Baby seat?

I don't think it's irresponsible. Front seat facing forward is OK, just make sure you turn off the air bag when the baby is in the seat. I don't believe the MX-5 comes with the LATCH system to install the seat so you'll have to use a seat that attaches with the seat belt. Make sure that you find a good location to attach the tether on the back of the child seat as I don't think you'll find one of those either.

Brian.....

Eric Baber wrote:

You mean a child seat in which the child faces forward? I thought it was safer to have a child seat in which the child faces backwards?

Don't have an air bag anyway so that's easy!

OK - no idea what a latch system is so I think I'll head down to a shop to investigate.

Thanks

Eric

latch systems are pre-installed in late model cars. current baby seats have the ability to hook directly into these pre-installed latches or they can be retained by the seat belt as was the method used for years (but the seat belt approach is a pain if you intend to install/remove the seat frequently). you don't have a choice other than to use the seatbelt or buy a new car...

It is a very old r.a.m.m. tradition that the Tow-A-Baby link be posted anytime the discussion involves moving babies in a miata.

I am guessing that Britney Spears actually tried to order one. She don't need no stinkin' car seat. ;-)

Pat

I carry our 2 year old sometimes, using a standard child seat. She loves the car. My car doesn't have any airbags though (or PAS, or ABS...)

Children under one year are supposed to ride in a rear-facing child seat. I don't know that it would be a problem if you turned the airbag off; I don't let my 3-year-old ride in my Miata yet, but mostly just because I have other cars.

Mazda also sells a "seat belt locking part" It looks like a big Capital "I". This part goes by the clip-in end and holds the lower part of the belt from moving with the upper part of the belt. I use one for autocross so I don't need to twist the belts to hold them. Part # FA55-57-999. This is made just for child seats. Instructions on how to use it come with it. Hope this helps.

Bruce Bing '03 LS

Thanks Bruce, that's very helpful!

Eric

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (BRUCE HASKIN) wrote in news:808-447FA5B9-375@storefull-

3338.bay.webtv.net:

Don't buy one of those till after get your child seat tho, many child seats actually come w/ one. I may have lost the one that came with ours, but I know it did have one cause I used it a couple times. You're right, btw, about the rear-facing. I don't remember exactly when you're supposed to start having them face front (think it's when their feet reach past the seat), but newborns are definately supposed to be rear-facing. I have a 94 which comes w/ unswitched airbags, so my 3yr-old never gets to ride in my car.

-Scott

"Eric Baber" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:

A few sites to look at:

Also, if you (or your wife) haven't discovered babycenter.com yet, they're the miata.net for when your "baby" is a baby instead of (or maybe in addition to) a car..

-Scott

Thank you, I shall pass that on to the wife. I already suggested buying one of these

, with predictable results; perhaps she'll take more kindly to your suggestion. :-)

Eric

LOL... been there, done that!!!

Don't know if this helps but this is part of what it says in the 2006 MX-5 manual, page 2-16:

"We have installed lower LATCH anchor points for LATCH style booster seats and infant carriers that work without tethers only. Any other child-restraint system that has an upper tether cannot be used in this vehicle because there is no tether anchor. A child-restraint system with a tether cannot be properly mounted in this vehicle unless the child restraint manufacturer provides instructions on mounting the child-restraint system with only seat belts in automatic locking mode. Even then..."

I have no idea what a LATCH anchor is but I suspect that it has something to do with those odd gray plastic buttons on plugs in the backrest of the passenger seat since I first looked in a 2006.

Always glad to be of help.

I personally would not use the miata, especially an early one as a baby hauler very often. The miata is great at front and rear impacts, I have seen one that hit a telephone pole. The pole was halfway to the firewall, but the crush zones did their jobs and the passenger compartment was almost fully intact and the occupants were not seriously injured.

Side-impacts, on the other hand, are completely different. Just take an early miata door apart sometime and look at the two layers of thin sheet metal that are all that stands between you and that truck or car bumper. The side-impact safety beams in the later model miatas also give me very little confidence.

The side-impact danger is an issue for a person of any age, but with a baby that is so fragile, I just feel a lot more comfortable using a sedan with more room on the sides as well as a back seat.

Just my opinion, probably worth about what it cost ya.

Pat

Mmm, good point. Fortunately we don't have nearly as many SUVs with useless drivers here in the UK as you have in the US, but still.

Well, the other car's a Ford Fiesta so not exactly what I'd call a sedan, but likely to be safer, I suppose. It's certainly impressively well built for head-on bumps and collisions, as this morning's episode illustrated. It's my wife's car and normally only she drives it, but yesterday I drove it, parked it in the garage and, having learned to drive in Germany, I left it in first gear as I always do. Unlike my wife, who always leaves it in neutral, having learned to drive in the UK. So this morning - you guessed it - she got in, turned the key, and bunny-hopped into the metal shelving-unit at the front of the garage and pushed it right up against the wall. The shelving unit completely buckled, but the front bumper had only a couple of scratches and not a dent in sight. Impressive. Just as well, too, since otherwise I would have been in deep trouble :-)

Go on then, let's turn this into a new thread: do you leave your (manual) car in gear, or in neutral? And why?

Eric