My girlfriend is getting fat and grumpy. The situation was a bit of a suprise but I have to say I'm pretty stoked. The only problem is we have pugeot 206 gti, 2 bugs and a motorbike, none of which will make the greatest family vehicle. The pug and 1 bug will have to go to make way for a Mazda sp23. I want to keep my 1500 but it dosnt have rear seatbelts or anchors in fact it has no seat just two toolboxes. Does anyone know how the laws have changed? Are people ferrying thier kids about in bugs still? I'm in Perth if that makes any difference.

Cheers
Seanan.

Get a kombi!
seriously. Use your aircooled knowledge to run a reliable 8 seater. Or remove a row to have 5 seats and more luggage space than you can poke a stick at. Pretty soon you'll be lugging a pram and a 'baby bag' full of changes of clothes and nappies - more than you realise.
And you might want to take a porta-cot, and an esky.

That being said, we now use our 79 bus as my daily to and from work. My wife has a 98 Caravelle - and that is a very nice family vehicle with tonnes of room. Highly recommended. Shop around and get a great T4 for less than $10k.

Well unless she's expecting Quintuplets a Kombi is probably over kill.

Seanan, one of my bugs had a kiddie seat mount and belt in the back.

There was an ancor point bolted to the firewall below the back window and the left seatbelt was replaced with a special lap type one.
I still have it somewhere but dunno if its all still there but proof that its possible anyway

I had 2 anchor points fitted to the firewall below the back window - they were fitted by an authorised seat belt fitting company - they used square metal plates behind the firewall, fitted them through the air grill, then fitted nuts on them - very fiddly but possible. We then fitted harness type belts to the standard seatbelt (I think it had a fitting on it to essentially make it a lap belt) and the harness had a belt that went to the back anchor point.

This was when my daughters were young - they are both in their late 20s now - but the holes are still there (with bolts in them to fill them up) - so it is possible.

I've fitted two child restraint points to my Beetle. Is was the first thing I did when I got the car home.

I didn't want to drill through into the air vent area, so I remove dthe engine lid and drilled throgh the rear firewall as high as possible, keeping them even on both side for asthetics. Worked very well.

Thanks a lot guys that's made my day.
I'm glad the beetle can stay.
I'll add this to the ever growing to do list.

mate get them done by someone qualified as it takes a lot more than ill just bolt it up here with these spare bolts i have floating around.

I don't know about other states, but here in Victoria it is quite legal to fit child restraint points yourself. VicRoads even provide instructions on their website. You can buy the ADR approved kits with all the parts you need (hi-tensile bolt, washers, spreader plate etc) in any auto parts store or K-Mart, Target etc for around $10 each.

But if you are not confident in your abilities to do it properly, certainly take it to a professional.

Cheers,