Hi Mondi owners, I am 6'2" and have a wife and four kids (thank you, thank you, please hold your applause til the end)... I have a 1990 Mondial t Cab, and would like to know how anyone has dealt with a kid in the back seat, let alone a kid in a car seat... I need to have the seat back as far as it will go to be able to drive the Mondi safely. Has anyone ever taken the back of the back seat out to allow more room for the kid in a car seat? It will be another 3 years before the little kids (2 and 3) will kick the car seat. The bigger kids fit better because they are only in boosters, and can wrench their little legs down between their booster seats and the back of my seat... My wife said if i wanted a sports car, i'd have to find one with 4 seats (hehe- i googled "ferrari, 4 seats" and 2 months later, i have a Mondial with 4 pissed off kids and a wife that knows i got away on a technicality...) Any help or annecdotes would be much appreciated... pictures too! Hugo
Hi Hugo, I have the solution but you won't like it. Your wife has to drive. The kid in the car seat goes in the passenger seat, the kid in the booster rides behind the front passenger, and you sit behind your wife with your knees left and right of the driver's seat. Or, you can drive with the seat two clicks forward and pretend you are in a 308. Or, you can put the seats in the living room, like I did, and make zooom zoom noises. Let me know if you need to get a dog in there too, I have a couple of ideas on that also.. Dave Image Unavailable, Please Login
I would do it slightly different. Put the two full car seats on the passanger side. One in front and one behind that. I hope its a hard top, as the rear seat width is wider(I think). Remember, there's no front pass airbag, so front kid seats are legal. I put one in the front of the 308 frequently. Probably not the safest thing, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
I have routinely put 2 car seats in our 3.2 Cabriolet. Several notes, though. I'm 5-10" and have really short legs, so I don't know how you'll manage to do it without some compromise. I end up putting the seat a bit forward of where I normally would, or at least tilting the back further forward. You can try folding the rear seats forward for more length, although that may create some other problems with anchoring the child seats. The car seats all on the passenger side makes some sense, although where I live (Washington) that wouldn't be legal even without an airbag. However, if a car was not originally fitted with a shoulder belt, like the 3.2 rear seats (I'm afraid the T is different) a booster seat is not required since they are for belt positioning and that belt isn't there. Good luck. At least you got the car.
I use an older Britax child seat (9-18kg) in my Mondial QV. The trick is to remove the original seat back (1 nut at the bottom of it, then slide it up) to get another 15 cm of longitudinal clearance and better back support for the baby seat. Previously, I used a MaxiCosy on the front seat. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
OK, I had to post some photos. These two were taken about a year apart. You'll note in the closer one that the infant seat (the clip in kind) is a lot longer than the larger child's seat. I think it was even worse when we had it facing rearwards. Fast forward a year, and the older son that would otherwise be in a booster seat is happily down in the seat, which pretty much allows full back adjustment of the drivers seat. One note, which I don't think will help with the T shoulder belts but may with the older models. I couldn't get the seats in tightly enough with the inertial seat belts without a 20-minute ordeal. I just took them out an put in the old-style ones where you pull on the end to tighten them. I got the replacement belts from a co-worker for maybe $15 and put the OEM ones in a box for later replacement. A very simple and time saving (form me) task. So why are the kids pissed off? I know they probably haven't had a great top-down experience now if you've only had it a brief while, but it seems to me most kids are reasonably excited about Ferraris, particularly if you can share your passion with at least half of them at a time.. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I love this thread - one of the main reasons I picked up a Mondial is that I can bring my son (almost 3) with me in the car. I am going to find the smallest car-seat I can find (forget the cup holders and arm rests) to fit in the passenger rear. Erik
Love the pics of the 2 kids in the back of that black Mondy, great shots! My father just bought another Mondial Cab so he can take his 2 grandsons for rides together. Pics coming soon!
The kids aren't really pissed off, they actually love what they call the "horsey car". All drives with my 3 year old are commenced with the "counting of the horseys". (1,2,3,7,9,11)... Before the snow flew, we picked up the older ones from school in the horsey car (they are now legends). As for the child seats, I will post my solution when i figure it out. I'm leaning towards removal of the seat back, combined with a replacement of the seat belts so they can be locked (great suggestion). We can't fly anywhere anymore (6 plane tickets are you kidding?) so we're going to vacation with 2 kids and the horsey car!! Thanks for the contributions to my thread, you've all been extremely helpful. Also, I'll let you guys know how many horseys my daughter finds on the car!
curious what you did from a top anchor point everything I read says I have to use it forward facing (but I know the cars I grew up in didn’t have them)… that said, I’m just trying to figure out what works… I have an 88 coupe.
