DB7 - Fitting kids in !!?? Myth and Legend on Car-seats ?

[M@H]

All,

Having scoured the non regulated authority that is the internet, both myself and the good lady wife found enough anecdotal comments and postings to lead us to believe that despite most of the seating "fare" available on the market for the offspring (aged nearly 2 and nearly 4) that the holy grail of carseats for the back of a Volante could be found by harrassing the staff of larger Halfwits and Motherscare stores into thinking about the problem and trying many items in the car itself - so we bought one.

The harrassing (not true, we were most pleasant to all!) of Halfwits and Motherscare staff was was today!

So, nothing fits - nothing even really remotely fits! Potentially a booster cushion on its own could be installed that might fit, but would not benefit les enfants with any level of protection nor indeed be in line with current legislation / thinking on the subject either.

So please, please, come forth and tell me I am wrong; barrage me with makes and models of carseats I have never seen that will glide into the back of the car with ease whilst not require my children to have no leg below the knee to sit in them. Or on the other hand please beguile me with tales of trimming companies that will re-model the back of the car to include five point harnessing, head-side impact protection and doubtless jewel encrusted "springy pigs" or similar that cling to the back windows with eagerly saliva'd suckers.

Many thanks in advance,

Matt.

[apguy]

Whilst having no experience with Aston's, I had a very similar issue with my Cerbera (another nominal 2+2). The Recaro Start, however fits fine. Whilst it looks bulky in the picture, its a very narrow seat and also uses the 3 point belt as the actual harness. (You need to see it, to understand what I mean)

http://www.recaro-seats.co.uk/child-seats/recaro-s...

[M@H]

Thank you for that

The main issue with the seat fitting is the front to back depth of the seat as the existing back seats are pretty shallow plus the back of the front seats are only about 6" in front of the front edge of the rear seat, accordingly if there is any overhang of a carseat in position (i.e. further forward than the "sqaub" base of the aston rear seat) then there is no space for childrens legs. Whilst the width of the base is an issue I have had the rear speaker pods removed from the car to make this a bit less restrictive and could find a few seats that were alright width-ways - albeit all wrong front to back.

The other issue is height, I put one of our standard stage 1+ seats in the back and the top of it was touching the headlining (thankfully the eldest is some 6-8" shorther than this anyway) ..I don't suppose you might have access to any dimensions of one of thse Recaro's? (I shall have a google)
Cheers,
Matt

[ukdennis]

I think you're going to have great difficulty with a seat for your 4 year old.

I have had a 2001 DB7 Vantage auto since my twin girls were a year and a half old. We were recommended (by the very helpful DB7 experts at Chiltern Aston) Britax Freeway car seats, as they had a base narrow enough to fit. We subsequently bought a couple of these (now out of production unfortunately). Even then, it is a pain in the butt doing up the lap sash rear belts, but if you're not wanting to remove the kid seats a lot, this doesn't present a problem. I know that the Volante has different shaped seats to my Coupe, so all this may be irrelevant!

Anyway, the Britax seats worked fine for us, until our girls reached the age of about three and a half. The driver's and passenger's seats needed to be all the way forward to give sufficient legroom to the kids (legs stick straight out until about the age of four). That did not present a problem for us, as we had a touchtronic auto. I'm six foot tall. Even after a thousand mile trip through France it was comfortable for all of us. A manual transmission car, on the other hand, would be impossible to drive unless the driver was vertically challenged!

After about the age of three and a half, our girls did not have sufficient legroom to be comfortable, even with driver and passenger seats all the way forward. We tried simple booster cushions, but these did not give enough sideways support, especially when they fell asleep (they'd be resting their heads on the transmission tunnel) - not a good position to be in for the rear seatbelts to work in the event of an accident.

Bottom line is that from the age of say three and a half until around seven or eight (when they can sit in the back comfortably and legally without a booster seat) DB7's are not really going to work for kids. I'm sure that is not what you want to hear though.

[M@H]

ukdennis said:

lots of good stuff .... Bottom line is that from the age of say three and a half until around seven or eight (when they can sit in the back comfortably and legally without a booster seat) DB7's are not really going to work for kids. I'm sure that is not what you want to hear though.

Thank you for that Fortunately I am 5'8" and my wife is 5'4" so the seats can be all the way forwards anyway, but I understand what you mean about the legroom issue - I can see I am going to have to re-make the existing interior to have 5 point harnesses and extra support etc so the children can sit in the existing seat spaces rather than in seats sat on seats... this is going to be a fiddly one to solve but I shall not be beaten !



Matt.

[apguy]

M@H said:

The main issue with the seat fitting is the front to back depth of the seat as the existing back seats are pretty shallow plus the back of the front seats are only about 6" in front of the front edge of the rear seat, <snip>

The other issue is height, <snip>

..I don't suppose you might have access to any dimensions of one of thse Recaro's? (I shall have a google)

Matt,

The Recaro Start is adjustable for both seat depth and height. Dimensions (from Recaro) are:
Width: 19.09 - 22.83 in (adjustment range)
Height: 27.17 - 32.09 in (adjustment range)
Length: 18.90 - 22.83 in (adjustment range) ** Seat base

[M@H]

apguy said:

Matt,

The Recaro Start is adjustable for both seat depth and height. Dimensions (from Recaro) are:
Width: 19.09 - 22.83 in (adjustment range)
Height: 27.17 - 32.09 in (adjustment range)
Length: 18.90 - 22.83 in (adjustment range) ** Seat base

Thank you so much for that

..sadly I think that puts the seat well out of the running as there is no way the rear seats are 18.9" ins deep front to back.. more like 13-14" (I shall measure when I get home).

still

Matt.

