Hello,
We have a Ford Focus estate from 2001. We are very happy with it, but soon would like to share a school run and need one extra seat. We don't want to have to swap it for something else as we wouldn't get a good price - although it's in good mechanical condition, it is a family car and has been bashed about a bit.
Does anywhere provide a service to fit an extra rear facing seat into the boot, like some other estates have ?
Many thanks in advance.
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If the car was never designed to have seats in the boot, it wont have approved seat mounting points or approved seat belt anchorage points.
Take a trip to a car salvage yard, look at an estate thats had a lorry up the back at 40 mph then decide if you would have been happy to take the bits of child home that would have been left.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Your first point is true...your second point is a bit melodramatic though. Sure, sitting in the crumple zone of a vehicle is never a superb idea-but if you get a '40mph lorry up your back' I'm sure it wouldn't just be the poor sod in the boot that gets taken home in bits...
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Well I got hit by an HGV on an Italian motorway in July. Hire car was a Fiesta 5-door (practically brand new). The car got a bit shorter and cases in boot crushed. Roof to rear of front passengers caved in severely and cut the back of my head open. If you can imagine the roof having been bent into a V shape across the width of the car with the V over the rear seats. And near enough to my head to rip it open.
I was told by the hospital I must have a thick/hard skull because my skull was intact but nevertheless they insisted on a CT scan of my head. Seated an inch further back or taller though and I'd not have been so lucky. Rear passengers skulls would have been a right mess if I am brutally truthfull. The car was bit of a shock and I think I must have used something like the F word when I saw it... don't know how we survived.
So for my next car I had thought of an S-MAX which is obviously designed to be a 7 seater. Having seen the damage to the roof above the rear seats of the Fiesta I might not now. The thought of passengers that far back... not so sure.
So all I am saying drop this idea...
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Some of the other Mums at school have the Volvos etc. with the rear facing seats, but I hadn't realised that the car must be reinforced to do this. With that knowledge, I will abandon the idea and work something else out.
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P.S - Thankyou for taking the time to reply.....
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If it's a local run how about someone does one of those walking bus things in turn. Healthier etc. Well apart from all the cars fumes from the other school run vehicles.
A neighbour used to take loads of us kids to the beach many years ago in the boot of the estate. Obviously you'd never do that now. And the school minibus had bench seats with no belts... a no no now.
But as for those Volvo's.... they won't be more reinforced than other Volvos without the seats but will just have mounting points for the rear seats.
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when I was a kid, we were all piled into the boot like sacks of spuds for short runs. Estates, hatchbacks, saloons, whatever.
I wouldn't recommend it for long journeys or high speeds, but we all survived ok. (yes yes, a bit demented perhaps, but I'm sure that'd have happened anyways)
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when I was a kid, we were all piled into the boot like sacks of spuds for short runs. Estates, hatchbacks, saloons, whatever.
I was mollycoddled. Estates and hatchbacks all the time (no seats or seatbelts, of course) - but saloons???
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I've seen many a big dog owner transport the animal in the boot of a saloon to and from the daily walk.
Doesn't seem to bother the dogs involved, although it always appears somewhat cruel to me.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I was mollycoddled. Estates and hatchbacks all the time (no seats or seatbelts, of course) - but saloons???
My headmaster used to get (I think) three of us ten year-olds in the boot of his Hillman Avenger. It was better that way than with just one, cos we didn't roll around so much.
These days, of course, he'd probably be publicly garotted by some fearsome bureaucrat. We just found it a much better than walking home, and as a survivor of a tank fire in El Almaein, he'd probably have been hard-pressed to see the problem.
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My headmaster used to get (I think) three of us ten year-olds in the boot of his Hillman Avenger. It was better that way than with just one, cos we didn't roll around so much. . . .
Thanks for that, NW. Brilliant. (I can still hardly believe it, though . . .) Ahh, those were the days.
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I wince a bit about it now but in my van driving days I made a wooden bench seat for the kids. Fixings? seat belts? no nothing like that, but it wouldn't do nowadays.
AFAIK the only estate with rear facing seat belt mountings in the boot and a seat conversion available is the Volvo 740
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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They also did a 7 seat version of the 406 estate although they are pretty rare.
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Sounds a bit iffy on the seat belt anchorage points.
However there may be an arguement that if the seat was facing to the rear it is not a forward facing seat and therefore anchorage point/belt not required.
I would not take this as gospel and I would suggest that you E Mail VOSA and get their opinion.
Nevertheless also under Con and use is the offence of carrying a passenger in such a manner as likely to cause danger. Valid point made abour rear end humps dont ignore it.
dvd
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Montego, if you can find one that hasn't rusted to pieces.
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There was the Renault 21 estate (Savanna?). Believe these had 7 seats. Would struggle to find one now though.
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IanS
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Montego, if you can find one that hasn't rusted to pieces.
I second that, had fold-out seats in the boot and was great fun looking out the back at cars behind. Weight restrictions apply (7 stone - whatever that is in metric) but the cars never let us down and dad liked the handling.
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Mike Farrow
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www.motorhoods.co.uk/option7shop.html
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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I and a friend used to go to school in the back of his dad's van,never mind seatbelts there were no seats.He would slow down at the school entrance so that we could leap out of the back doors and do a 'parachute landing'roll as we hit the road-he'd probably get arrested nowadays.
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All the Volvo estates had the option of folding seats in the boot - 240, 740, 940, 850, etc (?). The are a simple bolt-on extra, and are often sold separately secondhand. Guide price is from £50 to £150. They should come complete with seat belts, to fix to the special mounting plates that are already there hidden under the carpeting. Some were original Volvo, but i think there were other makes too. I have an idea that not all the kits had seat belts, but if fitted, they have to work and are MOT-testable.
The seats fold down into a special well under the boot floor, so the load area is unaffected.
They are useable at a pinch by smallish adults. Not recommended for anyone prone to car sickness.
When I was a child we not only travelled loose in the back of a LandRover (hard benches with potato sacks) but often stood outside on the lowered tailgate or dangled our feet on the road. The best place was sitting on the bonnet inside the spare wheel.
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I've been a passenger in the back of a Citroen C15 van sitting on box that was apparently a "seat".
I was having a great time until we hit a cone at speed and the entire side of the van flexed in with a terrific bang. Then I just wanted to get out.
Never again.
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Unless the vehicle is designed for the rear seats its a definite no-no. The ones fitted to Volvo estates are within the safety cell but I doubt if that would be true on other estates. Audi used to offer a similar seat on the Audi 100 Avant mk 2 but withdrew it due to safety considerations.
The older vehicles referred to on this thread probably had ladder chassis and were built in the days before crumple zones when a bumper was there to protect the bodywork and not just a useless piece of cosmetic plastic.
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I seem to recall once travelling in the back of a mini van (no seats) after a heavy evening. My mate was stubbing out his ciggies on the metal inside of the van until I pointed out that he was using the petrol tank.
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IanS
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