I'm interested to find out what experiences other members with babies/toddlers are having with installing baby seats.

Afterall, I did manage to get into this car (my 3rd baby) by selling the wife on the fact that it is a genuine 4-seater ....and "....yes honey, I will still be able to pick the kids up from creche ....promise !!!

Having picked up my velocity red this week, I faced the first challenge this w'end of getting my 4yr old with booster seat, into the back. It was accomplished, but with a very tight squeeze and a few choice expletives, trying to get the seatbelt to actually slot into the lock position.

I have a very good quality "Safe n Sound" baby seat, which I started to try fit into the other rear seat for our 16mnth old and then gave up, after it looked like it was not going to fit. I did'nt perservere in the 34 degree temp !!

I do recall seeing a Mazda brochure with a pic of a baby seat fitted to the 8, however, cannot find any details of this on the Mazda Aust website. I don't really want to go to the expense of having to purchase a "specially designed" seat to fit into the 8, however, it might come to that.

Right now, I can't find any details or price for this baby seat.

Anybody else with a similar experience or now riding comfortably with a baby in the back seat ..... I would appreciate your feedback.

Hi Thommo,

You won't get a lot of help in this particular Oz forum as they're all to busy talking about how many members and if their are any Kiwis etc etc...................................

I have a two year old and the first thing I did when I got the car was to purchase a "safe n sound" baby seat. I didn't fit it myself (mechanically retarded:D), but the guy that installed it appeared to have no problem.

It only cost $30 to have it installed.

Hope this helps.

Paul.

That's not all we talk about. I've also mentioned
Sausages, Beer, the oil light, postulations on ECU
engine protection measures, wobbly back ends,
death rates by guns, dark matter, dead trees,
ink blot tests, IPods, and silicon substrate.

Well, some of that stuff anyway. I could start talking
about the others if people really want to hear non-baby
seat related ramblings. Like this post, for instance.

I'll shut up and get some coffee now.

.............see what I mean.........

I would have thought the back seats weren't quite wide enough for the bulkier baby seats.

Take care, some of those things have nasty frames on them and will leave permanent pressure marks on the seats.

Coffee ... that's a good idea - I've been almost working for half an hour now, think I'll stroll down to a cafe and check out the surf. :)

hi

i've have a 3.5 yo son who fits perfectly in the back of the rx-8 in a safe-n-sound convertable seat. it converts from child capsule to booster seat. that way i get the greatest life out of it. the seat installs in seconds!

as an aside, my son has put quite a few marks from his toy sword on the back of the the front passenger seat!! he loves his own hatch and dirnk holder.

cheers

mike

Originally posted by mktchin
hi

i've have a 3.5 yo son who fits perfectly in the back of the rx-8 in a safe-n-sound convertable seat. it converts from child capsule to booster seat. that way i get the greatest life out of it. the seat installs in seconds!

as an aside, my son has put quite a few marks from his toy sword on the back of the the front passenger seat!! he loves his own hatch and dirnk holder.

cheers

mike

I suppose the lesson here is don't buy him a real sword and sit him behind the driver's seat!

I was thinking about getting some of that whizz bang 3M clear stuff fitted to the seat backs - any thoughts?

BTW a light polish can remove scuffs from plastics - just experiment a little on an area you can't see first.

Safe N Sound Capsule in the passenger side back seat for my 4 month old daughter. Fits fine but the front passenger seat needs to be quite far forward to accomodate. Hoping things will improve once we get the normal baby seat when she is 9kg.

15 years ago when our daughter was 18 months she was diagnosed with congenital hip disorder, and put in frogleg plaster for a year, with her knees spread 180 degrees.

Which meant that she could not fit into the back seat of the BM 635csi we had at the time. Fortunately the shaped "bucket" centre was easily removable and I made a frame for her safety seat attached direct to the floorplan.

This is probably of no interest to anyone else - even in this thread! (BTW thanks to the exceptional skills of an ortho at Prince of Wales Children's Hospital, she has represented NSW at the national cross-country championships, is the sprint champion for age at her school, and plays rep. soccer and touch footy for Northern Suburbs Sydney. Just regrets that she cannot take up rugby again til she leaves school.)

Now this is relevant: she is passionate about the rx8 and is the main reason that we are forsaking our sti after a mere 16 months.

Safe n Sound also make a smaller version of their captule convertible baby seat(the compact) which should be a more suitable fit for the back seat. They retail for about $300

Well I have a bit of an expert in a family as she has a baby equipment hire business. We have 250 capsules and carseats taking up precious room in the garage .

The missus bought a new Safe and Sound "maxi rider". It is quite thin and will last from 8 months to 4 years. The only hassle you have is fitting the belt into the fastner beside the seat.

The three year old daughter has now been trained to put it in with her thin hands though.

Now I just have to get them to stop slamming the lid on the rear console.

It is also dark charcoal in colour which almost exactly matches the poor mans cloth trim.

Maybe we should start a kids care forum, piss off the geeks.

My wife just gave birth to our son a week ago. I took them home with the RX-8. The baby seat is facing backwards so it occupies a lot of space. The front passenger seat is all the way forward with the seat back fairly upright. Getting the baby into the seat was quite awkward but not impossible. I can't imagine it being any easier if I was parked between two cars and couldn't swing the back door wide open.

Donald

proud dad of a 2.3 year old little girl.

had to put a couple of layers of foam under the capsule / baby seat to:

1) protect the leather
2) highten the seat so george could see out of the car
3) boosted the console edge of the seat so it sat level as the back seats don't seem to be exactly level for some strange reason.

About to look into getting a better, smaller but still save childs seat.

Now have george running around saying "daddy's car sounds like brooommmm broooommmm" and while driving george asks dad to "louder daddy.. bigger bigger!" ( read as rev the bloody thing more dad ).

++dez;

Thommo:

what did you [ if you have already ] decide on seat wise etc?

we're working on a second bub and so I'm keen to get a new booster / kids seat for our first, and find some way to 'jimmy' the baby capsule into the 8 without getting too tight.

a worth while exercise if you've got little one's anywhere near todler size, is take their shoe's off when you load 'em into capsules or baby seats!

soft feet or feet with sox, don't make any real damage to the back end interior, but you put shoes on those feet - oh man are you going to be sorry!

pls compile findings if you have time!

++dez;

ps: and if you're around Sydney - come for a drive on Wednesday night next week!

I'm in Canada and use the ISOFIX anchors to secure the car seat. This works great without using the seatbelt. Sounds like you guys in Oz don't have this?

Good call on the "take the shoes off". I always do this with my son before he redecorates the back of the seat!!!!

Originally posted by jax8

Now this is relevant: she is passionate about the rx8 and is the main reason that we are forsaking our sti after a mere 16 months.

Thats what I like to read about. Converting from a WRX to the original RX.

Although going from the lumpiest/roughest production engine available to the smoothest/most free is sure to be a event for the senses.