BeSafe iZi Combi X4 ISOfix versus Concord REVERSO

[Altron]

Hello
My first post here and was hoping anyone could help with choosing one of the above - both are erfs, and have the safest testing of all the car seats, but I can't find any reviews of the concord at all as it's so new. I like the idea of it as it's so light, my 72 yr old mum will be able to lift it in and out of the car - I'm just a bit worried that when the little one won't have enough legroom - not as much as the BeSafe - but then there's the problem that the Besafe may not fit in our little Skoda fabia (well, it will, but will we be really squashed..?
Anyway...any thoughts would be very gratefully appreciated - also, if there's anyone with either of these who live near Shrewsbury, we'd love to see them and see if they fit in the car..?
Thanks!
Al

[Flingingmelon]

I have the besafe one and it fits fine in the back of my Mini Countryman - not big cars. They are pretty heavy though, we ended up buying two.

One positive though, they are really well designed to work with seat belts, almost as good as with the isofix, if you are using it in a few cars you wouldn't necessarily have to move the base too.

Generally they are great seats though.

[Altron]

Thanks for that! Has anyone bought the Reverso yet?! It sounds like it could be amazing...

[Patfola]

We've got the same dilemma. I have a corsa 05 and other half a fabia 06. My 2 best choices are also the seats you mention. I'm going to try them both out in the weekend and see which is the best fit. I hope it's the Reverso though as I really like it.

[Altron]

Hi Patfola
Please let us know what you think of them...! I don't know of anywhere near here that sells them so it would be a day trip just to look at them. I like the idea of the Concord too - just as safe, cheaper and lighter than the BeSafe...but it would be nice to see and check the recline angle and leg room.
Thanks!

[Altron]

Hi Patfola
Actually I got this a bit wrong - I meant to say the BeSafe izi kid i-Size not the combi...

[Patfola]

Hello, well we spent 2.5 hours trying out different car seats and our daughter was very patient with us. We went 70 miles over to Bristol for the pleasure of seeing the concord reverso. It looked gorgeous but practicality set in. It offered no recline, I don't know why I didn't think of this from the start! It was lovely but my husbands scoda fabia has bucket seats which made all the car seats lean forward slightly. To compensate for this a deeper recline came in handy. We won't be hanging on to the car for much longer but while we gave it we need a car seat that works with it. I was devastated after all the research I'd done that I hadn't envisaged this problem. It sat neatly in the car and left good space for passengers sitting in the front seat in front of it. I still love it but the lack of a recline makes me nervous and £289 is not funny money!
So moving on to the new besafe izi combi x4, also isofix. It looked comfy and wasn't too hard to install. It say fairly high in the car to our daughter could see out of the window and she was so excited!

It has 3 recline settings and dye to our bucket seats we had to set it to the deepest recline to give her the most comfort. This shouldn't be a problem for cars with 'normal' seats. We really liked the height, the fact that the isofix bars can be pulled in and out creating mire keg room when needed, and the seat belt felt sturdy. Needless to say we went for the besafe. We also wanted another car seat for the grandparents who look after Nia full time in the weekday. They bought a joie stages for her but after it's not so recent recall, I'm not raking any chances. I haven't seen any proper reviews of it since it was branded unsafe so I wanted a car seat without the drama. On to the britax dualism. It had some great features, deep seats for a deeper recline, swivel sides so you could put the child in sideways and then swivel the chair toward the refacing position. It also allowed for a forward facing in the 'very' unlikely event we might want to turn her forward facing. I was loathed to spend another £340 but we got a 5% discount. The bargain hunter in me knew we could get it cheaper online but I just wanted to be done with the search so we bought both. I've since read that Which has rated the dual fix a 'don't buy', something that britax have refuted and are unhappy about. They reviewed it last year and said for newborns they didn't think the seat belt could be fastened tight enough to make it safe. My daughter is 15 months old, clearly not a newborn but at £340, do I really want a car seat that's had any kind of safety concerns. It's being delivered today and we're not sure what to do, can anyone offer any advice pls?

[tryingtocatchthewind]

Hi patfola, hope you see this as its a few days since your reply. I'm interested in the reverso and thinking of driving miles this weekend for a look. I need a seat to suit above 18kgs as my first son reached that at 2yr!
Did it not recline at all or just not enough for your seats? I've seen a YouTube video of it being reclined with some sort of dial on the seat. Confused as I so want to love this seat ??

[tryingtocatchthewind]

Oh and the which reviews wouldn't bother me, they are notorious for being hopeless.

[Altron]

That was my thought exactly - although it seems to recline in a different way - by the foot stand adjustment, rather than by using a tilting design like the BeSafe. Does this mean that you shorten the stand on the reverso to make it lie flatter - but, in the process, push the head of the reverso forward towards the car front seat (ie. in a small car like the Fabia there's no room for it to do this..?)

