I would say, try the MINI first after the kid is born and see how it goes. It seems to me your husband's argument about the "safety" of the car is just an excuse to force you to get rid of the car. Stick to your guns! (It is obvious he has an ax to grind with it.....shall we call that jealously?)

Like you said, it is only 1 kid, not twins or triplets

There is an excellent discussion forum over at www.mini2.com called "Minis, parents and children" which has very good topics that concern those of us expecting kids or with families already. Great info regarding baby car seats, tips, tricks, etc.

I disagree that selling the MINI will solve your problems. You will REGRET seling the car and then it will be too late! What makes you think your husband will let you get another MINI "years down the road"?

 

Also, I think that the one with the unsafe car here is your husband. He needs to get rid of the Nissan Sentra!

 

Is it safety or access to the back seat that concerns you?

We had a 2 door fox body mustang when our first arrived. He was a load, and we just put him in a car seat in the back seast. I can tell you the the MINI's back seat is way more accessable and roomier than our mustang.

Keep the MINI

 

My condolences on your recent accident. :(

I think a bit of both, but mostly safety of him being in the backseat.

 

Ok, guys. I have gathered my data, and I believe that I am prepared to start my argument. In EVERY study that I looked at, the MINI fares better than his Sentra.

So I hope this will be enough to convince him that our little guy (it's a boy!) will be safe in the MINI. The challenge will be me trying to get his seat in and out! But it will be worth it.

 

I have a MINI and an Outback. Outbacks are not SUV's. They are a 4WD wagon. Subaru's are great cars, by the way, and have outstanding safety ratings. Especially good in snow or slick roads with the all wheel drive. If you get one get the XT (turbo) version. 250 HP and 250 ft-lbs of torque. That wagon is a little dragster. Guaranteed faster than your MINI!

Hate to say it but it'll be pretty tough hauling that baby seat in and out of the MINI. Good luck!

 

Cool beans - and don't forget how good the Mini is for avoiding accidents in the first place. It would be cheaper to just get a second car seat then replace the car anyway if taking it in and out proves to be a big pain

 

it's funny that this post came back up. My wife is now 8 months pregnant and after spending the last 6 trying to get her to trade her car for something safer/bigger/easier, I have given up. After looking at all of the data and reading all the posts from parents, we have decided to keep the Mini. I just put in the base for the car seat and it actually fits pretty well. We are only going to use the Mini in emergencies and my wife will be driving my Audi wagon most of the time.

Keep the Mini for a while. If it doesn't work, you can always sell it later. I am now confident that it is going to work out great for us. Oh, and most importantly, my wife is VERY happy now. She loves her little car.

 

I think the time for the Sentra to go has come

Why do you have to give up your car and not him?

Hasta la Vista, Sentra!

 

My son is one month shy of being 2 years old. He's been motoring since oh I don't know, maybe 4 weeks old? There have been a number of positives and very few negatives of having grown up in the MINI.

1.) The MINI is NOT a quiet car, so his first plane trip at 4months, actually put him to sleep when the airplane engine roared.

2.) He's very comfortable sitting in the MINI, whether it's reading a book, or watching the road pass by. When we went up to AMVIV, a 4.5 hour drive, not including the 2 hours sitting in traffic trying to get out of Los Angeles, he didn't cry once to get out.

2a.) One of his first early words was Brrrroooooom, Brrrrrooooom. Then it was MEEENEEEE.

3.) Coming back from AMVIV was 7.5 hour trip fighting Sunday traffic. He did get uneasy during the final 2 hours, but turning on my portable Toshiba DVD player and playing some cartoons from TLC kept him entertained until he fell asleep.

4.) He's at the age now that when I put him in the MINI, he prefers to sit in the driver seat, pretending to be driving, and he's flipping the toggles, pulling down my radar detector, touching anything he can get his hands on.

5.) When we go for a ride, I can put him in the back seat area, he will "usually" climb into his seat ready to be strapped in. I say "usually" because if he's not in his own seat, he's climbed over the hand brake into my drivers seat!

6.) I'm in my MINI every day, and my son goes with me. It's not a part time car. Even though the wife has a Nissan Murano, we still primarily drive the MINI for it's gas mileage (her reason), for me cause it's plain fun, and I like being in a MINI when I see other MINIs on the road!

