stu

Our 6 month old, Ben, has just about outgrown his first child seat ( Pliko) and I'm considering buying a BMW ISOFIX child seat for use in the rear ( hopefully this will cover the age range 6 months to 4 years?)
So ;
(i) Is ISOFIX worth bothering with? Or shall I buy a different seat that uses the belts for restraint?
(ii) Is the BMW offering any good?
(iii) Any other considerations? - Or does anyone have one that their youngster has outgrown?

I know this forum has been an absolute gold mine of accurate info - and this is perhaps a "dull" subject - <_< But thanks for your help guys!!

kigerka

You know that BMW means quality but it also means a hefty price.
We bought our daughter a Graco shild seat which is working out great for us.
There seats seam to be really good and it was pretty cool how the seat matched the interior. If you check out my site you can see the seat but I know that seat is a little big for your 6 month old

Aaron

kigerka...nice website and family.

Stu,

I too have a 6-month old and kigerka may be right, I think it may be too soon to switch, but it depends on the size of your 6-month old and I am sure you taking due care in that department, so I will leave that alone.

As for your ISOFIX question, I am actually working on an ISOFIX switch right now that will detect improper fastening to the ISOFIX latches, so this topic interests me. I do like the idea of the latch in the seat holding thet seat instead of the seat belt and the base and all of that hassle. There are plenty of seats out there that will work with ISOFIX, and you don't have to get BMWs seats if you don't like. ISOFIX is an industry standard, not specific to BMW. I think ISOFIX (no detection) is nice and clean and integrates into the car very well. The seat belt works and has always worked, but the ISOFIX feature is nice.

I don't know what BMW is offering, but shop around for other ISOFIX seats and see what the premium is.

I often strap in our daughter and wonder if it is secure enough (with the non locking seatbelts, you never really know until an accident), but the ISOFIX feature definitely adds a secure feeling to the car seat. Plus, it seems like kids are in the front facing car seat FOREVER, so it is a good investment.

Good luck with your decision.

browellm

Stu

I had a look at this myself, but was put off by the high cost (around ?300) and the fact that our daughter's age was somewhere in-between the different BMW seat age ranges at the time.

My understanding is that ISOFIX is no safer than a CORRECTLY fitted standard child seat, but it obviously eliminates the possibility of fitting the seat incorrectly.

Whatever you decide mate, happy driving and look after the little angels!

Doctor Diesel

I just bought 2 isofix bmw seats, they were not as expensive as you might imagine (ask for a discount...parts margin is 20% plus vat) and they are simply superb....well worth the cash in my opinion.

I only wish they made an isofix booster cusion on its own for the older kids as I use boosters even for my oldest (9) lad.


The design and build of the bmw seat is exemplary and combined with the impact cushion, it just "does what it says on the box" simple, quick, stylish and very convenient.


DD

eggz

Hi Stu,

I was also looking for ISOFIX child seats a couple of weeks ago.

In Singapore, the BMW ISOFIX seats are almost 300pounds sterling!

I found that there are quite a number of seats that useISOFIX. In the UK, Britax has one called ISO DUO 2 or something like that. This seat has been crash tested on many cars of different makes and surprisingly is only not approved for BMWs . I think it's got something to do with the fact that BMW produces their own ISOFIX seat. Check out the Britax website. I've read good things about this seat

Personally I feel ISOFIX is worth it. In the end I got one from the US by COSCO called the Deluxe Elite, which was affordable and had pretty good features. Compared to regular seatbelt attached seats, ISOFIX seats attach must more firmly and securely.

One thing, in the US, the ISOFIX attachment is called latch attachment or something, but it's basically the same thing. A new standard has been introduced that has an additional top tether attachement. Unfortunately, the E60's ISOFIX setup only has the lower two hooks (seat) and not the third one for the top tether. This one should be in that area under the rear windscreen.


eggz

Doctor Diesel

Top tether points are there I think, certainly on mine there are threaded holes to take the top attatchments but not needed in UK and also would require making a hole in the rear parcel shelf....