[apguy]

The actual bit that sits on the seat is only about 12", the seat squab is then mounted on extendable runners that can overhang the actual car rear seat. I'm happy to take a tape-measure to mine this evening and work out the minimum space from back of rear seat to back of front seat that the recaro needs if that helps?

Equally my eldest is only 2.5 and I reckon that come age 4/5 then he'll be moved to a booster seat with 3 point belt due to both space constraints and I think the rear seats provide almost as much side protection as the child seat.

Edited by apguy on Thursday 6th November 15:21

[M@H]

apguy said:

The actual bit that sits on the seat is only about 12", the seat squab is then mounted on extendable runners that can overhang the actual car rear seat. I'm happy to take a tape-measure to mine this evening and work out the minimum space from back of rear seat to back of front seat that the recaro needs if that helps?

That would be a very generous and kind thing sir, thank you.

I have some concern however that your efforts will be undermined without another critical measurement or two. If it is not too much trouble do you think you could kindly measure the distance between the back of the drivers seat (with the seat say upright?) and the backrest of the back seat, then the back of the drivers seat and the front of the back seat base "squab" (i.e existing maximum leg gap) as I fear the volant is a different shape entirely to the coupe in the back.. in the Volante, any significant overhang was effectively removing any leg gap.

..thanking you in advance
Matt.

[M@H]

apguy said:

Equally my eldest is only 2.5 and I reckon that come age 4/5 then he'll be moved to a booster seat with 3 point belt due to both space constraints and I think the rear seats provide almost as much side protection as the child seat.

As an aside, the advice I was given yesterday suggested that the main issue with going to the fitted 3 point seatbelt from the 5 point harness was the ability of small bodies to bear the load of an impact only on one shoulder and the hips, rather than being spread around much more evenly. Equally that a booster seat on its own does nothing to maintian a good position of the shoulder strap in relation to the shoulder, unlike these full seats that take the strap across them but with a guide for the shoulder location point... all depends on the height and build of the children of course

Matt.

[apguy]

M@H said:

in the Volante, any significant overhang was effectively removing any leg gap.

..thanking you in advance
Matt.

Happy to measure all aspects of my installation if it is of assistance, but my vehicle is a Cerbera (in fact the seat is actually installed in my Merc at the moment) and therefore may not be applicable to your Aston. What I can provide is the minimum space that the seat can fit in with a live child sat in it

As another aside, the Recaro itself only uses the 3 point belt to harness the child in and that appears to have passed all of the relevant safety stuff. You may or may not be comfortable with this approach.

Edited by apguy on Thursday 6th November 15:51

[M@H]

apguy said:

M@H said:

in the Volante, any significant overhang was effectively removing any leg gap.

..thanking you in advance
Matt.

Happy to measure all aspects of my installation if it is of assistance, but my vehicle is a Cerbera (in fact the seat is actually installed in my Merc at the moment) and therefore may not be applicable to your Aston. What I can provide is the minimum space that the seat can fit in with a live child sat in it
[/footnote]

Sorry, was thinking Cerbera when writing Coupe .. lots of things going round in my head at present.. I fear there is more legroom in the back of yours by some margin you see, so without some common points of reference I can't really work it out

Thanks again,
Matt.

[M@H]

just ran a tape measure over the back of the car before work and the rear seats are 13" front to back (and about 13" wide albeit its more flared at one side at the front), and with the front seat bolt upright there are 7" of space between the seat back and the leading edge of the back seat - this reduces to 5" when the front seat is reclined to a suitable driving angle.

I really should have paid more attention to this when we bought the car..

Matt.

[apguy]

M@H said:

just ran a tape measure over the back of the car before work and the rear seats are 13" front to back (and about 13" wide albeit its more flared at one side at the front), and with the front seat bolt upright there are 7" of space between the seat back and the leading edge of the back seat - this reduces to 5" when the front seat is reclined to a suitable driving angle.

I really should have paid more attention to this when we bought the car..

Matt.

Just to add closure to this, and because I was tardy with the tape measure, the Recaro Start in my vehicle with a 2.5yr in place requires a min of 22" gap from rear seat back to front seat. So thats a complete no go as well and I believe that the Recaro is pretty much one of the smallest seats out there. Shame

[Zod]

The BMW/Porsche/Mercedes forward-facing seat fits in a DB9 if that's any help.

[M@H]

apguy said:

M@H said:

just ran a tape measure over the back of the car before work and the rear seats are 13" front to back (and about 13" wide albeit its more flared at one side at the front), and with the front seat bolt upright there are 7" of space between the seat back and the leading edge of the back seat - this reduces to 5" when the front seat is reclined to a suitable driving angle.

I really should have paid more attention to this when we bought the car..

Matt.

Just to add closure to this, and because I was tardy with the tape measure, the Recaro Start in my vehicle with a 2.5yr in place requires a min of 22" gap from rear seat back to front seat. So thats a complete no go as well and I believe that the Recaro is pretty much one of the smallest seats out there. Shame

Thanks for that I have also tried a frineds Recaro Young Start in the car and it was clear that it was non starter.. I have a plan though, shall post the results once implemented

[tuscrv8]

well ive now tried almost every type of db7 and short of chopping off there legs i just cant get my boys in the back with any reasonable comfort
dam shame as i have always wanted an aston



now wheres that hacksaw