[Stinger]

Not a great idea for an everyday driver or hitting the open highway. I would only suggest this with the top up when they are young and go top down when the car seat can face forward, but only in slower driving (eg around town.)

Anyway, I thought other dads would like to see how this worked out. I am 6' tall and fit comfortably in the driver's seat with the car seat installed behind me. I only moved the seat up ~1" due to the car seat and this is one of those monster Britax baby seats. So, not too bad.

Funny thing for me is that I have identical twins so just picture two car seats back there. Crazy...I know...

[canucklion]

wow, that's a tight fit, how about putting it behind the front passenger seat?

[nusevad]

I hope my future wife would let me drive around our kid like that~

Stay safe.

[Buschy]

hope you dont really drive around like that. that seat is not positioned correctly for a rear facing infant to be in. get your priorites straight and get a new car that fits the family. there is a 335 sedan.

[halB]

I've tried to put a forward facing 5-point harness child seat in the back seat but there is no anchor for the tether strap! The pass thru under the head restrain is blocked by the pop-up roll bar. So my younger daughter cannot ride in the convertible until she is big enough to be on booster. Well, the 530Xi has to make do for now! Besides, we have a mini van too (my wife's company car).

BTW, you can put two of these booster seats in the convertible's trunk when you are not using them:

http://www.magnaclek.com/canada/english/oto.aspx

P.S. I put one of those boosters on and drove my 4.5 years old daughter with the top down two weekends ago. It lasted all 3 minutes before "Daddy, can you put the top up?" came from the back seat. 3 minutes later it was "Daddy, can you close the windows?"!! LOL!!

[KEVIN88GT]

Just curious.... why its not positioned correctly for a rear facing infant?

[BK]

Wow, that is tight. Is it that tight in the E92, too?

+1 on putting it behind the passenger seat instead. That way, you can move the passenger seat as far forward as possible so you have lots of room for the infant seat.

Also, FWIW, even in the E90, there is not a ton of room for rear-facing child seats or large front-facing seats. Thank God for the minivan.

[BK]

Originally Posted by KEVIN88GT

Just curious.... why its not positioned correctly for a rear facing infant?

I can't answer for buschy, but I'm guessing it should be tilted back a bit more. It looks like it's a bit too upright. The seats usually have a "bubble level" type thing in them to say whether they are tilted correctly.

But I don't know, maybe buschy has keyed into something else that I'm missing.

[ward]

Originally Posted by buschy

hope you dont really drive around like that. that seat is not positioned correctly for a rear facing infant to be in. get your priorites straight and get a new car that fits the family. there is a 335 sedan.

does the sedan have more room? I thought the coupe was longer by a good amount

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by BK

I can't answer for buschy, but I'm guessing it should be tilted back a bit more. It looks like it's a bit too upright. The seats usually have a "bubble level" type thing in them to say whether they are tilted correctly.

You are correct there is a level. It is level and installed correctly. Btw, it is just about as tight in my wife's Lexus RX300. And my guess is just as tight as the E90 sedan too.

Also, the passenger vs. driver's seat thing doesn't make a difference for me. I have twin 16 month old boys. But like I stated. I wouldn't drive them top down in this. I just took the pictures to show how the fit is.

[MikeCCrutchfield]

Originally Posted by Stinger

You are correct there is a level. It is level and installed correctly. Btw, it is just about as tight in my wife's Lexus RX300. And my guess is just as tight as the E90 sedan too.

Also, the passenger vs. driver's seat thing doesn't make a difference for me. I have twin 16 month old boys. But like I stated. I wouldn't drive them top down in this. I just took the pictures to show how the fit is.

Top down, insert children, top up, drive, top down, remove children, top up
Easy Access.

[stefman]

Originally Posted by Mr Crutch 325i

Top down, insert children, top up, drive, top down, remove children, top up
Easy Access.

[Johnny Lin]

That looks really tight. I got a seden and my wife has a TSX, so I guess I dont have to worry about it for now.

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by Mr Crutch 325i

Top down, insert children, top up, drive, top down, remove children, top up
Easy Access.

That's why I went with the convertible over the coupe.

[Cabby]

We sold our 330 convertible right before our son was born, it's just not safe. I agree with the others who say that looks waaaay too upright for a rear facing seat. While our son was rear facing, all we have is the base, and the carrier snaps in. For the front facing, it looks similar to that setup, but is front facing as he can sit upright no problems, is more than 20lbs, and is over 1 year old.

Unless you have a Hummer or *shudder* minivan, all rear facing setups leave very little room for the person in front of them. We bought a Range Rover and with the rear facing carrier in, the person in the passenger seat has to move way up. And ours lays much more flat then what you have there.

If that's a 3-in-1, or whatever they call it, I wouldnt use it until your child can sit front facing. That doesnt look safe at all to me.


BTW - It's against the law to ride with the top down with a rear facing car seat, but I assume you are only using it with the top up. Either way, it's a bad idea.

[techlogik]

Yes, go to your local police department, they are supposed to know how a car seat should be properly inserted. Most provide this service free. I think they will scoff at this idea.

Get yourself a Honda Pilot or something...no problems then. That is just not safe knowing what we know today compared to 20+ years ago.

[2e9x's]

Originally Posted by Stinger

I have twin 16 month old boys.

I realize that they are twins so they might be a bit smaller than average (maybe), but shouldn't they be forward facing?

[KEVIN88GT]

White read here...it's not really based on age but rather on weight..

http://www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm

[Cabby]

Originally Posted by KEVIN88GT

White read here...it's not really based on age but rather on weight..

http://www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm

Even twins would be 20 lbs at 16 months I would think Our son has been front facing since 10 months because he's just a big boy :rocks:

[Buschy]

the seats look to upright, that is what I was basing my commmnet on. but maybe its the camera angle.
I still stand by my comment about hoping this was a joke.

[Banyan]

I've got a front-facing car-seat installed in the back of my 335i E93. I wouldn't have installed the car-seat if my boy was only old enough rear-facing; just doesn't look right.

My experience with the front-facing car-seat (for the two weeks I've had the car):

1. The biggest issue is the height of the car-seat. The top of the car-seat hits the rear headrest. But because the rear headrests in the e93 are not adjustable (presumably for safety reasons), the car-seats digs into the leather of the headrest pretty deep, and the whole set-up probably angles the car-seat a little further forward then it would otherwise rest. The installation is still doable, although I am probably doing permanent damage to my headrest. I've considered getting a shorter car-seat, but I am not sure there is one short enough to solve the problem.

2. At my boy's current age (year and a half), leg-room is not an issue. He seems to have plenty. That being said, by far the most logical place to install the car-seat is on the passenger side, where you can move the seat all the way forward when not carrying a third person.

3. I thought I would retract the hard-top each time I loaded and unloaded my boy. In fact, I only really needed to retract the hard-top to install the car-seat. It's pretty easy to get the kid into and out of the car-seat even with the top down.

4. I wouldn't take my boy out on the highway with the top down, but short jaunts around the neighborhood don't scare me.

[bronco]

do you have manual or automoatic? If you have manual you may be able to get your seat close to the pedals and free up some more space in the back. But again, it is very tight, and that seat doesnt seem to be installed properly.

Good luck