When Rachel Francis found out that she was pregnant for the fourth time, one of her first thoughts was ‘what car will I have to buy to fit my family in?’
It is a dilemma that many parents with more than two children have to face, and more often than not the solution of buying a larger seven seater car that will fit three or more child seats in is a very expensive one.
That is until now. The Multi- Mac car seat is an ingenious invention in child safety and allows up to four children, from birth up until the age of 12, to sit comfortably in the back of an average sized car and is available at a fraction of the cost of a larger MPV.
As Rachel, who lives in Northumberland explains, finding the MultiMac could not have come at a better time for her: “We saw the MultiMac on the Fifth Gear TV programme and thought that this is the answer we had been looking for, as we were quite happy with our BMW X3 and did not really want to get rid of it.
After searching on Google, I found the MultiMac website. “We already had three boys, aged nine, six and two when I got pregnant with my fourth child. One of my immediate concerns was ‘what car?’ Not only would we need a seven seater, but also a four wheel drive as we live in rural Northumberland. We looked at every possibility on the market and the options were either too expensive or had the extra two seats in the rear where frankly you wouldn’t even put a dog let alone your children.” “The MultiMac has allowed us to keep our car, making the rear seats safer for all the children and really importantly, you keep all of your boot space.
We headed off to the Scottish Highlands a few weeks after buying the MultiMac with the three boys an 11 week old baby girl and all of the luggage that four children need and still had room in the boot. Even with a seven seater car the boot space is so limited we would have needed a roof box or a trailer, but with the MultiMac we just loaded the car up as usual and o” we went.” The MultiMac greatly exceeds all the crash test requirements of ECE 44-04 which is exceptional due to the fact that the seat has to cope with dramatically variable loads – from a single nine month old to four 12 year old test dummies. To cover all possible scenarios, 11 di”erent child age/load combinations have to be crash tested to meet safety standards.
The MultiMac sits on top of the existing seat and is secured using the adult rear seatbelt mountings and a pair of metal legs resting on the floor with fitting or removal taking just moments. It also comes as a three-seater, with the option of adding headrests or rear-facing MiniMac cradle seats for babies. MultiMac can also provide bespoke upholstery to match your cars interior.
For Rachel, both the price and the convenience of a safe car seat such as the MultiMac, were too good for her to disregard: “My baby seems and looks very comfortable in the MiniMac baby seat, she always falls asleep! The boys love the seat belts – like formula one racing drivers – and they like the fact that we get to keep the same car too. My six year old and two year old always fall asleep on long journeys and the headrests are really supportive.” “I just love the MultiMac! It is a piece of genius design and really helped us to solve our problem; it was the answer we were looking for.
The MultiMac converts a car into a six seater, but crucially it does not a”ect insurance premiums – Norwich Union has specifically approved the MultiMac and also other insurance companies have similarly accepted fitment of the seat with no change in premiums. For more information on the MultiMac car seat or to register your interest, go to www.multimac.co.uk.
Mumable Author: Amanda O'Hara
