8 ms·

Try fitting a baby car seat in anything smaller. It can be done but you have zero leg room in front.

dabeeeenster 14y ago
I have two children in the back of my Skoda Fabia (VW Polo Platform), no problem at all. They dont need leg room - they are strapped into their seats. They also never complain about it.
maratd 14y ago
Thank you. I just had to sell my BMW 535 because the only way the infant car seat would fit is if I moved the front passenger seat all the way up, to the point where nobody could use it. And it's not a small car, either. And yes, I got an SUV instead. Now my wife can actually sit next to me.
- div 14y ago
  I see people driving around in all kinds of small cars with baby car seats (europe). It might have been less expensive to get a new car seat ?
  - planetguy 14y ago
    I think the US regulations about car seats might be entirely different, but I haven't looked into the details.
  - brc 14y ago
    It will be the size of the car seats on the market. In the US people have bigger cars (in general). Parents seem to want to maximise the size of the seat. As a result, it's my hypothesis that small sized car seats do not sell well. The flow-on from this is that it probably would be very difficult to purchase two car seats that would fit comfortably into a small vehicle, like a VW Polo or similar. In addition, there are other factors that drive the choice of a larger car, including space for the various other things that babies come with, like prams. And most people prefer larger than smaller when choosing a vehicle. People in Europe choose smaller cars for a variety of reasons, including parking, fuel costs and road size.
maxerickson 14y ago
Well, I didn't mean to criticize the people buying mini suvs, I was pointing out that it isn't really such a top down market.
brc 14y ago
This is actually the fault of the child seats more than the cars. Most car seats these days take up more room than a full sized adult in the same spot. There is no reason a small child needs an oversized seat. Crash protection is not about the amount of fluffy foam surrounding the child. Plenty of families could do with a smaller car if appropriately sized seats could be made available. It is physically impossible to fit 3 child seats into a medium sized car with 3 seating positions. Those wondering why leg room is constrained by a child seat, which, presumably, needs no leg room, haven't looked at the design of a child seat. These raise the child up, and with the backward rake of the driver seat, the front of the child seat rests against the top of the backrest of the drivers seat, leaving no room for the childs legs and feet. The problem is even worse in the case of a rear-facing baby capsule. It would be easier to load a 60 pound dog into the back seat of a car than a child capsule. Ironically carmakers themselves have designed small and efficient child seats that integrate with their cars to maintain interior space whilst providing maximum protection to the child occupants. But because of byzantine laws in each international jurisdiction where vehicles are sold, few of these can actually be sold, meaning the cost is high if they are available at all. It's a case of poorly thought out regulation and an obvious marketing ploy of 'bigger is better' for parents when purchasing a seat for their most precious cargo. Because when it comes to persuasive arguments 'won't someone think of the children' trumps all.
- corysama 14y ago
  Related: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_levitt_on_child_carseats.html http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_levitt_on_child_carseats.htm...
tokenadult 14y ago
I have four children, have never had them in a car without a current safety seat back when they needed those, and have never had to drive an SUV.
hkarthik 14y ago
The other big problem is increasing guidance from child safety experts to seat children in reversed seating positions. Once you take a normal infant car seat and reverse it, and the front passenger (or driver) legroom completely disappears unless you're driving a minivan or an SUV. Three years ago, the guidance was to keep the infant car seat rear facing until age 1. Then it became until the child reaches 20 lbs. Now the guidance is to push to age 2 with the additional recommendations to go even longer if possible. I believe that the proliferation of side impact rear airbags has forced the safety guidelines in this direction. Side impact rear airbags are a great safety feature for adults, but they can be fatal to small children. A car seat is the only real defense you have against them. And the manufacturers aren't taking chances with letting the airbags be disabled based on weight requirements. Nobody likes to take chances with their kids, but we've also gone a little nuts with safety in the US, using "bigger is better" to handle every safety issue and with all sides so worried about getting sued that we've created this unsustainable escalation of safety features in cars. This has the net effect of keeping us in larger cars for longer and preying on our emotions to keep us from switching to more practically sized vehicles. As a parent who tries to make practical and rational decisions, I find it really frustrating.

