Mercedes C-Class Estate - Child Seats Help
Discussion
Hi All,
This is a re-post from GENERAL GASSING - but I wondered if anyone has a C Class and this issue. Appreciate any help.
New here and looking for some advice please.
I have a Mercedes C-250 Sport-Plus Class Estate (2012 model)
I like the car and have had no problems with it thus far, but have recently found out that my wife is expecting twins this summer.
We currently have a 10 month old son.
The problem this presents is that we will need to fit 2 stage 0 and 1 stage 1 car seat in to the Mercedes. Apparently all across the back seats is not an issue (not space and Mercedes claims child seat in middle is 'unsafe'). Ordinarily the simple answer would be to put one of the seats in the front passenger seat. Mercedes, in their infinite wisdom, though, have made it impossible to manually turn off those airbags, meaning the only carseat you can put in their is their stage 1 model, which is over £500.
So here are my questions and I really would appreciate some input:
1) Has anyone else had this issue and how did they get round it?
2) Anyone got a second-hand stage 1 Mercedes child seat which they'd be prepared to sell?
3) Are Mercedes just being cagey with their advice do you think? ie in anyone's specific or general experience, could 2 stage 0 and 1 stage 1 seat across the back work? This would probably work better for me if workable, since otherwise my wife is going to have to sit in the middle at the back wedged between two car seats.
4) Anyone aware of any other solution to disable the front passenger airbags, without affecting other airbags, other than buying the £500 Mercedes car seat?
OR
5) Is it time to go and get the VW Sharan/Transporter, whatever the MPV is called? I'm not dead keen really.
Thanks very much in advance - and sorry for the slightly boring/sensible type post. Any assistance/advice very much appreciated.
Ta.
This is a re-post from GENERAL GASSING - but I wondered if anyone has a C Class and this issue. Appreciate any help.
New here and looking for some advice please.
I have a Mercedes C-250 Sport-Plus Class Estate (2012 model)
I like the car and have had no problems with it thus far, but have recently found out that my wife is expecting twins this summer.
We currently have a 10 month old son.
The problem this presents is that we will need to fit 2 stage 0 and 1 stage 1 car seat in to the Mercedes. Apparently all across the back seats is not an issue (not space and Mercedes claims child seat in middle is 'unsafe'). Ordinarily the simple answer would be to put one of the seats in the front passenger seat. Mercedes, in their infinite wisdom, though, have made it impossible to manually turn off those airbags, meaning the only carseat you can put in their is their stage 1 model, which is over £500.
So here are my questions and I really would appreciate some input:
1) Has anyone else had this issue and how did they get round it?
2) Anyone got a second-hand stage 1 Mercedes child seat which they'd be prepared to sell?
3) Are Mercedes just being cagey with their advice do you think? ie in anyone's specific or general experience, could 2 stage 0 and 1 stage 1 seat across the back work? This would probably work better for me if workable, since otherwise my wife is going to have to sit in the middle at the back wedged between two car seats.
4) Anyone aware of any other solution to disable the front passenger airbags, without affecting other airbags, other than buying the £500 Mercedes car seat?
OR
5) Is it time to go and get the VW Sharan/Transporter, whatever the MPV is called? I'm not dead keen really.
Thanks very much in advance - and sorry for the slightly boring/sensible type post. Any assistance/advice very much appreciated.
Ta.
Twins, eh? Nice work!
I researched a similar problem to death.
Generally accepted wisdom is that the middle of the rear seat is the safest place for a child because--this is obvious when you think about it--the middle of the rear seat is furthest from the outside of the car and it is the outside of the car that gets his in an accident. The downside with the middle is it is a big bend and stretch to get the child in and out. The usual problem here is a lack of width or a (unnecessary) concern about the adequacy of the two point harness which often is found in the middle.
I would venture to suggest that the three point harness in the middle of your car is adequate for infant and seat if it adequate for a grown man. Obviously you'll have no ISOFIX points there.
Generally accepted wisdom also is that you should not buy a second hand seat because you do not know whether its integrity has been compromised in an accident. I'm afraid this is b
ks propounded by the manufacturers and vendors of expensive seats. First, most people are pretty honest and aren't going to lie to another parent about whether their seat has been accident damaged for the sake of £50. Second, there is absolutely nothing sophisticated about these seats: they're lumps of hard plastic with a polystyrene shell and webbed belts held in place with little bits of metal. I bought two Mercedes-Benz Baby Safe seats and two Duo Plus seats on Ebay and these have the sensors in them to disable the front airbag. The going rate is about £50 to £100. They never fetch much because they're always buyer collects and this limits the market to local purchasers.
No doubt someone will be along any minute now to warn you that this is the advice of an irresponsible child slayer, etc, etc.
I researched a similar problem to death.
Generally accepted wisdom is that the middle of the rear seat is the safest place for a child because--this is obvious when you think about it--the middle of the rear seat is furthest from the outside of the car and it is the outside of the car that gets his in an accident. The downside with the middle is it is a big bend and stretch to get the child in and out. The usual problem here is a lack of width or a (unnecessary) concern about the adequacy of the two point harness which often is found in the middle.
I would venture to suggest that the three point harness in the middle of your car is adequate for infant and seat if it adequate for a grown man. Obviously you'll have no ISOFIX points there.
Generally accepted wisdom also is that you should not buy a second hand seat because you do not know whether its integrity has been compromised in an accident. I'm afraid this is b
ks propounded by the manufacturers and vendors of expensive seats. First, most people are pretty honest and aren't going to lie to another parent about whether their seat has been accident damaged for the sake of £50. Second, there is absolutely nothing sophisticated about these seats: they're lumps of hard plastic with a polystyrene shell and webbed belts held in place with little bits of metal. I bought two Mercedes-Benz Baby Safe seats and two Duo Plus seats on Ebay and these have the sensors in them to disable the front airbag. The going rate is about £50 to £100. They never fetch much because they're always buyer collects and this limits the market to local purchasers.No doubt someone will be along any minute now to warn you that this is the advice of an irresponsible child slayer, etc, etc.
So I'm with r129sl, this isn't advice at the risk of the hoards of people that will poke you in the eye but just something I did with my wife's c class from a few years ago. We had a perfectly good child seat already and came up with a similar problem in wanting to use the front seat of the car. I went onto ebay and bought the cheapest Merc booster seat I could find (think it was £25). I then removed the two transponders from inside the seat. If I recall, they are grey and oval shaped. I then secured them to our car seat and thoroughly tested positioning, movement etc to ensure the airbag light stayed off. We used the seat like this for a year or so with no issues. Flame suit on !!
SimNugget said:
When I put some light shopping such as flowers which I then put the seatbelt round to restrain, the 'airbag off' illuminates so I don't think it is only activated by the Merc seat.
But check it yourself, mine is a 2010.
S
The airbag is off by default and triggered when there is sufficient weight on the seat. Try with heavy shopping and you should see what I mean.But check it yourself, mine is a 2010.
S
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