I'm picking up a 2004 MINI Cooper S in 6 days. We have a 21-month old daughter and she'll be riding in back as soon as we can find a suitable car seat.
Check out the Britax line of car seats. I would recommend them. We have one of their booster seats that fits our MCS extremely well, and we're very happy with the seat overall -- lots of side protection also.
Bo-Bebe (there's one in Crowfoot Center, close by the dealership ) carries the Britax line, and they are also very helpful about testing & fitting things to see how they works out.
Haven't had much of a problem there yet, as my son is 4 (now 5), so his legs are a bit longer. Mostly just dirty feet, so the rubber winter floor mats stay in the back permanently...
We looked at a Britax Roundabout at echildren. It was good up to 40lbs, but didn't convert to a booster seat. We ended up going with an Eddie Bauer 3-in-1 seat ($60 cheaper than the Britax, and converts to a booster).
I took the base off the seat and put it in the rear passenger side. It's attached via the two latch hooks and tether. It fits pretty well and Alice seems to like the view.
We did like the design of the Britax. It was much easier to attach to the latch points, and it had some nice features. If only it could have been converted to a booster.
I've never seen the Britax Roundabout. We have the Britax Park-something-rather, which is just a straight booster seat. A little pricier than other seats, but the fit was better, and in the end the safety of the kids was the most important.
Right now we're shopping for a newborn car seat that will sometimes also go in the MINI. So far the Pre-Perego (sp?) system seems to fit the bill, and they also have a little stroller that will hold the car seat AND fit in the boot!
Hi there MiniVee - just found this message stream wondering what newborn car seat you ended up getting? We need one in a few months and are having trouble finding one - would love to hear an update.
I think we've pretty much settled on the Perego unit, but haven't bought it yet. As it turns out, the little stroller doesn't quite fit in the boot, so we'll probably buy a Quinny Zap for those occasions. Or my wife can take the little mall stroller in the front passenger seat when she takes the kids to the mall.
Hey thanks for the welcome and quick reply MiniVee. So "Perego" that was the car/seat stroller combo? Can you get just the rear facing car seat on it's own? We're ok without a stroller for a while so are just looking for the seat. The trouble we were finding was with the depth issue. (leaving a bit of room between the car seat and the back of the passenger seat). And looking for one that fit into the bucket back seats ok. We saw some Graco ones that were 26.5" deep, but are looking for something a bit shorter.
So what store did you find the Perego at - I'll go check it out. thanks again!
With the Perego, you buy the seat and stroller separately, and most of their strollers have the attachment points for the car seat, so you choose which stroller best suits your needs. Not the cheapest, but they seem a lot better made. We had an Even-Flo system which lasted exactly one kid.
I found the Perego stuff at Bo-Bebe, they were pretty helpful and let me try stuff out, I think there are 3 stores in Calgary.
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Forward-facing car seat in Calgary 
) carries the Britax line, and they are also very helpful about testing & fitting things to see how they works out. 
thanks again! 
