The $26,000 Car Seat

First, the disclaimer (and you don't have to check any boxes that you accept the disclaimer):  I'm new to blogging, so new that I had to look up "blog" in order to be sure it was okay to participate.

Donna and I are new grandparents, or were when I wrote the following. Those of you who have ascended to grand parenting will understand. Those of you who have not, may not.

Preface: Several years ago, when we no longer needed the compulsory mini-van to cart our children around, I decided to buy a convertible suitable for Donna and me to drive to the mountains and allow the wind to blow through the remainder of our hair as we aged. I had selected a Toyota Solara - but ended up with a red Mustang GT convertible. That's a story for a different day. The car was Donna's and she fulfilled Ford's new tag line of "getting in touch with your inner Mustang." The car became an extension of her public persona and an object of sublime enjoyment.

Enter Sophie - Granddaughter #1

Before Sophie was born, Donna went to a number of stores on a mission to purchase a car seat with the following features:

• Superlative safety rating.
• Capable of holding baby Sophie from birth through her sophomore year in college.
• Stylish, yet understated.
• Produced by an internationally recognized manufacturer of automotive baby seats.
• Washable cover.
• On sale with a minimum discount of 20%.
• Cup holder (desirable but optional).

She was able to procure the seat, in a gender-neutral color, produced by the world-renowned baby seat maker Eddie Bauer.

One small oversight...... "Capable of fitting in the back seat of a 2007 Ford Mustang GT convertible"... was not on her criteria list.

After several attempts to install the seat, according to manufacturer’s instructions, it became readily apparent that it was going to be more challenging than the instructions indicated and we needed to explore several options:

Option 1 involved a map of all drive-through covered parking areas in the western hemisphere, a cherry picker, a lifetime supply of SPF 900 sun block, a trailer hitch and the fire department.

• Since the only way to put the baby seat into the car was to put the convertible top down and approach the rear seat from the air, we would need to buy a cherry picker, hitch it to the car and have dry, covered parking available for any baby extractions on rainy days. This seemed a little extreme, but was validated when Donna took the Mustang and the baby seat to the local fire department for installation (after I was apparently unable to follow the simple installation instructions provided by my "friends" at Eddie Bauer). The fire department was unable to help with installation as their hook and ladder truck was unavailable and the firefighter with confined space training had not completed the baby seat installation training. Kind of makes you wonder what those guys are doing all day. Anyway, the trailer hitch was also a problem as I considered it a violation of the aesthetic lines of the Mustang. Option 1 was abandoned.

Option 2 involved 2 weekend days, the IRS, and a Japanese car manufacturer.

• When option 1 was abandoned, we knew that the only way to keep the seat and maintain the advantage of the 25% discount on the original purchase price of the baby seat was to complete our income taxes and use the refund to purchase a new, cleverly designed, imported car to replace the Mustang. We embraced this plan fully, completed our taxes and selected a replacement vehicle. (I could share the criteria for the vehicle but most of my readers would not be able to finish the balance of this saga before they retired as some of you are approaching 30 years old.) In the interest of brevity, I can tell you that the one minor oversight in our new car requirements was putting our new baby seat in prospective vehicles. I think the smell of a new car blocks certain rational brain functions.

• While option 2 was executed like a well-rehearsed ballet, our oversight on "test installation" proved a new obstacle to our quest to be able to safely, legally and frequently transport baby Sophie.

• I began installation of the seat into our new Subaru Forrester the evening we purchased the car. After about half an hour of prime time wrestling, I realized that something could potentially be wrong with either the seat or me. (It's already too late to tell most of you not to make the leap to the latter, but stick with the former.........)

• Although the seat could be installed, it was neither secure nor in a reasonably comfortable position. In order to install the seat behind the front passenger seat (preferred location to ogle Sophie from the driver's seat), the front passenger had to be either under the height of 3' 2" or sit in the glove compartment. The glove compartment is of reasonable size, but lacks padding, so we discarded option 2.

Option 3 was a stroke of pure brilliance on my part, and involved a road trip - a little common sense (heretofore not exercised in the process) and a $30 price tag.

• Armed with the receipt for the Eddie Bauer seat, scratched and bloody knuckles, my debit card and a truly forlorn look I returned Eddie Bauer and exchanged it for a Graco (not exactly Eddie Bauer, but acceptable) which would fit into the Subaru, the Mustang GT, the Ford F-150 and a wide array of other vehicles produced and deployed world wide. The folks at the baby seat store graciously took Eddie Bauer back, provided Graco and accepted my debit card.

Problem Solved!

Total Price at the end???

$26,000 (and change) for the new car.

$30 for exchanged seat.

Installation time?

10 minutes

Room in the front seat?

Maximum space allowable by the folks at Subaru.

Lesson learned? Priceless