FF top tether in Europe

[TechnoGranola]

Do European cars have top tether anchors for FF seats? My mind is blanking right now on whether the FF seat use a top tether so I can't come to a conclusion on whether the cars would have anchors.

What about taxis?

 

[ketchupqueen]

Some tether anchors are starting to appear in new cars. Sometimes you can get one added by the dealer. In taxis I highly doubt they'd have them. (I think there was something about them being mandatory in new cars at some point in the future? Not sure if that passed or not though.)

Some seats have them. When they have them, there is usually a "regular" option for the seat without a tether and a slightly more expensive option "plus tether" that is the same seat only with a tether.

That's my understanding from reading a lot of foreign car seat boards anyway.

 

[TechnoGranola]

Okay, so what would someone travelling with a Canadian seat and a FF child do in a taxi then? The child in question would fit a RF seat but I was thinking if a seatbelt install was required, the RF install is likely to be more difficult. And I believe child is FF normally.

 

[newyorkDOC]

Like 99% of Europeans wouldn't use a seat in a taxi. It's not required by law. I've had taxi drivers applaud the invention of my RSTV here. I've also had drivers try to take off without my infant bucket being installed :/

Can they not use public transport?

 

[ketchupqueen]

Okay, so what would someone travelling with a Canadian seat and a FF child do in a taxi then? The child in question would fit a RF seat but I was thinking if a seatbelt install was required, the RF install is likely to be more difficult. And I believe child is FF normally.

If I were in that situation, my first choice would be public transport (way more viable in most of Europe than most of North America.) My second choice would be try to rear-face. My third would be to forward-face. If I knew I was likely to need to forward-face, I'd prefer to bring a seat, if I could, that had a head excursion limiting feature, such as Britax's SafeCell or a serpentine long belt path. (Something with lockoffs would be preferable in either direction giving the dearth of locking belts there.) But, if I had to, I'd just put them in the seat without a top tether. It would be way preferable to riding unrestrained or in just a belt, or a too-young child in a booster.

(If I happened across a three-row taxi, I could also attempt temporary tethering. But it's trickier with non-locking belts and the meter is going to be running the whole time I'm installing, and I'm betting the cabs there are not as likely to be three rows as they are here.)

 

[Adventuredad]

Top tether is rare in Europe. We try to avoid it since it's not a good solution. It may be found in some cars but it can never be counted o. There are plenty of good forward facing option but it all depends on how old the child is?

Public transport is excellent in most of Europe so likely a god option as well.

 

[joolsplus3]

What about locking belts? Aren't they less common too? If I had to use a seatbelt I'd want a seat with built in lockoffs, unless I were sure the taxi had ISOFIX connectors (They've been required as long as they've been required in the US, I think? But who knows what age taxi you'd get). Canadian seats being roughly identical to US seats are at least assured of passing the less-strict head excursion requirements, so I wouldn't stress at all about not having a top tether, personally. (LATCH/ISOFIX/UAS has the same numbers as a lapbelt without top tether).

 

[ketchupqueen]

Britax's SafeCell is reported to pass the us head excursion standard for tethered seats without a tether, though performing even better tethered, and the clicktight on a frontier 90/CT is a dream. The downside would be hauling it around all day. There are some solutions for that, though not ideal ones if you have to keep it with you all day...

Really, I'd aim for public transport, know how to use a locking clip if no lockoff, and be ok with not tethering in that circumstance if I had to.

 

[BananaBoat]

Tether anchors are rare & ISOFIX has only recently (under 5 years) been required. Last summer was the first time our rental car had ISOFIX. I didn't look for TT because we used the RSTV. For reference we had an Alfa Romeo wagon. The last taxi we took with a child was in 2010 in Germany & saw no ISOFIX nor TT - the taxi was a fairly new Mercedes sedan.

I prefer public transport to taxis in Europe when possible.

 

[biddyk8]

The last 4 rentals we have got when we went home all had isofix and locking seat belts. Maybe we have been lucky though. The last 2 had anchors aswell for sure, the ones before that I didn't even look.

But the rental company we use always uses newer cars we have never been given a rental older than a year.

 

[TechnoGranola]

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