Saturday saw the TVR going to Hopscotch in Hereford for some car seat shopping.
Seventoddler is growing out of his old baby seat. Our new Mondeo has Isofix and we bought a fancy Cybex Sirona Plus for that, but we need something for the TVR and our older (Mk3) Mondeo.
The drive out to Hereford with roof on was ok, but the brake bias valve is turned fully out and still rattles.
The drive back with the roof off and baby in the passenger seat was good, the weather clearing for the start of a lovely weekend. With the roof off, I can’t hear the rattling 🙂
Hopscotch were very helpful with the seats and we tried a few. The tricky aspect of the TVR is the curve on the seat back as it goes up to the headrest. This is not a feature seen on many car seats that you might attach an infant seat to and means that some seats sit a bit far out (see pics below).
Of the seats we tried, we most liked the one that we went there for which was the Kiddy Guardian Pro 2. This may work in its smallest setting (good to about 4 years old), but when the back starts to extend for larger children the curve of the seat pushes it out further (more upright, bigger gap between child-seat back and main seat), perhaps too much.
The Kiddy seat only makes contact at the base and the top – but perhaps this is ok as there is an extendable part on the base of the seat (the snooze / recline function) which makes contact on the TVR and in any other car would make it so that the seat also only made contact on the top and base. So this may work in the TVR until he is 4, and in the Mondeo until he is too big to need a car seat.
It is a seat with a restraining pad rather than a 5-point harness. This is generally considered safer for all collision types apart from maybe a roll as there is (not conclusively proven) a greater chance of him coming out. But he does so few miles in the TVR that there are probably more all-round benefits. 5-point harnesses are considered by some to be less safe for infants because they keep the body pinned and the head can move (what a HANS device stops in racing). Infants have small necks and big heads. Extended rear facing is considered safest, and the bumper pad next best as that allows the body to fold around it rather than just the neck bending. See this link for some illustrations.
We need to ask Kiddy whether the fitment is ok. If it is, then we will probably buy that seat and find another solution for the TVR when he reaches 4. He should be ok in his baby seat for a little while yet so there is no rush.
Some pics are below. If you click on a picture it should open a larger picture.
- Extending foot making contact with the seat back at the base
