Kiddie Seats

[ZootyRS]

Wasn't sure if this counted as ICE or Styling

Anybody got any recommendations on child seats? Any to avoid for the Octavia?

Need one for a newborn in the first instance - probably one of those you lift in and out with the baby in and can use as a seat in the house.

What about this Isofix system? Much trumpeted in the Skoda brochures but I've only seen about two seats that use it.

Those Recaros look nice, but we'll have to wait a bit for one of those

Ta,

Zooty

[gunnie]

At last something I can offer advice on for the car!

I just bought a mamas and papas pro-tec seat, for 9 months onwards. It uses the seatbelt and attaches at the top and bottom and is very secure

Before that from birth we had another m&p seat, but this one was part of the pushchair, and was called a primo viaggio. This was in two parts, the base which is strapped into the seat (and again can be moved between cars) and then the chair which locks into the base and/or a pushchair, meaning you can leave the little one safely strapped in to carry about.

I tried finding an isofix one, but as you say they're a bit thin on the ground, but they do seem to be a good idea.

[bandit1]

We have a Recaro for our 2 1/2 yaer old. They are great for long journey's as there is a lot of padding & adjustment. However the only safety belt is the actual one for the car that comes over the child in the normal manner & as the child gets older & more "assertive" it can be difficult to strap the youngster in as you have to "Lean over" every time.

Well made seat though !!

PS they also sit very high in the car so "Junior" can see out of the windows.

Graham

[KentStu]

Zooty - we seem to have done no end of research into this recently. My wife has ended up choosing a Jane (theres an acute accent over the "e" but don't know how to do this!) Matrix car seat. Main reason for this is that it folds flat so that baby can be put into the car lying flat. Apparently this is very good (wifes a doctor ) as you are not supposed to have babies in a sitting up position for longer than about an hour - can lie flat happily in and and out of the car. You can only use the lie flat method in the car for the first 9 months then it folds up so that you use it like any normal type of car seat. Anyway this is what we have got and several of her doctor friends have got the same. We have tried it in the Octy and the Ibiza and it seems to go in fairly easily once you have got the hang of it (doesn't fit onto the isofix - just has clips onto the belts)

Can't believe I know so much about such a dull subject :boozer:

[Dutch4x4]

We used the Maxi-Cosi Priori - very simple to fit, much better than others we tried, which meant that we could use one seat and exchange it between the two. It was no problem in the roomy Legacy and it went quite well in the 3-door Micra too - just sit on the folded front passenger seat and you have all the manoeuvring space you need.

http://www.maxi-cosi.nl/pdf/brochures/PrioriXP.pdf

However, and this is a big however, fitting a/this (?) kiddie seat in the Octy is a nightmare because of the limited legroom. It was the main reason why the Octavia failed in my selection three years ago - the seat folds out to the front in order to temporarily make room for the seat belt that goes underneath to fix it, and of course for putting the seat in its "snooze" position. It folded out right into the front seat's backrest, which meant that there was no more room for baby's legs... I suspect that a baby seat in snooze position will only fit if either of the parents is 5'5" or smaller and is able to put their seat way forward. We are 6'5" and 6' respectively...

With my boy being 5 years old now and no little brother or sister in sight, I was safe to buy the Octy now...

[Dutch4x4]

Ah, yes, the lift-in, lift-out seat, or rather, cradle.

Here, everyone uses the Maxi-Cosi Cabrio - it's the market leader by a landslide, and deservingly so.

http://www.maxi-cosi.nl/pdf/brochures/Cabrio.pdf

[JayTee]

Our favorite for new born to approx. 9 months is Britax Rock-a-Tot seat - very comfortable for baby especially if you use the optional neck support.

We would have used this for our second child, but we got a new Corsa with smart airbag system which automatically disconnects passenger airbags if Vauxhall child seat is used - cost of smart airbags was

[SkodiRS]

We got a Britax Roc-A-Tot baby cradle thingy and a Klippan Suprema seat.

Originally was going to get a Graco cradle but the seat belts weren't long enough.

One thing to remember about the baby seat/cradle thingy is weight. May seem ok just holding in the shop but once you add baby and have to carry it around for any length of time........

Recaro baby seat....hmmmm......if I can't have one I'll be damned if the nipper can have one.

[philc]

Hmmmmmm.......

Not having kiddies myself, I'm probably not qualified to say anything -but when did that ever stop me! Two points:

1) silly product names. Really silly.

2) A mate who's a dad, and I came up with the idea of a pushchair/car seat combined unit in about 1984 -but nobody was interested! Another million missed.

Phil

[Will]

Anybody know how to disable the front and side airbags in my L&k?, as I would like to fit a child seat in the front. If not how much do Skoda charge?

[DGW]

Assuming that your car is not fitted with the optional front passenger airbag de-activation switch, you will need to get a Skoda dealer to deactivate the airbags for you. I would guess that this can be done quickly using a VAG1551/2.

[philc]

One of our fleet drivers with a Vrs asked the dealer about disabling the airbag -they refused. I think they were scared of liability.

I like the GM system that detects a baby seat, and deactivates the bag when it's fitted.

Phil

[Jimmy]

When Jnr was a baby we had one of those carry handle Mama & Papas type things which like SkodiRS rightly says start to get VERY heavy especially with a growing child.

When he outgrew the carry along thing we bought the Recaro 'Start' child seat after being recommended by a Road Safety expert during a demonstration at SWMBO's school (where she works I hasten to add). It's not cheap at

[Jimmy]

Originally posted by philc in this post

I like the GM system that detects a baby seat, and deactivates the bag when it's fitted.

