Help! - Car Seats for Volvo 940

[SzennyBoy]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on this forum and would like to seek some help. Some background first, I guess. We are based in London (UK) and my wife is due in August. We are planning to head back over to Palermo, Siciy (my wife's home) soon where we will have the birth of our child. That means that I have to get almost everything ready before we leave as we will need all the items the moment we get back to London.

It's been an absolute nightmare in trying to find reliable advice on car seats to-date here for our car... a Volvo 940 Estate (1994 model). I'm basically trying to find an infant car seat (rear-facing) and later on a separate forward-facing car seat forwhen our baby reaches the age of one. I've even tried to contact Volvo directly and the following was the e-mail I received back from them:

I would like to advise that we only crash test our products in our vehicles, therefore we can only recommend our own products for our cars. As we do not crash test other manufacturer's products in our vehicles we are unable to comment on their suitability for use with our cars.
Thank you for your contact.
Kind Regards
Xxxx Xxxxxx
Customer Relations

As far as I'm aware, Volvo do not have any infant car seats! I'm now at the end of my tethers trying to find a decent suitable infant car seat within the next month or so before I have to join my wife. The models I've kinda short-listed so far are:

1. Maxi-Cosi Citi
2. Maxi-Cosi Cabrio
3. Mamas & Papas Primo Viaggio (with base)
4. Graco Autobaby (with base)

Can anyone here possibly help point me in the right direction or give any other suggestions? Any Volvo 940/960 owners around? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Szen & Lucia

[Joolsplus2]

There are probably a few differences between seats and how they install between the US and EU/UK...but if the Graco and Primo Viaggio are about the same, i think you'd be quite happy with them (those are two of the top favorites here...and the base can be an extremely handy feature, since you get a good tight installation of the base, then can simply pop the seat in and out of it. Is there a baby goods store near you that will let you try seats in your car? If not, make sure you get a good return policy just in case it doesn't work in your car. you might want to try www.dooyoo.com to see if any of your chosen seats are reviewed there, or www.babycentre.co.uk (though their message board moves rather slowly and you may not get an answer in time).
Most seats DO fit in most cars, in general, especially roomy wagons tend to fit infant seats well, so fitting a seat in shouldn't be too much of a trial...and be sure to read your car manual and the car seat manual carefully...they will help you get the seat installed properly and should be quite informative.
Best of luck to you and your wife!

[SzennyBoy]

Thanks Julie for your advice.
I've made an appointment to visit a "local" baby shop (with trained car seat fitters) through our neighbouring borough's Civic Centre Child Safety Unit for a fitting session this Saturday. Hopefully we'll get a better idea of what will or will not match with our car. Fingers-crossed!

[Joolsplus2]

Oh, good...that was a great idea...they will probably be able to help you out a lot!
Best of luck to you,

[SzennyBoy]

a "rear-facing infant car seat" friendly car!!! :(

After almost one and a half hours of trying various seat models in all positions at the shop with the fitter, we finally came to the same conclusion... There is only ONE rear-facing infant car seat that will fit in the rear seats (including the centre seat) and that is the Britax Rock-a-Tot Deluxe model. All other models ran into the same problem of being too big or rather... the Volvo 940's rear seatbelts were too short to accommodate them! Looks like that will the one we will get for our baby.

Just thought it would be useful info for everyone here.

[Joolsplus2]

Wow, that's a little surprising. The good thing is, Britax are *excellent* seats, and you will probably be very happy with it!

[SzennyBoy]

The main problem is that Volvo are notorious for having shorter than normal rear passenger seatbelts, especially in the earlier models. The current ones are more standardised but anything made before the 1995~6 period will run into this predicament... or so the carseat fitters keep telling me!

[Joolsplus2]

Oh, I see. That's a BIG difference between the US and other countries: the shoulderbelt does not need to wrap around the back of the seat in US made car seats (there is one imported seat, the Nania infant seat from France that does require it, but that's the only one)...we just route the seatbelt through the front of our seats, under where the baby's feet go. Our usual seat-fitting difficulties are limited to deeply contoured back seats and limited back-seat space.
One question I'm curious about...did the Rock a Tot cost more than the other seats you were considering?

[SzennyBoy]

>One question I'm curious about...did the Rock a Tot cost
>more than the other seats you were considering?

The Rock-a-Tot Deluxe cost slightly more than the Maxi-Cosi (approx. £65.00) but less than the other models with bases (approx. £90.00). I've not bought anything yet, need to decide on colour and patterns, but the best price I've got so far is around £75.00.

[trinamr]

Hi there,
not sure if you are still looking for responses, but I have the Volvo S60 and also had problems finding an appropriate car seat. I was fine with a Graco infant carrier/car seat. But once my dd needed to move into a larger seat, major problems. The only convertible seat that fit rearfacing was the Britax RA. While it's a spendy seat, I have found it to be GREAT. I have traveled with it - easy to install on an airplane seat, and quick and easy to install into every rental car we have had (large and small). So I highly recommend the RA once you baby grows out of the infant seat. Trust me, you'll save yourself a LOT of headache by just getting the RA to start with. I went through the purchase and return of 3 seats before ending with the RA.
Good luck.