My JCW09 has a new copilot. Help needed with leather plus baby seat.

[fdavid]

Hello everyone:
Well I got a fresh new born baby boy (14 days old) and I need to fit my new baby seat inside the ride. We barely drive (about 100 miles a month) but I need to fit this seat in there for the occasional situation we might need to use the car. My interior is leather and would like to minimize the wear as much as possible so my question is if I can put a towel underneath the seat or something else to minimize contact, yet been snug enough that I am not creating a hazardous situation for Pau Tomas?
Your help is very much appreciated.
David
Oh yes here's the little guy, and yes we are reaaaally tired.

[fdavid]

Come on guys. No help here? I am sure that at least 35% of you guys have kid (s) and leather seats.
Thanks and sorry for the self inflicted "bump" on the thread.
David

[rjb]

Well unfortunately I can't help you as I have cloth seats and a ten year old. I wouldn't think a towel would cause any problems, but I would recommend running by you local EMT/fire department after you install the seat, they will usually check out the fitment for free, which is a good peace of mind.

[fdavid]

Are you serious? Please don't make a fool of myself. You know that my local fire station is were the movie "Ghostbusters" and sad to say but quite a few of 9/11 firefighters lived/worked. So if I go there, I better know what I am talking/inquiring about!!

BTW: thanks for the reply,
David

Originally Posted by rjb

Well unfortunately I can't help you as I have cloth seats and a ten year old. I wouldn't think a towel would cause any problems, but I would recommend running by you local EMT/fire department after you install the seat, they will usually check out the fitment for free, which is a good peace of mind.

[ricbow]

david should be fine, seat materal does not hold car seat in place. seat belts & straps do that, towels will help contain baby shrapnel

[fdavid]

Ha! Good one. Well...not that funny but hey I guess that's the truth. but in regards to trying to avoid wearing out the leather. What do you guys think?

Originally Posted by ricbow

david should be fine, seat materal does not hold car seat in place. seat belts & straps do that, towels will help contain baby shrapnel

[spyderbret]

In the interest of trying to help out I will give my .02....

My kids are grown so this is just a theory but it makes sense to me. I think the biggest cause of wear would be the rubbing against the leather. Try picking up a yoga mat at your local sporting goods store. They are cheap and if you put it between the chair and leather it should be a good barrier. Not too thick to cause the seat to be unsecure and should not slide around and cause wear on the leather.

Just a thought......

[Atomic S]

If you are not using it that much just every so often, you won't hurt the leather but.... like ricbow said put something down for the fall out is going to be more of a issue than the wear & tear of a not used a whole lot seat being straped in. (I have 4 kids ...well I only have 1 left at home now and she's 14) and a towel works great get a big towel they can throw things a long ways

Good looking kid

[Minitauro]

Towel is fine, but there is a better alternative to protect your seat:


I use the ones from Sunshine Kids in the grocery getter (the mini has cloth) and they work great. Enter "seat protectors" in Amazon and a whole list comes up:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...ix=seat+protec

[fdavid]

Now we are talking! Good call. I like this alternative.
Thanks, short and sweet.
D

Originally Posted by spyderbret

In the interest of trying to help out I will give my .02....

My kids are grown so this is just a theory but it makes sense to me. I think the biggest cause of wear would be the rubbing against the leather. Try picking up a yoga mat at your local sporting goods store. They are cheap and if you put it between the chair and leather it should be a good barrier. Not too thick to cause the seat to be unsecure and should not slide around and cause wear on the leather.

Just a thought......

[fdavid]

Nice, wil look into this as well. Thanks.
D

Originally Posted by Minitauro

Towel is fine, but there is a better alternative to protect your seat:


I use the ones from Sunshine Kids in the grocery getter (the mini has cloth) and they work great. Enter "seat protectors" in Amazon and a whole list comes up:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...ix=seat+protec

[fdavid]

I like your experience on these matters so the towel seems like a good idea to avoid crazy spillage.
D

Originally Posted by Atomic S

If you are not using it that much just every so often, you won't hurt the leather but.... like ricbow said put something down for the fall out is going to be more of a issue than the wear & tear of a not used a whole lot seat being straped in. (I have 4 kids ...well I only have 1 left at home now and she's 14) and a towel works great get a big towel they can throw things a long ways

Good looking kid

[zanary]

There are a lot of options to choose from, and I recently went through the same situation as you (about 2 years ago).

What I ended up with (actually two of them since I had a set of twins was):
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/...egoryId=117191

Now here's the fun part, for the first year or maybe a little more, you'll need rear facing seats, which makes driving difficult since your seat has to be farther up-right than normal. It was difficult for me at first, but as soon as your kid(s) graduate to the front facing toddler seat, you're driving experience gets must better.

When both my twins moved to the toddler seat, we also move into our new 2009 Convertible JCW Stage 1 with two toddler seats from Recaro in tho back. Fits perfectly and my kids absolutely love it, top up or topless.

Plus it's a Recaro, so you can't go wrong there.

Full set of pictures can be found here: http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...59-post13.html

[bratling]

Originally Posted by zanary

When both my twins moved to the toddler seat, we also move into our new 2009 Convertible JCW Stage 1 with two toddler seats from Recaro in tho back. Fits perfectly and my kids absolutely love it, top up or topless.

Great pics! What model of Recaro child seats are those? Looks like the "Young Sport" model?

[fdavid]

Nice. Good info. But those Recaro seats look GIGANTIC!! My mini is a hardtop and I have a feeling it might not be a pretty scene getting a baby in and out. (in your case babies!). Thoughts?

[bratling]

Originally Posted by fdavid

Nice. Good info. But those Recaro seats look GIGANTIC!! My mini is a hardtop and I have a feeling it might not be a pretty scene getting a baby in and out. (in your case babies!). Thoughts?

