w124 rear facing boot seats

[kbekl]

right ok did a search on this just can find any info including phoning the council and the police cant seem to give me an awnser

right what is the law regarding these additional seats

do they need to be fitted with car seats/booster seats

i have found that my car seat will not fit properly to the seats and be held in as they would on the normal rear seats due to the anchour point of the seat belt not being behind the seat like they are in the normal ones they seem to be in line with the seat back

which worries me when it comes to the car seat movement forward and backwards when fitted in as tight as possible

so what is the law on these do they require the additional seats or are they designed to be used with out as they are smaller and lower than normal seats also the seat belt seems to fit a child properly

1 child is 6 yrs old and 130cm's tall
the other is 3 and 109 cm's tall

any ideas on this / has any one been pulled up buy the police because of these seats

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Hi,
Both my 124 and 210 were fitted with the 7 seat conversion. I have used the seats with children of different ages and to be honest wouldn't put a child under five in them due to their inaccessibilty. I'm sure there are guidelines but my opinion is that a suitable age range is from a well behaved five year old to a young teenager. The seat belts will fit this age range well and when the teen measures more than 5 feet tall they have probably outgrown the rear seats.

Incidentally the kids loved the experience of travelling in them and I also found that the safety stats are also good.

Hope this helps!

 

[kbekl]

cheers for that

 

[toby_tobias]

i ve got a w211 with boot seats, my kids love them, they are really easy to access and I think that they are as safe if not safer than the third row seats in mpv's such as picasso, zafira, where the rear rows passengers head is 2-3 inches from the rear windscreen. In the merc estate as the seats are rear facing the passengers body and head are well within the car.

I am sure they were crash tested when they were launched else mercedes wouldn't sell them.

 

[Alex M Grieve]

I am sure they were crash tested when they were launched else Mercedes wouldn't sell them.

Quite agree Toby. Malcolm and I had a canter on this some months ago.

My concern then was that the third row of seats appear to be in the rear "crumple zone" of the car. MB and Volvo (also near to Malcolm's heart) both use this configuration here and in the USA. We could find no accounts of anyone having suffered harm, and no accounts of litigation in the USA, against the manufacturers for poor design.

If we consider the "Road vehicles, construction and use regs" in the UK (which would be the authority used if you were charged with having too many people in your car, for example), if the manufacturer made it to accommodate people there, I do not believe the police would have any problem with it.

 

[Myros]

I have used boosters

and group2 seats in a w124, and boosters and group 3 seats in the 210, and don't have trouble other than whacking my head on the roof when fitting them.
If your munchkins are big enough for boosters in the front, then they are probably ok without in the boot. I like to use the group 3 seats as they have head protector wings, which is the same reason i use them in the front, even though the car has curtain airbags.

Read the instructions on the seat though. Some say do not use in rearward facing seats.

 

[kbekl]

after doing loads of searches found this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKIeExpDLDA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gU9zzCGA8&feature=related
second not really a nice watch

it seems that other countries prefer the car seats to be rear facing rather than front facing for children upto 4-5 years old

would this mean that they are better of in the boot seats

spoke to a traffic cop yesterday and he stated he has never seen them befor i explained to him that their are a couple of manufacturers that have the same seating arrangements like volvo , peugeot, mercesdes that i know of ,

he did say that he wouldnt know what to do in this sort of case it said it would depend on the poilceman that was stoping you he said he would have to check with the operator at the time for the legislation but he cant off hand state what is the law regaurding these seats

but his advice was if the child is able to sit in the boot with the belt over their sholder it would mean that they would be secured in a safe and suitable manner but if it was over their neck he would have to report the driver for the offence

so think i will try to get a seat that fits properly to the rear seats as my children keep asking when they can go in the boot and looking at those video's i would be inclined to keep them in the rear seats