Australian child seats for Model S

Hi all,

Had a go at installing my existing child seats in my new beast today with mixed results. I've been using imported isofix seats (illegally) for the last few years which are absolutely awesome. The rear-facing one for my 1-year-old clicks into the isofix attachments very nicely and I'm happy enough with that. The booster seat I have for my 4-year-old is a bit problematic though. It has 'surefix' clips that attach to the isofix adapters well (this one). The problem is that the isofix clips in the model s are displaced a little centrally and the seatbelt attachment ends up behind the seat which makes it very difficult to click in.

I figured the best solution to this is to just get an Australian standard booster seat and use the top-tether rather than the isofix attachments. Hopefully this will be better centered on the seat and won't be dramatically more difficult to use than the surefix clips. I'm just wondering if anyone else has been using a booster seat with their Model S and has any recommendations or cautions.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I'm very well informed on the issue of isofix in Australia. The rule allowing them but only with a top-tether attached is a ridiculous one that adds no safety features but protects a lot of existing industry stakeholders. The suggestion that Australia has the world's highest standards for child seats is demonstrably laughable and I have been following Scandinavian guidelines instead.

Anyway, that's enough ranting.

I was hoping that someone would be able to save me a trip to that most unholy of places; Baby Bunting. I found myself there this afternoon trying a few booster seats in the car ('what kind of car is this?' asked the salesperson - heehee). The Safe-n-Sound HiLiner SG seemed to fit acceptably, but not brilliantly - top-tether attached. I will probably go back and purchase it tomorrow as online reviews seem OK.

LGGD said:

Don't get me started on the ISO-Fix situation. Australia's unique design and safety regulations are simply non-tariff trade barriers.

Click to expand...

Thankyou for succinctly saying what I would have ended up frothing at the mouth for 8 paragraphs trying to say! Although you missed the bit about the low-grade corruption (the boards making the decisions are heavily stacked with Oz child seat and vehicle manufacturers).

Danuson said:

Hi all,

I did some research into car seats for the Model S a while ago, and remember many people in the US having this issue with the car seat covering the seat belt. I believe that you can purchase an adapter which solves this issue. I will try and see if I can find the information again, i think people were buying the adapter from Ebay.

Is there really only 5 isofix points in the Model S? not six?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought of this and have done a little bit of googling around it. It looks like you can buy seatbelt extender things that would do the job for about $60 here. Probably cheaper on ebay. I think the biggest problem with them is that they would give a permanent false-positive on the seatbelt alarm.

I've ordered a new booster which I can pick up tomorrow. I'll report how easy it is to use. I probably need it anyway as the cars are parked at opposite ends of the house (one on the street, one in the garage via rear laneway), so swapping it between cars will be a major hassle.