Advice for car seats and strollers for a MINI?

jmchiaravalle

Hi everyone! I'm new to the bump, and new to being pregnant. My boyfriend and I were surprised by my pregnancy (we are having a Nuvaring baby) and so we have a lot of questions and are alittle lost when it comes to a lot of things! 

I have been reading all the books and my midwife is great. None of my friends have babies yet even though we are in our late 20's. Basicallay I'm clueless on some of the details, like  baby registries, strollers, etc.

I have an '03 Mini Cooper, and I know it is possible to find strollers and car seats to fit in my teeny car but I don't know where to start. Does anyone out there have a mini and have any suggestions for me? Any help would or advice would be fantastic!

 

Thanks in advance:)

gimmietimmies

LOL, more seats will fit in there than you think! I have an '05 Cooper S. What exactly are you looking for? For car seat, are you starting off with the infant seat? Who usually drives the car and how tall are you/dh? What style stroller are you looking for?

If you're starting with the infant seat, I've had the Snugride 35 in there, but it's not ideal. Best bet is Cybex Aton (if you're in the US), then the Keyfit. Handle can be in the upright locked position for these seats, so it gains you a ton of room. I can tell you about convertibles too if you want.

Strollers? I've had a few in there, the only one that truly fit well was the Quinny Zapp, but I hated the stroller. I had our Phil and Ted's Sport in there as well, but it took up space. I like our Smart stroller in there, even though the fold is flat, I can still fit some stuff in front of it. I also wanted a Mamas and Papas Urbo, it would have fit as well. The traditional Graco style strollers won't fit, at all.

Apparently the Bugaboo Chameleon fits, but I've not seen that in person. Also try the City Mini, Bumbleride Indie, Baby Jogger Versa, and UppaBaby Cruz. If you can try them out in the boot then you'll get a good idea of what fits.

jmchiaravalle

Wow! You have given me a lot to research thank you! If you have advice on a convertible that would be awesome, thank you. And yes I am in the US. I am 5' 7' but my DH is 6'3. He fits in the mini comfortably enough now. He never drives my car since he doesn't drive a stick, so  I assume when the baby comes if we are traveling as threesome we will be taking his Altima around town. 

 Thanks again for the advice! I am trying to get a handle on all of this stuff without getting overwhelmed.  

gimmietimmies

Very cool. So, given that, I'd put an infant seat passenger side. I'm 5'9", I could manage the passenger side if I had to with our seat, but the Aton gains 4" than the seat I had so your dh could fit fine. Non Mini owners probably don't realize how deceptive it is on space. You'll likely need a high hight limit seat for lo once the infant seat is outgrown (two tall parents!!). I've gotten a Radian in mine rf with an angle adjuster. With room to spare. I know the Marathon fits, but it's short shelled. DD3 wouldn't have fit it at three. We erf, so the Radian works. The other one that I'm pretty sure will have a great fit (at sitting age) is the Clek Foonf. Graco has a high limit seat, but based on the profile, it may not be a good fit.

And yay for having the Mini all to yourself. DH fights me for ours on weekends (he commutes in it), I love driving it, supercharged and manual transmission! One tip, if getting the infant seat out the door is a pain, take it throught the hatch.

orangecurls

Look at umbrella strollers that are also travel systems. Umbrella strollers will take up a lot less space. Aprica presto, bumbleride flight, britax b nimble, any cybex stroller I believe, etc. britax b agile is also quiet small and may fit in your trunk.

cast920

I have an 09 cooper and we use it as our primary car. We used a maxicosi Mico infant seat and the quinny zapp as our stroller. The limiting factor for strollers fitting is the width of the trunk. I had measured mine and found that it was about 36 inches. At the time the only stroller that I knew would fit and still allow for other things was the zapp. I also have a city mini and it just barely fits in the trunk. You have to put it in a certain way and remove the trunk cover piece for it to fit. Most umbrella type strollers will only fit diagonally since they tend to be over 40 inches long when folded.

I personally love the zapp way more than the city mini. I find the city mini too bulky for everyday use. We only bought ours for all day outings on unpaved surfaces and for trips to Disney world.

We now have a Combi Coccoro rear facing convertible seat in the mini. It's a great little seat but might not work for a very tall child or for rear facing past 2 years old. It does allow for someone to sit in front of it though.

orinjuse

Ditto for the above mentioned recs. They are pretty much the only ones I've heard other MINI owners use. I have an 07 MCs and hubby has a Countryman. I'll keep mine and we'll use the CM for baby transport. The boot of that fits the UPPAbaby Vista! I was impressed as that's a full size stroller. I'm actually going to try the Cruz for mine. As for car seats the Chicco Keyfit in his, maybe used without a base in mine. GL and congrats on your BFP!

jmchiaravalle

Thank you everyone for all your advice! I think so far the Britax B-Agile travel is the one that works best for us, but I am going to take the advice and go to Babies R Us to test it out. All of the baby gear stuff is overwhelming, but I'm getting there!