Has anyone besides us tried to transport a baby in a rear facing infant carrier in their MINI?
Our experience: Installed base using child seat anchors in the backseat. Installed baby in basinet type carrier. Discovered basinet is too big and too awkward to place on base with child installed. Removed baby and installed basinet. Space quite limited between the completed child seat and the roof so baby had to be placed into the seat while being held almost completely horizontal. Due to very little room left in the backseat wife had to open the hatch door and reach in over the backs of the back seats to affix all the proper straps to their locking mechanisms. Uninstalling baby (reverse directions) was equally difficult.
My question is: are child seat anchors required by the government or did MINI put these in expecting children to be transported in these cars?
On second thought I guess it would be considerably easier to place a child in a front facing car seat or even a booster seat therefore making it practical to use them.
I haven't had any experience with car seats in Minis, except booster seats, but there is a Parents & Children forum on MINI2 here: http://www.mini2.com/forum/minis-children-parents/
A lot of the info there is from the UK, so the seats mentioned might not be US seats, but you might find some useful info. I remember reading that it can be a challenge to get the seat fitted right for the rear-facing seats.
Once your child is into a regular car seat, you will have absolutely no problem at all with them. My 6 and 3 year old granddaughters love riding in the mini, and installing their carseats is a breeze! They call it the "Soopa Doopa Mini Coopa". So better times are ahead for sure! Hang in there! I think they very much like that they can actually see out of the Mini side windows. They love when "Grampy" opens the roof, too. Cogman