7.) Does it require some contortioning to get my son in the back seat? Yes a bit. When he was an infant, the Peg Perego Travel Base was a complete joy. When he moved up to a forward facing seat, I had to learn different ways of putting him in his seat. My preference is to push the passenger seat forward, and "plop" him into his seat--it does require some muscle if you don't want to stress your back, and I have bumped his head a few times on the interior ceiling (which is soft). A more friendly way is to enter the back seat from the drivers side door, and sit in back with the kid as you strap him in. My wife usually sits in back, so I just hand my son to her, and she straps him in.

Looking back, would I have wanted it any other way? Absolutely not.

Note, while the Nissan Murano is a much bigger car, when the child seat is placed in the center of the rear seat (so my wife can keep an eye on him when she drives), there isn't a whole lot of room sitting on either side of him. In fact, its more cramped than sitting in the back of the MINI with the child seat!

 

Forget about the safety. Think about it from the kid's point of view!
Would you rather grow up with memories of being in mommy and daddy's boring sentra? Or their awesome fun mini?
Trips are so boring to kids (are we there yet??)..the mini is the only car to ever make you NOT want to get there! Might as well entertain them as much as possible.
Do you have a sunroof? I always thought how cool it would be to ride back there as a kid, looking at the sky etc.
I could just be bitter because I had to grow up riding in a crown vic...

 

This is my little bundle of joy... Alison.

We started with the Peg Perego Infant Seat, and it was great! I could just plop the thing into it's base, and you'd hear the click. Getting it out was a bit more work (Slide front seat all the way forward, put one foot in the rear footwell, grab seat release and out it comes! It's harder for my wife, she has wrist issues.

we got an extra base for others who may have had to pick her up from daycare (mostly grandparents) and that worked out very well.

Alison has moved up to front facing, and I'm using the BMW/Mini 1-2 front facing child seat (got a friend to buy me one in Germany). This seat is excellent, and uses latch (Called ISOFIX in europe, but it's the same thing) and tether as well.



Some comments from hindsight...

Alison loves the Mini. Her first sounds were raspberries from listening to the motor while I worked the gears (we live in hills).

Now that she can see better in a front facing seat, she's more entertained by the drive. On the drive to AMVIV, we were in the car for 7.5 hours, and she barely fussed (less than 20 min total) The ride home was a bit longer, and she fussed even less.

For safety, the best feature of cars that handle are the accidents you don't get into!

Yes, the access is harder than the Acura MDX we have (that my wife drives, mostly). But the access isn't so bad that we avoid the Mini with Alison and Cheryl. The Peg Perego allows for the most front leg room of any of the seats we tried. Once they are front facing, there is no limit to leg room, at least untill Alison gets a lot longer.

Overall, the Mini is a safe car, and a responsive one to. This shouldn't be an issue on keeping or selling the car.

Also, if you aren't comfortable importing your own car seat, Simpson looks like they make a good forward facing seat that doesn't take too much space, but I couldn't even get a Britax Marathon INTO the mini. Recaro makes one as well, that is good for 20 lbs to 80+ lbs.

Also, if you want a Peg Perego Infant Seat, we have one that Alison just outgrew with 2 bases, just PM me if interested.


Matt

 

Wow.. long thread.

No kids or experience with kids but I do have experience with being rear ended.

My 04 was rear ended but a 4Runner and she took it like a champ. Yeah, it was $3000 worth of damage but it was just a banged up bumper and a couple of dents in the rear hatch, absolutely not a single even hint of intrusion into the passenger compartment. You would have to be rear ended at a pretty high rate of speed for that. I got to see the big metal bar that is inside a MINI rear bumper that pretty much looked at that 4Runner and said "hell no!".

I've seen a lot of totalled MINIs in pics over the years but I can't say I've EVER seen one where the rear passenger area was compromised at all.

And yes, our cars seem to be universally safer than all other small cars.


Besides, look at the rest of the world. So many countries are dominated by small cars, these HUGE SUVs and Minivans are way more common here than other places. People carry children in small cars all over the world and I don't know many parents who would purposely endanger their children.

