Experience with ISOFIX child seats in Jimnys 3

Does anyone have experience with using ISOFIX child seats in Jimnys 3 which have ISOFIX rear seats? Such Jimnys were produced from 2012/2013 to the end of production in 2018.

Mine has ISOFIX mounting points. There are two metal anchors (welded to the floor) under the upper part of each rear seat, and there is a single anchor in the rear side of each rear seat.

I have unsuccessfully tried to install an ISOFIX base of an ISOFIX-compatible child seat (category 0+).

The problem was that the rods in the base, which are supposed to go under the upper part of the seat and attach to the floor anchors, are not nearly long enough. The base hits the upper part of the seat long before the rods reach the floor anchors below the upper part of the seat.

See the attached pictures. Picture 2 shows the unsuccessfull attempt, and the floor anchor is slightly visible between the upper and lower parts of the seat.


I thought that any ISOFIX child seat should be compatible with any ISOFIX car seat. Has anyone had issues with this length and how to resolve them?

The child seat makers normally have a good customer service department.
Why not send your pictures to them, they may be aware of the issue and supply extension arms. It's not really something you want to get imaginative with.
Chris

On all the isofix bases I've had the 'rods' normally extend by using the slide button on the side of each one. Then once they attach to the isofix anchors, they click and lock in place each time you push the base towards the back of the seat. Not sure if that's any help.

Geezer Dan is right.
The arms on the child's seat should fully extended first. There should be a release lever somewhere on the child's seat to allow those arms to extend,
Once extended, you then push the arms onto the anchors ensuring you get a positive "Click" as they lock,
Try to sharply pull the seat off the anchors to test that they have locked properly. (There should also be a green colour indicator showing that it is locked) but I always did a physical check too.
Then when satisfied that its locked, push the seat firmly rearwards, this shortens the arms - they're on a ratchet. It's that ratchet that needs to be released to extend the arms.

There's a section in this video covering Isofix fitting HERE

(The video shows two yellow 'cup's being fitted over the anchor points - these help by pushing the seat fabric out of the way, and also protect the seat fabric from wear/damage when pushing the arms onto the anchor points. They're removeable but I used to leave them in so you can easily see where the anchor points are next time you fit the child's seat)

Hope this all makes sense

Thank you all very much for the help.

The child seat which I tried does not have telescopic (extensible) mounting rods to attach to the floor isofix anchors (I double checked and really tried to extend them). I contacted the manufacturer and got a written confirmation that the product is not compatible with Jimnys.

A couple of friends who have children looked at the attached pictures and commented that the rods on that product are so short that they doubt it could be installed in their vehicles as well.

I learned in the meantime that the isofix standard does not guarantee a product vs. vehicle compatibility. It only defines certain aspects of attachment methods and leaves the specifics to vehicle and seat manufacturers.. Therefore vehicle vs. product compatibility should always be determined on an individual case (combination) basis.


Does anyone have confirmed experience with a certain isofix child seat in an isofix equipped Jimny 3?

I also wrote a brand new wiki article regarding this subject.

You could pop in to your local dealer and have a look at a Suzuki one.
Suzuki certainly don't make child seats so a genuine one might give you a clue (conformity tag might read Britax for example). That would give you a choice, Suzuki or origin brand. Just a thought. Chris

Some, if not most of the Britax seats were in the very top categories of safety in seat tests - although this is going back some years I see no reason that is still not the same.
The Britax seats were very easy to extend, had a very positive 'click ' when they locked as well as a green coloured visible indication, and I can't imagine them not fitting every Isofix vehicle manufactured!

Side impact protection is hugely important and we kept our son using a child's for as long as possible because booster seats offer no side protection. Choose a good quality seat that has a very long age/weight range, and don't let peer pressure make them wish to not use it - I can almost guarantee it will happen as they grow older, and their friends tell them that a child seat is 'babyish'!