourselves.

I have considered forward facing in a toy which allows a bigger choice of cars but it kind of defeats the object a bit and id never forgive myself for not being in the safer seats.

[MisterWhippy]

My daughter has been rear facing for the past 2 years. My wife will have nothing of it of turning her around until she's old enough, which I'm fine with.

We have enough space though as I have a lump of a Grand Scenic with plenty of space, even more so with another one on the way.

The wife's Fiesta, not so much space..

[Phils-Fast]

The Selfish Gene said:

I haven't seen the specific data - but it does seem intuitive to me, that not having anyone's head firing forward with the loading of Gs in a frontal crash is better.

Surely having head against rear of a seat in a forward crash is better, and on the road, one would assume most crashes are not going in backwards.

I know this is more of a what car thread - but please feel free to put links to what seat!

Wifey has a Hyundai Kona - so should be enough space for the rear facing seat I would hope

My wifes cx5 has Axekid minikid seats, up to 25kg 6 years

my superb has the next stage, Britax Safeway M up to 36kg or 7 years old/125cm

They can be quite prohibitive price wise but i think worth it.

Children can outweigh or outgrow a seat quite quickly but the plus testing says up to 4 years old they're necks cant deal with the g forces in a 30mph crash. Which is a common crash speed more likely faster or combined speed. id like to give them the best chance i can.

[Phils-Fast]

MisterWhippy said:

My daughter has been rear facing for the past 2 years. My wife will have nothing of it of turning her around until she's old enough, which I'm fine with.

We have enough space though as I have a lump of a Grand Scenic with plenty of space, even more so with another one on the way.

The wife's Fiesta, not so much space..

Its definately a good option isnt it. i know we make our own choices but i will always have good a rated wet weather tyres on my cars etc... im an engineer and if i can over engineer a situation your damn right i'll try hahaha

[JAMSXR]

Phils-Fast said:

Thanks for the reply, a civic type r is in consideration, albeit an fk8, my budget wont stretch to an FL5 sadly.

The new Britax seats in my superb go up to 7 years or 36kg so they're huge.

i asked the missus if she would keep the superb and i can sell her cx5 and m4 for new car funds and she seemed keen.

More on the FL5 i bet thats a great car on uk roads, the m4 is a little skittish in the autumn winter months.

You never know, with car prices dropping it might be within budget soon! The FK8 probably gives you 95% of the FL5 for a good chunk less. Having spent the last 12 years driving RWD (c63 was my last car) moving to FWD took some adjusting but I’m loving it. You still need to feather the throttle in winter conditions, it’s now the front end squirming for grip. With the demise of ICE I was keen to get a manual, and it ticked all the other boxes.

I would highly recommend consolidating, and if you’ve got backing from the mrs even better!

[blank]

My son has only just gone forward facing at aged 4 as it was getting too tight for legroom and he was close to the 25kg weight limit.

It's insane how much space they take up. Also when you use tethers to the front seat rails, which then restrict the seat going back as well. You can get loops that bolt under the seat rails to help with this and liberate a bit more space.

Britax Maxway is relatively compact for rear facing and quite cheap (relatively).

You've had it easy with a Superb. Not much else can match it. I think a 3 Series will struggle even.

[Pamoothican]

The Selfish Gene said:

I haven't seen the specific data - but it does seem intuitive to me, that not having anyone's head firing forward with the loading of Gs in a frontal crash is better.

Surely having head against rear of a seat in a forward crash is better, and on the road, one would assume most crashes are not going in backwards.

I know this is more of a what car thread - but please feel free to put links to what seat!

Wifey has a Hyundai Kona - so should be enough space for the rear facing seat I would hope

Small children's musculoskeletal systems aren't as developed up to the age of 4, so they could really do with a HANS device if forward facing, like racing drivers.

[wyson]

Porsche Macan? Not sure if one of those is in your budget. I’d be looking to get a higher roofed vehicle, that might still be enjoyable to drive.

[Phils-Fast]

blank said:

My son has only just gone forward facing at aged 4 as it was getting too tight for legroom and he was close to the 25kg weight limit.

It's insane how much space they take up. Also when you use tethers to the front seat rails, which then restrict the seat going back as well. You can get loops that bolt under the seat rails to help with this and liberate a bit more space.

Britax Maxway is relatively compact for rear facing and quite cheap (relatively).

You've had it easy with a Superb. Not much else can match it. I think a 3 Series will struggle even.

i Had wondered if they made loops like you do for racing harnesses to avoid the seat runners? the superb doesnt care if theres tie downs on the seat rails its got plenty of room but the cx5 and m4 run over the tethers.

my eldest girl is quite dainty so she wont trouble the weight limit but height she might.

[Phils-Fast]

wyson said:

Porsche Macan? Not sure if one of those is in your budget. I’d be looking to get a higher roofed vehicle, that might still be enjoyable to drive.

its not so much the roof height its the rear legroom space. A macaan isnt a bad shout but im not an suv fan tbh. Be a 4x4 or a hatchback, not both!! haha

[mwstewart]

Front face my daughter day-to-day, we always have so that she can enjoy the drive and take it all in. She is 10 months old. For fun drives with roof down I take her out in the Ferrari with its passenger airbag switched off.

[UTH]

I was asking the child seat question just a couple of weeks ago.

Child in question will be 15 months old in just over 2 weeks, which supposedly is the legal age of being able to be forward facing. I do the nursery drop off every morning - it's a 5 mins drive through 20mph suburban roads. I'm now doing this in my newly acquired Mk2 Focus RS which doesn't have Isofix attachments.
I settled on this seat: https://www.kiddies-kingdom.com/birth-4yrs/35168-j...

At the moment it's in the back seat, facing backwards. Whilst it's not the end of the world, having to climb into the back to get her in and out (given it's a 3 door car) is a slight pain, so I think I may well be moving her to the front seat forward facing once legally allowed, but do bear in mind that she will pretty much only ever be doing the 5 mins journey to/from nursery with me in this car.
We have a T-Cross with a proper swivel Isofix set up for all other journeys we may need to take, or if I do find myself in the situation where I'm taking her on a longer journey, she'll be going back to rear facing in the back seat.

[JuniorD]

I couldn’t afford rear facing seats so as soon as my kids got too big for their maxi-cosy baby carrier seats I put them in front facing seats and just reversed everywhere.