DD

rodybmw

Stu,

I don't know which BMW ISOFIX car seat you are thinking about, but there is the "ISOFIX Baby Seat 0+" (0 to 18 months), and the "ISOFIX Junior Seat I-II" (9 months to 7 years).

I purchased a Junior I-II exactly a year ago from BMW Niederlassung in Munich for my wife's X5. At first they did not want to sell it to me because I live in the US and the BMW parts CD said that this seat was not "certified" for use in the US. But they decided that I could buy it at my own risk.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Here's a picture of the BMW ISOFIX Junior Seat I-II </span>



There are many nice things about this seat: ISOFIX attachment..........ease of securing the child with only one built in seat belt accross the front cushion.......... being able to discard the cushion and use the car's shoulder belt after 3.5 years of age (until 7 years)..........the height of the backrest easily adjusts to accomodate for the wide range of age..........great looking design (looks good in a BMW).

Unfortunately there are some shortcomings as well:

1. BMW says that the age range is 9 months to 3.5 years with the cushion, and 3.5 to 7 years with the cushion removed. However, my son was miserable in it until he turned 2 years old. My son has always been tall for his age (90 percentile), however, the height of the securing cushion/table was too high for him and held his arms straight out at the height of his shoulders. We had to go back and use his old seat until his 2nd birthday, when he was tall enough that he felt comfortable in the seat.

2. His previous car seat had a wide range of recline angle adjustment which was very easy and quick to adjust by grabing a handle in the front of the seat, releasing the latch and pulling or pushing to get the desires angle. This could easily be done from the front seats in case he fell asleep while in the car. While the recline angle was not too much (for safety reasons), it was enough for his neck to be in a comfortable sleeping position. The BMW seat, however, only has two settings, both of which are pretty vertical......and it can only be adjusted by pushing two buttons on both sides of the seat and then moving the backrest. We always leave it in the so called "reclined" position which is really just an almost upright sitting postion. Whenever he falls asleep he can't rest his head back, so he just falls forward over the cushion, a very bad and uncomfortable position.

So in summary, even if the lack of a useable backrest recline is not a concern for you, I would still not recommend this seat for a 6, 9, or even 18 month old, because the height of the front cushion/table is too much. The ISOFIX Baby seat will be the one to go with, but you can only use it until 18 months.

I don't know where you live, but if you are in Germany (or Europe) you have many good choices in car seats, both ISOFIX and belt attachable. I mentioned above that when the BMW seat did not work for my son at first, we went back to using his previous seat. Well this seat (which I also purchased from Germany a few years ago and brought it back to the US with me) is made by R?MER. It's called the "R?MER KING quickfix". The "quickfix" system is a brilliant system for tensioning the car's seatbelt and clamping it, so even if the seat belt does not lock, the car seat is still firmly in place. If you have to go with a non ISOFIX system I would definatly recommend this. It can be purchased at the "Baby Walz" stores in Germany (as well as other stores), but you have to make sure that you get the one with the "quickfix", because the same seat is also made without the "quickfix). You can use this seat from about 8 months on.

Click here to see pictures of how the "quickfix" works


<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Here is the picture of the R?MER KING quickfix </span> (note the handle in the front for the recline adjustment)



rodybmw

rodybmw

One more thing......when installing seat belt attachable car seats in BMW's (and some other cars) you should make sure that after the seat is attached with the belt, you should pull the belt all the way out and then let it retract back. Make sure you hear a clicking or ratcheting noise when it is retracting. What this does is it locks the seat belt so that it will not pull out anymore (unless it is unbuckled and retracted all the way first). This adds a level of safety so that the car seat is locked in all the time and you don't have to depend on the force of an accident or heavy braking to lock the seatbelt. Unfortunaltely some cars still don't have this feature on their seat belts.

I know this thread was about ISOFIX mounted car seats, but I thought I would mention this about seat belts anyways.

rodybmw

Flowerfred

I looked at the BMW ISOFIX seats and didn't buy one for two reasons:

1 They are very expensive

2 The seat centre was WHITE ?! Am I the only one with a messy kid?