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View Full Version : Lots of Questions...please help!!



TylersMommy
11-08-2005, 04:28 AM
Here's my situation...I live in Germany, but will be buying a US Britax in the next few weeks on my visit to the States. No need to go into the legality of the whole thing. I've talked to so many people here, even policemen, who can never give me a straight answer to anything. I can only find one convertible seat in my area that will probably only last to around 14 mo. maybe. The other conv. seat I've heard about is not in my area anywhere, and believe me, I've researched this stuff to death. People turn their babies FF as soon as they outgrow the infant seat around 9 months. The policeman actually told us that kids like to be able to look around (that was his advantage point to turning them FF!!). So, I would rather break a law and have ds RF as long as possible, than to be unsafe.

So after reading through this board and looking at different seats online, it looks like the Decathlon or the Boulevard are the best bets. DS is 5 mo. old, 18# & 28.5". I think he will be pretty tall since dh is 6'2".

I have checked out the compatability website but cant find anything for our specific cars. Any help here would be great! CARS: 98 Mercedes M Class & 98 Volvo S80. The Mercedes has a lap belt in the center seat, like a plane seat belt. Can I install it there? The manual says nothing about it. The Volvo has very short seat belts. (It wont wrap all the way around an infant seat without a base.) We currently have a Graco Snugride with bases in the outboard positions.

Sorry for writing a novel here, just wanted to explain my situation first. I feel like I'm going into this blind since we cant test the seats in our cars first. Any help or advice would be great!!

Christie

Tyler 05/27/2005

Joolsplus2
11-08-2005, 07:52 AM
At least he didn't tell you to use a booster at nine months...so many there are certified in that weight/age range...ugh!

You should have zero problems installing any big Britax in your cars...the belt paths are very short (nothing like EU infant seats at all), and they are roomy cars, and a manual lapbelt (the Mercedes) is perfect for installing carseats, 99.9% of the time :)

If you're going to all the trouble and expense of importing seats, I'd just go with the Boulevard. Some people have issues with the Decathlon adjuster being very stiff, and I don't want you to get it and be frustrated and stuck (literally) with it. I'd even actually seriously consider the other EU Britaxes http://www.britax.se/meny1Frame-1.html (that's supposed to be sweden, they have great seats, but the link is unlikely to work properly).

:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx