Fitting a Baby Car Seat
'my sports car has bucket seats'

Bucket Seats are the most common fitting issue for a baby car seat.

Many sports coupes have seats which have a deep centre recess forming a bucket seat.

These can present a major problem, as most child seats have flat bases and consequently will not fit neatly or securely into a bucket seat.

Experimentation is important. However, our best suggestion is to get some hints from your car owners club - you're not likely to be the first to have faced the ultimatum of ‘get the child seat in safely or sell the car!’

Many manufacturers of cars produce their own range of baby seats, Porsche for example have created a number of seats for their cars.

The Porsche Prince for example has a special seat belt attachment which disables the front airbag in the 911.

The Britax Elite is an excellent place to start for an infant in your average sports coupe. It is small and narrow at the base and fits very neatly in the back seats where very few others do.

The best trick is to take your sports car to the baby car seat store. Look for seats with a narrow base (they sit more securely in a bucket seat) and try them one by one in the carpark with a shop attendant – that’s what we did.

For older children, in our experience, the Maxi Cosi Tobi, Priori and Britax Evolva are good choices as the have bases that fit well into bucket seats.

Understand the UK rules and exceptions for driving with children and the appropriate child restraints, including the types of car seat groups explained.

Two great features available for checking which Baby carseat is best for your sports car (or standard family car!) -

• Britax Fit-FInder
• Maxi-cosi Car Fitting List