[ddk632]

Interesting. Down here it's the fire department that offers this as a service, maybe try them for a second opinion.

BMW does make a couple of car seats, but I believe they are all forward facing, which is usually minimum 20 lbs and over age 1 (they all say keep rear facing as long as possible). You didn't mention how old your child is but I am guessing newborn (or soon to be) if you're just now trying to figure this out, and that you are installing a rear facing seat since that's the only way an armrest can hit a baby.

We have an Orbit infant seat which gets installed onto a circular base (and turns, its pretty cool) and the front tip of it is about 8" off the seat. That may be high enough to block the armrest pivot and prevent the armrest from going down. Not 100% sure though. We have two kids so no using the middle for us.

I would suggest to go to the local parental extortion store (i.e. Babies R Us) and try out a couple of car seats and see if any of them sit high enough off the seat and block the armrest pivot.

The only downside to installing in the middle is lack of LATCH connectors, meaning you have to secure using seatbelt, so it's a trade off. Those LATCH connectors are pretty sturdy. Fwiw we never used the middle even with one child, and in the X6 it's ok for my wife as passenger, just enough room not to be uncomfortable.

Btw, one of the arguments against installing in the middle seat is that in a rear collision, there is nothing to stop the baby seat flying through the windshield if it gets unmatched somehow. I don't have any studies to cite, but my gut feeling tells me that either way, you can't win - you trade off one piece of mind for another potential danger. We chose the side because in a side impact with the side curtain airbags and the sturdy BMW construction, plus the front seat in front of the child seat, it was in our opinion the safest option. Also rear collisions are more common the side collisions.