Heya David,

I happened to be asking about Recaro child seats in my introductory post just yesterday! Check it out here, but i'll also post the key excerpt from mitemini, who owns a Recaro Signo convertible child seat:

The signo is huge FYI......I have one and its even bigger in rear facing form. A fanstastic seat though and I wouldnt buy a different seat for anything but.....its big.

It will fit but Id limit its use to after the child is forward facing its hard enough to get it in and out of the car without a child in it. Id think that using it with the child in the rear facing position is darn near impossible. Id go for a car seat that uses a base first. From experience my little boy is now 8mo. and 32in tall and 25 lbs. He just outgrew his 30/30 Peg Pergo Primo Viaggio which is a base system we loved it and it worked great, but never put it in the mini.

We have the Recaro in my RDX and its big even in there. Forward facing would make it much easier to deal with in the mini after the one year mark.

For myself, I'm thinking I'll just wait and get the Recaro Young Sport when our kid is big enough. Meanwhile, we have a hand-me-down that may fit, even if it lacks the cool factor.

Anyway, "HI!" to Mini driver with an infant ... my wife and I are expecting our first in about six weeks!

[fdavid]

Hey congratulations! To tell you the truth, I don't see myself putting my kiddo in the car very often. Not only we barely drive. ( about 100 miles a month ) we also happen to live in manhattan and so far all we have needed is a metro card and a nice sling to take him around. I bet that you might feel compelled as well to wait until you can have the seat facing fwd.

[zanary]

Originally Posted by bratling

Great pics! What model of Recaro child seats are those? Looks like the "Young Sport" model?

Yup, it's the Young Sport in their Desert color (ie, two tone color scheme).

Originally Posted by fdavid

Nice. Good info. But those Recaro seats look GIGANTIC!! My mini is a hardtop and I have a feeling it might not be a pretty scene getting a baby in and out. (in your case babies!). Thoughts?

So, you won't be able to use the Youngsport for infants (ie, for infants that need to be in a rear facing seat). We had our two twins in one of the Graco seats that had a lock-in base that connected to the LATCH system. Ofcourse we didn't have a Mini when they were in that seat, we use our Infiniti FX, so having a four door made it so much easier getting the kids in and out.

Now as soon as they were old enough, with the proper weight and proper height, they graduated to the Recaro YoungSport and in the Mini of course. The seats look deep but they aren't that much deeper than others. It only seems like that due to their large side bolsters which makes it that much more safer than the rest. As for width, they fit perfectly side by side in the Convertible (which has a narrow rear than the hardtop or the clubman), and even when I had just one, I tested out an adult sitting back there, and there was enough room as well.

I highly recommend that when your infants reach the age of graduating to a toddler seat, you look at the Recaro YoungSport. It's one of the safest ones out there, plus it's a seat that can be converted to a booster when they reach that stage, which means you don't have to purchase yet another seat. The Recaro goes until they won't need any sort of seat.

More importantly, it looks awesome in the Mini

[rjb]

Originally Posted by fdavid

Are you serious? Please don't make a fool of myself. You know that my local fire station is were the movie "Ghostbusters" and sad to say but quite a few of 9/11 firefighters lived/worked. So if I go there, I better know what I am talking/inquiring about!!

BTW: thanks for the reply,
David

Not sure about in NYC, but in Virginia they have actual public service days at the fire department, when they will check the seats. Knowing this I went to the local fire department and asked them when they we're going to have one of these "days" and they came out and checked it right there on the spot. You may want to call and check before you show up though

[fdavid]

rjb:
Thanks, Ill do that as well. The guys are usually outside enjoying the weather when its nice and obviously no calls! Thanks again,
D

[JackMac]

First, congrats on your new addition to the family

Originally Posted by zanary

There are a lot of options to choose from, and I recently went through the same situation as you (about 2 years ago).

What I ended up with (actually two of them since I had a set of twins was):
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/...egoryId=117191

We used the same product as recommended by zanary above for many years, one in each car.

In addition, when switching from rear facing to front facing, we added the seat back protector: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/...oductId=325778

[zanary]

So Mini finally released the 2009 JCW Accessories and Mini Accessories catalog, so I picked up one from my dealer, and started to flip through it.

Looks like Mini has answer a OEM answer to your question.

On page 32, item # 155 is described like this:

Protective Rear Seat Cover

On the road, as on the job, you should always cover your rear. Now you can keep it positively pristine with this zip-tastic, removable rear seat cover which also protects the base of your rear seats and your side trim panels from water, dirt and even your pooch.

The picture on the page shows a very nice fitted rear seat cover with red pipping on the side. It also shows the cover that protects your side trim panels and is also covered with red piping on the sides. The seat belt is visbile and I can only assume the bucket and the LATCH covers are also visible but the angle of the photo does show this 100%.

I have to say that it looks like a very clean setup if you ask me.

Now in the same catalog, they have a small paper insert that has all the pricing and part numbers. This seat cover is found on page 9 of the pricing insert (I also found them on REALOEM when searching for the part number). It lists the following

Item #155 - Protective Rear Seat Cover

Mini Hardtop Part Number: 52-30-0-415-606

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=52&fg=95&hl=4

Mini Clubman Part Number: 52-30-0-445-331

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=52&fg=95&hl=5

Mini Convertible Part Number: 52-30-0-445-406

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=52&fg=95&hl=1

MSRP $260.95

So it's a bit on the pricy side, but it cover both seats, and the two side panels. If you take $260 / 4 it's really $65 per section, and that's at MSRP. I'm sure if you go to Morristown, you'll get their normal 20% off, so that comes out to $52 per section.

I guess it's close to some of the other covers that were mentioned above, plus this one is a MINI designed and branded product.