I have two children in the back of my Skoda Fabia (VW Polo Platform), no problem at all. They dont need leg room - they are strapped into their seats. They also never complain about it.

maratd 14y ago

Thank you. I just had to sell my BMW 535 because the only way the infant car seat would fit is if I moved the front passenger seat all the way up, to the point where nobody could use it. And it's not a small car, either. And yes, I got an SUV instead. Now my wife can actually sit next to me.

div 14y ago
I see people driving around in all kinds of small cars with baby car seats (europe). It might have been less expensive to get a new car seat ?
- planetguy 14y ago
  I think the US regulations about car seats might be entirely different, but I haven't looked into the details.
- brc 14y ago
  It will be the size of the car seats on the market. In the US people have bigger cars (in general). Parents seem to want to maximise the size of the seat. As a result, it's my hypothesis that small sized car seats do not sell well. The flow-on from this is that it probably would be very difficult to purchase two car seats that would fit comfortably into a small vehicle, like a VW Polo or similar. In addition, there are other factors that drive the choice of a larger car, including space for the various other things that babies come with, like prams. And most people prefer larger than smaller when choosing a vehicle. People in Europe choose smaller cars for a variety of reasons, including parking, fuel costs and road size.

maxerickson 14y ago

Well, I didn't mean to criticize the people buying mini suvs, I was pointing out that it isn't really such a top down market.

brc 14y ago

This is actually the fault of the child seats more than the cars. Most car seats these days take up more room than a full sized adult in the same spot. There is no reason a small child needs an oversized seat. Crash protection is not about the amount of fluffy foam surrounding the child. Plenty of families could do with a smaller car if appropriately sized seats could be made available. It is physically impossible to fit 3 child seats into a medium sized car with 3 seating positions. Those wondering why leg room is constrained by a child seat, which, presumably, needs no leg room, haven't looked at the design of a child seat. These raise the child up, and with the backward rake of the driver seat, the front of the child seat rests against the top of the backrest of the drivers seat, leaving no room for the childs legs and feet. The problem is even worse in the case of a rear-facing baby capsule. It would be easier to load a 60 pound dog into the back seat of a car than a child capsule. Ironically carmakers themselves have designed small and efficient child seats that integrate with their cars to maintain interior space whilst providing maximum protection to the child occupants. But because of byzantine laws in each international jurisdiction where vehicles are sold, few of these can actually be sold, meaning the cost is high if they are available at all. It's a case of poorly thought out regulation and an obvious marketing ploy of 'bigger is better' for parents when purchasing a seat for their most precious cargo. Because when it comes to persuasive arguments 'won't someone think of the children' trumps all.

corysama 14y ago
Related: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_levitt_on_child_carseats.html http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_levitt_on_child_carseats.htm...

tokenadult 14y ago

I have four children, have never had them in a car without a current safety seat back when they needed those, and have never had to drive an SUV.

hkarthik 14y ago

The other big problem is increasing guidance from child safety experts to seat children in reversed seating positions. Once you take a normal infant car seat and reverse it, and the front passenger (or driver) legroom completely disappears unless you're driving a minivan or an SUV. Three years ago, the guidance was to keep the infant car seat rear facing until age 1. Then it became until the child reaches 20 lbs. Now the guidance is to push to age 2 with the additional recommendations to go even longer if possible. I believe that the proliferation of side impact rear airbags has forced the safety guidelines in this direction. Side impact rear airbags are a great safety feature for adults, but they can be fatal to small children. A car seat is the only real defense you have against them. And the manufacturers aren't taking chances with letting the airbags be disabled based on weight requirements. Nobody likes to take chances with their kids, but we've also gone a little nuts with safety in the US, using "bigger is better" to handle every safety issue and with all sides so worried about getting sued that we've created this unsustainable escalation of safety features in cars. This has the net effect of keeping us in larger cars for longer and preying on our emotions to keep us from switching to more practically sized vehicles. As a parent who tries to make practical and rational decisions, I find it really frustrating.