Child Car Seat for Ford Puma

AlanD

Anyone know of a child seat that will securely fit the back seat of a Ford Puma?

I've tried a couple, but because of the bucket type seats and the large depression where your ass sits, we can't seem to find a seat that fits securely enough.

matt cork

hi alan

had a very similar problem with my old 2dr bmw, the back seat wouldnt accomodate a child seat (as opposed to a baby seat)

i tried many different options and couldnt get one to fit right, so i had to change the car in the end

hope you have a different outcome

AlanD

yes, the other option is to change the car. Our Son is just about outgrown his baby seat so we have to upgrade his seating arrangements. We have a nice bebe confort seat for our main car, but the Puma is used to drop him to the creche each morning.

We just got a call from Ford Ireland who said that Britax is the brand of seats they have signed off on for all Ford cars, not just the Puma. I'd be surprised if any of the seats actually fit the Puma though. It sounds more like a convenient marketing agreement than anything else since Britax is what Ford dealers are selling themselves.

Their marketing agreement won't save my son's life if the seat fails to do it's job if we have an accident. I'll fit a few and see anyway.

matt cork

know how you feel.

my understanding is britax have an agreement with most manufacturers albeit some are actually rebranded as 'bmw, audi' etc... but like you say there are some models that they can't accomodate.

thing is i can understand why they wouldn't produce a one off model just to accomodate a particular 'lower selling' model which wasn't initially designed and produced with kids in mind.

our other problem is that my girlfirends son now, under these new EU laws, has to use a booster seat and they are even more impossible to fit.

i eventually decided to change the car and got a 4dr subaru, which is very accommodating if im honest.

good luck with your continued searching!!!

PaddyFagan

Not sure it will fit in the Puma, but we had a similar problem finding a seat to fit in my wife's Mini - end the end a google showed up some discussion on a Mini forum (forget which one) which pointed us at the Mama's and Papa's Pro-Tec range (http://www.mamasandpapas.co.uk/ ), fits perfectly. I think Smyths (http://www.toys.ie/) sell a selection of their product's if there isn't a M&P near you.

Paddy

prospect

Hi,

I have been in the market for baby/child seats recently.

I ended up with a britax for a few reasons.

1. It is a very highly rated seat in terms of safety & ease of use.
2. It fitted both our cars perfectly.
3. It was reasonably priced.

See here:
http://tinyurl.com/y2ggzj

p

colm_mcm

but the OP needs a seat that will specifically fit in a Puma

AlanD

yes, I need a seat that will safely fit the Puma. I'll test out Ford's recommended seats, Britax, tomorrow in Halford's and if none of them fit securely, which I doubt they will, it will be off to a new home for the Puma. Which is a pity, cos it's a super car to drive. No wonder men in the middle ages go back and buy sports cars! They have to get rid of them all when the kids arrive on the scene. cuh!

loyatemu

ring Britax? They have an information line
http://www.britax.co.uk/Contact.jsp

btw - I've always pronounced their name Brit-ax, but when I rang them they were pronouncing it Bright-ax which is just weird.

prospect

Also, try Tony Keelys near Walkinstown. They have a good rep for being a independent supplier.

sneakyST

Hi AlanD- Have you looked at the Recaro child seats. I have rear Recaro bucket seats in my Focus and I believe these are the only ones that fit well. Dont have a sprog myself but other lads in the car club have and thats what they recommend

AlanD

loyatemu wrote:

ring Britax? They have an information line
http://www.britax.co.uk/Contact.jsp

btw - I've always pronounced their name Brit-ax, but when I rang them they were pronouncing it Bright-ax which is just weird.

that's funny....I'd call it Brit-ax too.

Good suggestion though. I saw they had a fit finder on their website too, so they gave recommendations for the Puma. I'll search them out and see if any of them really fit. I'm skeptical though, cos I reckon they'd find a seat to fit every car purely cos they'd lose sales if they didn't.

AlanD

sneakyST wrote:

Hi AlanD- Have you looked at the Recaro child seats. I have rear Recaro bucket seats in my Focus and I believe these are the only ones that fit well. Dont have a sprog myself but other lads in the car club have and thats what they recommend

good point, I'll check them out.

Dilbert75

Try the Britax fit-finder - enter the childs age / weight and the car type and it'll recommend you a seat. http://www.britax.co.uk/FitFinder/GB/CarSelection.php

Swainy

Hi Hi AlanD, did you ever have any luck finding a car seat for a Puma? I need one

AlanD

Swainy wrote: »

Hi Hi AlanD, did you ever have any luck finding a car seat for a Puma? I need one

I'm afraid I didn't. In the end we had to buy a new car.

Well, to be more precise, what happened was we found a seat that fitted. It was a maxi cosi seat with a nice adjustable angled base (Halfords have them) that would fit the base of the back seat after a lot of adjustment, but the problem in the end turned out to be the car itself. The car on which a Puma is based is old and so it uses old seat belt technology. In other words the seat belt would travel a number of inches before it would lock if you pulled it hard. Meaning in a crash, the baby's seat would come forward out of it's position before the belt locked. We didn't want to take the chance so we bought a new car....well a second hand car where the seat belts worked better.

Got a nice '02 Skoda Octavia 1.8T Auto 150bhp in the end. she's quick

Swainy

Not exactly the answer I was hoping for - only had the car a week

Thanks for replying anyway!

AlanD

Swainy wrote: »

Not exactly the answer I was hoping for - only had the car a week

Thanks for replying anyway!

i know sorry. I mean make your own call on it. Check how quickly the rear seat belts lock up. My car could have had a problem.

Remember, the car seat should be well tied in.

Swainy

Well I drove around to a few different shops today and tried a few different seats, but none seemed to sit straight. Looking on the net, the only one recomended is an Britax Eclipse SI. I'll have to find somewhere that stocks them and test it first.

AlanD

I tried every seat I could find and the only one that sat nicely in to the bucket in the back was a maxi cosi one.

Beware of the britax recommendation. This is a marketing deal Ford have with Britax and they will recommend only Britax. The thing is, Britax seats fitted the worst in my experience. They are fine for every other Ford on the market today, but they just don't fit the Puma. I called Ford Ireland about it and Britax was their only answer. Pity.

Swainy

Mmmm, crafty marketing eh? Not good!

AlanD

Swainy wrote: »

Mmmm, crafty marketing eh? Not good!

I agree, not good, but understandable from a business point of view.

Thing is, Ford won't be responsible if you crash and your child gets severely injured because the seat didn't fit properly, Ford recommended or not.

Swainy

True enough. Oh this has really left me in lumber, I've recently split from my partner and it's a 30 mile treck. I should have picked a different car

AlanD

sorry to hear that.

One thing you could do is replace the seat belts with modern ones. The new ones should lock in an instant, then go find that maxi cosi seat or someone other one you manage to find that fits. I must have gone through about 15 seats before settling on a 9,000 euro Skoda car seat. Dear but it worked

We loved the puma....in fact we still do. It's sitting outside and gets a spin every now and then.

charlottefall

The Maxi Cosi Tobi fits -- we have it in back of our Puma. Halfords fitted it for free and price-matched it to Mothercare's cheaper price.