Infant seat center instal in older Jetta?

[cocurlgurl]

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We have a Graco Safe Seat Infant car seat and the primary base is installed in the rear center of my Nissan Sentra.

We have an extra base for use in my husband's car which is a 95 Jetta. In the back seat it has a middle section b/t the seats that you can fold down/forward to rest your arms on.

We were hoping to use the Jetta to drive 6+ hrs to VT this weekend for a week long vacation - and would prefer to install the seat base in the center of the back seat.

I installed our extra base in his car the weekend before last and found that it was really hard to get it tight enough to prevent the part of the seat base against the seat back from moving < 1in from side to side.

I found that the only way to get it tight enough it seemed to either :

1) be at a slight angle to one side b/c of the buckle area which caused the seat to lean to the side

or

2) that is was so tight against the back of the seat that the middle section was moving or coming forward a bit at the top.

Anyone have success with center installation in an older Jetta?

I am not able to take his car to the seat inspection placeas they have limited hours,......

Will we have to install the base on the reat passanger side?

Thanks!

[mommyto2angelgirls]

if you mean that you were able to install so tight it did not move more then one inch side to side. and then the part towards the front of the seat lifted up when you pulled that is okay. the base will always lift there on all infant seats not able to be tethered rf. i'm not a tech but i would take a solid install outboard over an angled install center. infant seats are meant to rebound straight forward and protect the child if the seat is on an angle then it would put force on the childs neck different in a crash. possibly making the situation worse.

[cocurlgurl]

Originally Posted by mommyto2angelgirls

if you mean that you were able to install so tight it did not move more then one inch side to side. and then the part towards the front of the seat lifted up when you pulled that is okay. the base will always lift there on all infant seats not able to be tethered rf. i'm not a tech but i would take a solid install outboard over an angled install center. infant seats are meant to rebound straight forward and protect the child if the seat is on an angle then it would put force on the childs neck different in a crash. possibly making the situation worse.

Yep - that was what I meant. And when I do this the seat is either at an angle or the "fold down arm rest" pops a bit forward at the top.

i guess we will do rear passanger seat then.

That is the best location, correct?

[lemurmommies]

Originally Posted by cocurlgurl

Yep - that was what I meant. And when I do this the seat is either at an angle or the "fold down arm rest" pops a bit forward at the top.

i guess we will do rear passanger seat then.

That is the best location, correct?

Did you take a look at your vehicle's manual? Some vehicles that have fold-down centre armrests do not allow for a rear-facing car seat to be installed in the centre. So I'd check the manual first.

If you choose to install outboard because you get a better install that way, the difference between outboard positions in terms of safety is pretty negligible, so whatever side works best for you is fine.

[desiree_leigh]

Originally Posted by lemurmommies

Did you take a look at your vehicle's manual? Some vehicles that have fold-down centre armrests do not allow for a rear-facing car seat to be installed in the centre. So I'd check the manual first.

I'm pretty sure that I looked into this with my 92 Passat and found out that all VWs do not have this restriction. AFAIK they all allow installs in the ctr position with the fold down armrests. Correct me if anyone knows differently though!