[bimmer-A]

Anyone had experience with the BMW baby seat - is it comparable quality etc to other top tier products, easy to fit etc....

just planning ahead

[Sephanite]

i looked recently and there seems to be a couple of models. Interested at first but the dealer had nothing for me to look at

[AMJAM]

None of them are Australian standards approved from what I understand but they are all European safety standard approved which is a far harder standard to pass

[SimonB]

I thought I saw something on the news recently about ISOFix (it's something like that, isn't it?) being approved in Oz now, or soon?

[ausrallydoc]

Originally Posted by SimonB

I thought I saw something on the news recently about ISOFix (it's something like that, isn't it?) being approved in Oz now, or soon?

You are correct Simon. There was legislation passed in June this year to allow ISOFIX seats to be sold in Australia. However, that does not mean that current ISOFIX seats sold overseas are legal in Australia. We have an additional requirement of a top tether strap which is unique to Australia (and somehow makes our seats so much safer…..).

Given that my baby (335i) arrived three days before my baby (son), I have an interest in the safest possible baby seats. The manufacturers of seats sold in Australia are currently estimating the first ISOFIX models will be available sometime in mid-2014. The seats sold in Aus will all be "soft ISOFIX" - apparently this means they will utilise the mounting points at the base of the seat-back, but not the floor mounts seen elsewhere.

Aa I see it, the main advantage of ISOFIX seats is the ease of fitting a baby seat, and easily swapping seats between cars. There is research which shows that up to 70% of current seats are incorrectly fitted which can severely compromise their safety.

Whilst it is currently illegal, a number of Aussies use European seats here, partly due to the ease of ISOFIX, and partly because a number of the Euro seats are designed so that the passenger can remain rear-facing for much longer (it is standard in Sweden for children to remain rear-facing until age 4). There is convincing research showing that rear-facing is MUCH safer for small children, particularly in a frontal collision. There is at least one website in Sweden that will ship seats anywhere in the world.

Matt

[ilovewagons]

We've used an ISOFIX capsule and booster seat for the last 3 years. They're from overseas with the support leg so proper ISOFIX. They're really easy to order and I couldn't care less if I got fined because I couldn't wait for our standards to catch up to the rest of the world. We've produced cars for export with ISOFIX points for several years FFS.

The benefits, in addition to being significantly easier to fit correctly (I've clipped ours in and out in the dark before) the seat resists torsional forces in a crash (it slips and twists much less in all impacts). This is much safer as the occupant is much less likely to hit a hard part of the car.

From what I can see, the BMW seats are at least the same quality as Recaro or Maxi Cosi seats, which are really good and easy to fit. I don't see why the BMW ones would be any different.

[minijet]

Originally Posted by ausrallydoc

We have an additional requirement of a top tether strap which is unique to Australia (and somehow makes our seats so much safer…..).

I have used a maxi cosi with the isofix base the cabriofix and its great,
and now I have Recaro Young Sport which has both the bottom isofix as well as the top tether.