best 9months - 4years car seat?

[WelshCat]

hi, i know this has probably been posted a trillion times on here, but i am about to buy DS a new car seat and im insanely confused.

have a friend who sends me links to crash test videos and scares me, but my knowledge goes as far as thinking maxi cosi and britax are the safest?

anyone wanna correct me? i have been looking at the kiddy pro or something with the padded thing instead of a harness, and while it looks cool and says its safe, i cant find pics of it in a car with the belt on, so cant figure out how it works...

also i want one with some sort of head rest thingy inside the actual seat (like on the opal etc) as it looks much more comfortable, aslo with recline etc...

budget not really and issue as family are paying for DS's birthday present.

please advise me!

[nicm]

Hi, I would look at a rear facing seat. I have a britax two way elite for ds1, and am trying to decide between a britax hi way or maxi cosi mobi for ds 2. Have a look on www.rearfacing.co.uk for more info.


:)

[thisisyesterday]

like Nicm I would go with a rear-facing seat because they're so much safer

we have a britax 2 way elite which is very nice, and a besafe izi combi. i'd recommend either of those

[RufousBartleby]

We have the besafe izi isofix rearfacing and my sister has the non-isofix version, we are both very happy with it.

[sleeplessinderbyshire]

the besafe izi combi isofix is great - very very comfortable for the child and high up so they can actually see out of the windows

[WelshCat]

cool, so the besafe is the front runner then? ill have a look, probably cant get isofix, as it will be moved between cars a lot and a website told me its not safe to mess with the isofix?

[nicm]

For moving a lot isofix is easier. But the besafe I tried was very heavy but the two way elite is very light in comparison. depends too on what car you have and what fits. Either the essex road safety officers or the in car safety centre in belfast or milton keynes have been very helpful when I was deciding on seats.

:)

[thisisyesterday]

if you need to m ove between cars a lot then i wouldn't get a belted besafe.

isofix is fine for moving frequently... you just have to clip it in. but the belted version is a real pain to put in and out, i hate doing ours

the britax 2 way elite on the other hand is one of the most lightweight and easy to install seats i've ever used!

[GreenTeapot]

We looked at the Britax elite and the guy in Halfords (who said he was a car seat trainer) advised against it. He said it was the sort of seat for grandparents or weekends, not every day use. At that stage DD was 6 months and hated her infant seat with a passion and we thought the Britax looked comfier, so maybe now she's 9 months he'd change his mind.

I was under the impression that rear facing is almost invariably safer.

[PeppaPigandGeorge]

Britax duo plus is good and versatile - can be isofixed or used with a seatbelt.

[aswellasyou]

Definitely look at extended rear facing seats. I've got a BeSafe non-isofix (not quick or simple to install really) and a Klippan Kiss 2 (also known as an Akta Graco Duologic II). I think the Kiss is fantastic! It has the benefit of being both isofix and non-isofix. Version 2 has a removeable infant carrier (only to 10kg) that I pop in and out if my daughter's asleep when we get home. It's quite high up and really tall so good for tall/thin children. My sister has a Maxi Cosi Mobi which is rear facingup to 25kg and is ridiculously simple to fit but needs a long space to sit in unlike the other two.

[nicm]

aswellasyou where in b'ham is the clearance place you got the seats? i was telling my friend about it and she asked if i could find out the name of it for her?

thanks
:)

[isthismadness]

The best thing you could do is call the in car safety centre in Milton keynes (google for number)
Linda in particular is fab
Rear facing toddler seats are 5x safer in an accident.
We have the britax 2 way elite and the britax multiple tech both which are great

[aswellasyou]

nicm, it's called International Stock. There's one in Kings Heath and a rubbish one in Digbeth. There was a Recaro Polaric for £105 in Digbeth last time I was there. In Kings Heath they've got loads of car seats-mostly forward facing though. The ones I remember are: Polaric £129/£149, Multi-Tech £149, Kiddy Infinity Pro £89, Comfort £119 and Guardian £129. I didn't look at any others except the ones we bought.

Let me know if she wants to know anymore about where they are or what they've got in there-my Dad lives nearby so I could pop in and have a look.

[thisisyesterday]

greenteapot halfords do not stock the britax 2 way elite. the in car safety centre is the only place in the uk that stocks it, i believe.

it must have been a different seat that you looked at, or else he misinformed you.

halfords, afaik, do not stock any extended rear-facing seat

[aswellasyou]

Halfords do sell the recaro Polaric but I don't think they do any other ERF seats.

[thisisyesterday]

i didn't think they sold it in store though?

[nicm]

hi, thanks aswellasyou. no she's in b'ham so can go in herself.

thanks anyway.

:)

[WelshCat]

is recaro a good make then? i had never heard of it til the other day, its hard to know if youre being sold a piece of crap tbh!!

[Fenouille]

Recaro has a good name for car seats, but have just sold off their auto business to JCI, another pretty well respected car seat manufacturer.

[aswellasyou]

I think Recaros look seriously comfortable but they're really quite bulky so not a seat I'd want if I needed to move it between cars.

[SouthGoingZax]

Kiddy comfort pro if you can't fit rearfacing.
Safest forward facing seat according to which and our DTs love theirs - so easy to fit and get them in and out of

[thisisyesterday]

you should bear in mind when reading Which? reports that they are not a safety test, they are a consumer report. So while, obviously, the safety tests are a part of it, they are not the whole.

it has been the case in the past when the seat that has done the best in the safety tests has NOT been the number 1 seat, perhaps because Which? have decided it is harder to fit, doesn't have washable fabrics, doesn't come in as many colours etc etc

[GrimmaTheNome]

If you can't fit rearfacing, don't change the seat till your DS is over a year. Babies must be rearfacing until then, their spines are not strong enough for a FF seat till (at least) then.

[WelshCat]

i cant not change his seat, his head comes out over the top of the back, i havent been letting him in the car since that happened.

car seat has to fit in a hyundai amica and a vauxhall corsa, as those are the two cars he is in the most. dont know that rear facing would fit in the amica, as his group 0 seat is rammed up against the front seat as it is.... hmm.

[aswellasyou]

My group 0 seats used to be right up against the back of the driver's seat in my Mum's car and I now have a Klippan Kiss/Akta Graco Duologic in the same space. I think the BeSafe might be very slightly longer but I've never put them next to each other. It would probably be best to find a stockist and try them in the least spacious car.