Phil

I must admit I don't like the sound of that. Call me old fashioned but I'd much prefer to see a mechanical interlock like the key activated systems fitted to other vehicles.

[DGW]

Originally posted by philc in this post

One of our fleet drivers with a Vrs asked the dealer about disabling the airbag -they refused.

I don't see how they can refuse. The Owner's Manual carries a warning about using child seats in the front and advises you to contact your Skoda dealer to have the airbags deactivated if you wish to do this.

[philc]

Originally posted by DGW in this post

I don't see how they can refuse. The Owner's Manual carries a warning about using child seats in the front and advises you to contact your Skoda dealer to have the airbags deactivated if you wish to do this.

Nevertheless, they still didn't do it!

[MTK]

As my son is now nearly a year old and onto the second stage of car seats we have a Britax Duo which is Isofix compatible. It fits on the Isofix points in the Octavia and in the Seat Ibiza which is our other car. There's a list on the Britax website of the cars that they've tested it in and deemed it suitable for. Some cars have to use a restraining strap as well to affix it but not VAG cars in general according to the list.

It will also attach with the seat belt in cars without Isofix points or where they haven't tested it and you don't want your child to be the guinea pig. Neither Britax nor the individual car manufacturers were much use when I enquired about cars not on their list.

If you shop around on the web you can get it for about

[boy_exley]

I have also been looking into this, my life changing from being a single identifiable entity to "someones dad" fairly soon.

The local dealer informed me that it could be done, but was a "once off always off" and would be counted as a Moddification towards insurance. When I pointed out that in the Octavia accessories boolet there is a key disabler which can be done as a factory fit, and why could this not be done as a retro mod...

He went strangly quiet.

Our solution, is to fit the child seat in the back and be done. The ones most reccomended (to us) are the Britax seat, light and some of the safest on the market.

I'll get off my soap box now..

Cheers

!P

[KentStu]

They are almost definitely refusing to disable the airbags for insurance/ liability. Most manufacturers are going this way as there has been a spate of incidents where airbags have activated in accidents even when they have been "deactivated" - problem apparently is that once an airbag is in place it is almost impossible to guarantee that it will not go off unless you take the whole thing off. Guess some dealers are happier than others to run the risk.

[Turbo_Boss]

My Skoda dealer has a Factory Skoda child seat for selling. Is green color and has the Iso-Fix sytem. But this seat does not thave any Skoda logo.

Why dont you ask your dealer about this Skoda child seat?

Isaac

[4x4]

For what it's worth this is our experience on the subject, Our son who's now 13 months has traveled in the Octavia since we picked him up from the hospital.

We started off with a Mammas & Pappas Primo Viaggio which the mums like because it clicks in & out of the seperate car base straight onto the chassis, thus not waking the nipper up when you stop your journey (believe me this is important). However mum did have to move her seat back slightly more upright to accomodate this. Which?recently tested the upto 9 months seats as I'm a subscriber I have access to a copy of their independant test results. If you want a copy just email me & I'll send it to you.

He outgrew the seat after about 7-8 months & we now use a Britax Renaisance which has an ingenious system for pretensioning the cars seatbelts. I looked at the Britax ISOFIX seat, but my wife has a new Corolla & it was impossible to get one ISOFIX seat that was approved for both cars.

This kind of makes a mockery of the ISOFIX "standard"

Interestingly Which? say that they have found nothing to prove that the European 2 fixing point ISOFIX system is any better than properly fitted belts.

I'm told the Japanese use a top ISOFIX tether which makes the whole system much stronger...

[robholton]

We've been using the Mamas & Pappas Primo Viaggio seat with the base in our vRS Estate for a while now and it fits very well - the width of the base is perfect for pushing in tightly to the seat - it feels very secure even before you attach the seatbelt to the base.

It is a good idea as you don't have to wake up junior to get them in and out of the car - it just clips on to the base and the pushchair frame.

It has a good head hugger and lots of padding and therefore looks very comfortable.

The only slightly negative thing is that it isn't the biggest of car seats - apparently it is designed to be used up to about 15 months according to M&P but there is no way our baby will fit in it at that age - she's not a big baby by any means but it looks like she will be grown out of it before she is 12 months old. Apparently a few people have noticed this - M&P say that, as their seats are Italian designed, they base their sizing on Italian babies who, on average, are smaller than their equivalent-aged UK babies!!!

Apart from this minor gripe it is a very good seat.

Rob.

P.S. We got our M&P stuff (and other things) from Just Kidding in Birmingham - very cheap compared to anyone else - www.just-kidding.com

[MrkyMrk]

Tethers are required on some cars, not others. On the Octy, using a Britax Duo, it is not required. We upgraded to the Duo after using a Rennaisance (which we now use in the non-ISOFIX second car) for kid #1.

The ISOFIX seat is in and it's solid - no working loose and having to re-check every other journey. It was expensive but worth it IMO. A little worried with what condition the crushed rear seats will be in a couple of years, but that would have been the same with any child seat.

Regards,

Mark

[nat]

i've got britax duo isofix 9months up for my little boy 3 position recline,so easy to fit and very secure doesn't budge cost about

[MTK]

The reason we got the Britax Duo is that it's so easy to fit you don't need to worry about whether you've done it correctly with the seat belt.

Also we knew that one set of grandparents would be getting an Octavia as well so it would go straight into their car and as it's a while since they had a child seat in the back of their car we wanted one that they'd find easy to fit.

What the seat and the boy will do to the beige leather interior is another matter !