Recaro Polaric

This is from a Dad's point of view so lets get started.

For

I've had this seat now for a few months. We bought it as our son grew out the infant car seat by 7 months and was too young to be forward facing. I have also read the safety reviews etc regarding extended rear-facing seats and how they are 5 times safer in a forward facing crash. Once I had watched the You Tube videos of forward versus rearfacing crash tests, I could not purchase a forward facing seat.

The seat itself is very padded and luxurious. We got the Bellini grey cover and it is lovely and plush.

We have a Vauxhall Meriva and fits in the car no problem. The seat does sit quite far back, but this is to give room for little legs to dangle rather than be flush against the seat back, but this is unused space anyway.

It is very easy to install. The seat is isofix and also has tethers to the front passenger seat for added safety. The tethers take a wee while to fix and are not really meant to be removed, but there are seat belt style clips to detach the seat easily whilst leaving the tethers in place. It is a heavy seat, so not really meant for carting it about. It would be fine to move between cars or to be removed easily to have a car seat free back seat, but is more suited to being your main car seat and staying in place.

As it is isofix, there is no messing about with seat belts and once installed you only need to do up the 5 point harness and you're good to go.

My son looks very comforable in this seat. it is high up for side impact safety and also means that my son can see out of the side window and the back window, so he has loads to look at. i don't buy into the whole, rearfacing is boredom argument. My son can actually see more than a forward facing car and I have a Brightstarts mirror fitted so that he can see me and I also see him easily at a glance.

the recline option is pretty negligable, but my son fall s asleep comfortably at ever trip over 15 mins in length, so no issues there.

It may seem pricey, but an isofix forward facing seat would cost the same.

Rear facing from 9 months on an isofix with safety straps around the front seats sliding bar.
Quite a large seat due to needing leg room but fitted in our Kia Sedona easily and still left room for the front passenger.
Very comfortable for 13 month old and for a 3 year old we tried in the seat.
Seat has removable side head pads and seatbelt cushions.
Easy to adjust the seatbelt which is on a screw at the back so no rethreading as child grows.
Took a long time to install (about 10 mins)
Baby like sitting in it and sleeps more easily then she did in her 0-9 month seat.
Covers remove easily for washing and wash really well on a 30 wash

Fab rear-facing chair - had to give it a low mark for portability as it's quite a behemoth as I suspect most rear-facings would be.

Isofix fitting though, so incredibly easy to fit.

DD very happy in it - nice and high so she can see out of the window. I'm happy knowing she's got the extra safety of being rear-facing.