Car seats in older cars???

[Me]

I'm looking around at getting a new car, and for my budget have thought that perhaps a classic mini in nice restored condition would be a 'cooler' option than getting a 'new' car. so my question is - how do I go about putting a carseat in an older car? i'm probably looking at about 1974ish, do they already have the holes and I just have to put the bolt in or do i need to get the hole drilled? I am yet to physically look at a mini so just wanted to ask a few questions before going out there and getting serious about one.

Any info/advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[FourAngelKisses]

I'm guessing that you would probably have to get the hole drilled. Another thing to check would be that the seatbelts are long enough to accomodate a capsule/carseat/booster seat. I know that we had an old ford escort once and the seatbelt wasn't long enough for the baby capsule.

[jessgray]

we have a 1980's commodore and we had to get a hole drilled in for ds's carseat so my guess is anything before the 1990's needs holes drilled in?

[cwsmum]

It may depend on the car...my parents Kombi and my sisters Beetle, both 1970-something model cars both have holes already there for the bolts to go into.

[BOSS302WMOM]

You will most certainly have to have the holes drilled to be able to fit a car seat into a 1974ish Mini. Also keep in mind that you will have to have the hole and the seat mounting engineered and passed by your local QLD Transport office.

[perthmummie]

We were using my mums car in perth for the car seats then bought them here to sydney on the plane and realised at the airport the seatbelts were not long enough, but spoke to RTA and they said its not actually illegal to have babies facing the front rather then the back of the car! So long as their head is supported, our twin boys have faced the front since they were 12 weeks old and had no probs at all apart from stupid people who tell us we should be fined and are putting our kids in danger! our boys were premmies and only 5months old now, but have had great head control from very early on so its only just made them clever!

[LucyE]

spoke to RTA and they said its not actually illegal to have babies facing the front rather then the back of the car!
No, it's not illegal, just NOT safe! There's heaps of factual, clinical evidence to support the recommendation to keep children rearward facing in the car for as long as possible.