Ford 500 lower anchor spacing

[Mommy0608]

I was helping a friend with her car seats yesterday, and one of their cars is a Ford 500. On the passenger side outboard seat, the lower anchors were moved toward the center several inches, making the car seat sit half on the passenger seat, and half on the center seat (not sure if it is exactly 50/50, but you get my point). Why is this? My friend didn't have the manual handy but she said it's because of side airbags, which this car did not have... she said the airbags came in the next model year. Forgive me, but I don't know what year her car is. We couldn't get it to install to my liking with LATCH so we used the seatbelt, which worked beautifully.

Anyone know why this is? Is it really because of airbags? I didn't think side airbags were a problem? (I think there used to be an issue with certain side airbags, but that was older cars, wasn't it?) I've never seen a vehicle with lower anchors on the outboard side moved inward toward the center of the vehicle like that.

I assume it was okay to install with the seatbelt in that position, right? Just want to make sure, since the vehicle manual wasn't readily available. FWIW, the top tether anchor was in the standard position, so I'm sure it's okay to have it installed there.

[crunchierthanthou]

It's to make the lower anchors evenly spaced so that the center position is a standard LATCH spacing. They can be used for either two outboard or one center install, but not all three at once.

[Mommy0608]

Okay. I have seen vehicles where the center and innermost outboard anchor overlapped like this:

O_____C_O______C

I've never seen it like the 500 where the outer anchor on the outboard position is moved inward though.

I had a feeling it didn't have anything to do with airbags though. It just made for an awkward installation with the top tether, plus the seatbelt gave a fabulous install so that's what we went with (also with the top tether of course).