 

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=303
First of all, Congrats on the baby....click on the link above....THE main reason I bought a MC is the safety package. Hope this helps...the put a MC through the same tests as a Ford F-150 and the MC came up with better grades....Good luck. Mick

 

Our daughter, Anna Grace, is not quite 3 months old. For the first two months of her life, she didn't ride in any car but Pig (our MINI). We brought her home from the hospital with Pig, and they've loved each other ever since.

Most days, I drive the MINI, and have Anna Grace with me all day. Getting her in and out of Pig is really no problem (the Chico Keyfit carseat is great ).

I actually prefer to have her in the MINI because I think that Pig is safer, it's easy to get Anna Grace in and out, and I wouldn't want my daughter to have to grow up riding in a boring car.

Here is a photo of us coming home from the hospital with our new little girl:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ze=big&cat=500

Save Dobby! He loves you, and he'll love your little boy, too!

 

Gotta put in my advice since everyone else is:

Our little boy will be 6 months old on Thursday and he is always riding in the Mini since it's the only car that we have. Life isn't that hard with a baby and a Mini.

I argued with my wife at first about getting the baby in and out but then he came along and I realized that it's not that hard. One easy way to unbuckle him and get him out is through the boot if the left seat is down. It might look wierd but it is so easy.

There is plenty of room in the car to take what you need as long as you pack right. We have been able to fit a pak & play in the car with plenty of extras plus a full diaper bags and christmas gifts. We do grocery shopping every 2 weeks and have no problem fitting Austin, all of his stuff (small stroller, diaper bag, and toy bag), and all the groceries in the car. We even did grocery shopping this Sunday with my wifes 12 year old brother ALSO in the car and still had room for all the groceries (he did have to hold the bread though.

I listend to my wife when she wanted to get this car and I am so glad that I did. Now tell your husband that it's time that he listened to you.

Just my opinion!

 

That sounds like a great tip - and it must look quite cute retrieving him via the hatch like that

 

GUESS WHAT?? The baby is here, and DOBBY STAYS!!!!!!!!

I showed my husband all the accident data. I presented my argument. He just kinda dropped it.

THEN, we had to have the baby a month early because of complications...no worries, I'm fine, and the baby is fine. Well, I had the spare car seat base, and I just installed it in my car. It's really not that much difficult to get him in and out than it is in his 4 door sedan! I'mquite impressed.

AND, the icing on the cake...the base wasn't in the MINI until about a week after baby was born. So husband was driving the MINI to work (45 mile trip each way). I didn't want Dobby to keep taking on that abuse, so I installed the car seat base. Well, that following Monday, he said, "Where's the keys to the MINI?" I said, "In my purse, but why? You can take your car to work now. I have the other car seat installed in the MINI if I need to go somewhere." He was VERY VERY sad.

But, I'm so happy to say that DOBBY STAYS and yes, a regular GRACO car seat will fit - just don't plan to have anyone sitting in front seat......

 

Awesome! Glad the MINI stays. I have the same set-up as you, and I agree, no one can comfortably ride in the front seat with the rear facing car seat. But who cares? That's why the wife has a Matrix! I'm glad your husband came around. I have no issue putting my daughter in my MINI!

 

the hardest time is right before the baby switches to forward facing.... But it's still easy....

Good decisions and good luck with the new Baby! My girls first sounds were of a motor from driving around in the Mini.

Matt

 

Congrats on your birth. Sorry to hear that there was complications. I am pleased that you get to keep your MINI.

So how long will it take to convince hubby that you need to be a two MINI family?

 

First thing, CONGRATS on the baby and I'm happy to see both of you are home safe.

Second, I hate to admit it but like I said a few months ago it was just time for your husband to listen up just like I did to my wife. Glad to see that the MINI stayed in the family.

We had the GRACO setup also and it worked just fine. My wife is in the front all the time since the MINI is currently our only car.

 

Congratulations on your new baby!
I followed very closely your experience when you bought the MINI and then read that it might have to go. I'm happy for you that you got to keep the MINI. I, finally, realized how much fun it is to own a MINI since I've got one of my own... at last.
Best of luck with the new addition!

 

Congrats on the new one. What's his name?

Here's my helper mechanic working on the Audi last weekend:

 

Congrats on the new baby and how the entire thing worked out....Mick