Hi All,

Just joined this forum - wondering if any of you parents with late-90's A4's can recommend a baby car seat. We have a 1997 A4. Our son is 7 months now (20+ lbs) and he just out grew his Peg Perego infant car seat (with a separate base) so I'm looking for a seat that can go rear-facing until he's a year old and then forward facing. The seat needs to go in the middle of the back bench. The Audi does not have the LATCH system.

I just got a Britax Marathon seat for my Mazda and it works great. I tried installing it in the Audi, and it barely fit, but it wasn't tight. [>:] We tried putting a folded towel under the baby seat but it still seemed rickety. The Peg Perego fit fine because the base has a "leveling system" that lets you expand the height of the base using a screw ****. The car seats for bigger kids don't have bases and no leveling systems as far as I can tell.

What seats can you recommend?

Thanks!

gonzo

 

the recaro baby seat us$ 450 http://www.most.com.mx/recaro_start.asp

 

yes - the recaro seat rocks! heh heh

 

Thanks Alejandro! I checked out http://www.recarochildseats.com/style/ and they have them for $279 but the only problem is that my kid is still too small for these seats. The Recaro Alrisha only goes in forward-facing.

 

Alright I did some research today. A helpful employee at Babies-R-Us said the only seat that fits well in the back of a "small sports sedan" is the Evenflo Triumph 5, because it has a relatively short base.

My wife found a really cool-looking seat called the Combi Avatar Model 8100. Much sportier looking than the Evenflo. Check it out at http://www.combi-intl.com/8100.htm

I think I'll try the Combi Avatar since it looks really well made and has a leveling indicator. The instruction manual does mention stuffing towels or pool-noodles under the baby seat to help level it.

Anyone have any experience with the Triumph or the Avatar?

TIA

 

Ahhhh, those Recardo's are great!

 

ya rock the Recardos thats wut im gonna buy someday

 

Here's a follow-up...

The Combi Avatar seat wasn't available locally to do a test install, and I didn't want to order it and then find out it doesn't fit. Besides, I think it falls between the Britax Marathon and Roundabout size-wise.

The local Babies-R-Us carried a wide selection, so we went there to test a few seats. We tried the Evenflo Triumph and it didn't fit that well. So we tried the Roundabout. It fit much better than the Marathon, but still not perfect. We decided to go with the Roundabout and ended up buying it from an online retailer to save a few bucks.

Meanwhile, I got some pool-noodles (ordered online, no stores in NH carry then in January ) and made a custom "leveler" to put in the wedge between the car seat and the baby seat. Two-pieces, cut to about 12 in length, taped together with duct tape, made the seat fit nice and snug. However, the seat still had a lot of movement if I pushed the top of the seat towards the rear windshield.

The great thing about the Roundabout's is that they come with a tether. I ended up tethering the seat (rear-facing, in the center of the back, btw) to the back rail of the passenger seat and it made a huge difference. The seat doesn't move now.

Hope this helps someone. If you're planning on getting an A4 and stuffing baby seats in the back, you might want to consider an A6 or something with more room! Otherwise, try the Roundabout and use some pool-noodles and the tether.

 

sounds good, man. Thanks for the update. Can't have babies flopping about in our cars now can we?

 

I'm going through attempting to install a rear facing Britax today in my 2000 A6. I couldn't find a good place to anchor the tether when installing rear facing. Any suggetions would be greatly appreciated.


Gonzo,
Did you hook the teather to the rail, or the seat? I couldn't find a way to hook to the rail, so I ended up hooking the tether to the seat. So of course when the seat moves, the tether moves. Not the optimal install!

Thanks.