non removable head rests in the rear?

[twinkletoes]

the ford fiesta has non removable head rests in the rear, wouldn't this get in the way of installing car seats? (I'm assuming they are still height adjustable though?)

someone told me a while back that Volvo had them, and not to get a volvo for this reason?



TIA.

 

[jess71903]

The headrests in my Explorer are not adjustable and don't come out easily, but they are supposed to come out. There is a little tiny hole at the base that you are supposed to be able to stick something small, like a paperclip, into and pop it out. I have yet to be able to get mine out, though.

 

[unityco]

I've had my carseats in a few cars with non-removable headrests. The profile of the headrest determines whether it's a problem or not. I had my Radian in my Aunt's Audi that has headrests that stick out forward of the seat back. That resulted in a huge gap behind the carseat's back. It was a very poor install. In my Caravan (which does have removable headrests, but let's pretend it didn't for second...) the headrests are flush with the seat back and make hardly any difference at all when installing carseats. (I can slip the headrests on or off behind my installed Nautilus - it was a little tighter behind the Radian.)

In some GM vehicles, I could get the headrest to flip backwards (but not come off) if they were in the way. (We rented an Uplander that that worked in.)

Some carseats work better with problem headrests than others too. Some short-shelled seats can sneak in underneath the headrest.

I know there's one Jeep vehicle that's non-removable headrests are virtually incompatible with any carseats. :thumbsdown:

Too make a long story short: the compatibility of non-removable headrests with carseats depends on the headrests and the carseats.

 

[bree]

I have a Frontier installed in my 2004 Volvo S80, and the headrests don't interfere with the install at all. I can see where the headrests might interfere with some seats, but I haven't had that issue with the Frontier.

 

[NannyMom]

I've put my seats in a Chevy Impala, with non movable headrests, and had no problem with seats. BUt when I rented a Chevy Upalnder, it was horrible. The 3rd row outboard headrests couldn't come off (or flip backward). I couldn't install a harnessed seat outboard (no tethers there anyway), and couldn't use a high back booster because of the shape of the headrests. So, it all depends on headrest geometry.

 

[Niea]

The headrests in my Explorer are not adjustable and don't come out easily, but they are supposed to come out. There is a little tiny hole at the base that you are supposed to be able to stick something small, like a paperclip, into and pop it out. I have yet to be able to get mine out, though.

Yes, this exactly, at least for Ford vehicles. If you can't do it yourself, take it the dealer. That's what we did and they took them out of the backseat of our Explorer SporTrac problem.

 

[Unregistered]

Non-removable non-adjustable head rests are a big problem. I have a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee and the head rests are fixed. Because of the countour of the seat bottom, back and head rest, I was only able to find one car seat to fit. It's the MaxiCosi Priori. It's a great seat, so it's fine, but I didn't know that the headrests would be such a big problem. I spoke with both the local Jeep dealership and Jeep.com and basically was told that there's nothing that can be done. I even asked if the dealership could remove the headrests and they said no. VERY difficult finding a car seat to fit.