Patfola - Have you checked on the website WWW.car seat.SE whether the britax dualism is featured on there? It's an excellent Swedish website which might offer a different opinion. I would have thought that you would be able to return the britax car seat within 14 days?!
I can fully understand that you would not want to keep said seat. Hope this helps.

[Patfola]

@tryingtocatchthewind: The guy in the shop told me it didn't recline at all. He installed it and said this. I was surprised and immediately discounted it as my daughter was so upright, what with the added incline of the bucket seats. I've since watched the Reverso video on the corn off website and see it can recline , arghhhhhhh! Annoying.
Now I want to return the britax dual fix and possibly buy this but going to see if I can try it again then but it online as it's much cheaper online and returns processes are easier. My Dualfix is a heavy 15kg and I know the whuch review was being picky about the seat belt but at £340 I feel bad about not listening when the concord is only £289. Admittedly the concord had little or no reviews. I wish they'd send me a free in to revie lol!

[Patfola]

Daughter in the besafe x4

[Patfola]

@tryingtocatchthewind
Maybe you're right and the guy meant the concord reverso couldn't be reclined any longer because of the space needed at the back of our car.
Spoke to the shop I bought it from today and I have to drive 60miles to give the britax Dualfix car seat back to get the refund, pain as that's another £40 in petrol but it's my fault I should have done more research and not allowed myself to to 'sold' the car seat.

[Patfola]

Concord reverso: but this car seat is actually for our daughters carers/ grandparents who have a skoda superb which plenty of room so maybe it's a contender all over again!

[tryingtocatchthewind]

That's annoying of the guy to tell you it doesn't recline. You'd think at the very least they would watch a video of the features before selling it as we're supposed to trust them to fit seats correctly. I don't need a seat for another couple of months so I'll cross my fingers for more real world reviews

[tryingtocatchthewind]

Oh and your little girl is gorgeous

[Altron]

Patfola - thank you very much for posting those pictures. It does look like the BeSafe is much nicer with more legroom and with much more room to move the arms. Is this the case? Looks like we might have to buy one of each and keep the nice one

[Patfola]

Thankyou! One last thing about the reverso is that it's a 3 point harness, just as safe as a 5 point with an isofix seat but I think they should have made it a 5-point.

[Altron]

@Patfola - Which would you say is more comfortable / less squashed and easier to use (getting child into and lifting the seat into and out of the car?) please?

[Cockbollocks]

I don't know about the reverso, however I have always bought concord car seats because they are a german company - the car seat standards are higher over there than in the uk and after watching many many crash test videos with their car seats they always come out best for me.

I think you just need to bite the bullet and go to try it out.

[Altron]

Yes - you're right - we've got the weekend planned then!

[Adventuredad]

The X4 is not a good choice for a Fabia or a small car. The seat is more compact than previously but still not a compact seat. Reverso is a compact seat but due to placement of the adjusting knob for recline the seat still is not that compact.

Reverso is new so hasn't been tested externally. This kind of testing should anyway be disregarded. Which!, ADAC, Stiftung Waren, etc. procue nothing more than biased and subjective garbage which is confusing for parents. Which! especially which seem to only have people who know absolutely nothing about car seats. Rear facing seats in particular.

If you want a car seat for a small car then go with Triofix/Triofix Recline which is the most compact rear facing seat available. It will also last rear facing longer height wise and can be installed with Isofix or seat belt.

If you prefer seat belt installation then Britax Hi-Way is your best choice. It's the second most compact seat and is light weight, comfortable, has passed the Plus Test to 25 kg and fits well in pretty much any car small to large.

Reverso is brand new and will soon pass the ultra strict Swedish Plus Test. I've played with the seat on the crash rig and it's very strong. It has some nice features and is simply a nice seat with a completely new design.

The seat is basically a strong frame surrounded by EPP and EPS foam. It's approved for the new R129 standard where seat plus child can weigh 33 kg. The Reverso is ultra light weighing only 10 kg. That means the rear facing weight limit is 23 kg instead of 18 for for all other Isofix seats.

Keep in mind that your Fabia has vehicle seats sloping more than usual so most seats will be quite upright. Head of your child will fall forward when sleeping in most seats. Not dangerous but not comfortable for the child. Dualfix was mentioned above and that is one of many examples of seats which can be too upright.

Hi-Way and Triofix do have very nice angle and works well in a Fabia.

[Lung]

I'd not even heard of the Reverso in my recent researches into a car seat, so thanks for posting this. It looks fantastic on paper.

[Altron]

Thanks @Adventuredad... The Klippan Triofix sounds really good too - we've actually bought that, the Reverso and the BeSafe Combi X4 and see which ones we like (and then send one or two back...) Will let you know which ones we like.

[rb80]

Hi, sorry to jump on this post but I've been researching erf seats for my second rear facing child and been looking at the concord reverso and wondered if i could pick your brains adventuredad? I have a vw polo with slightly bucketed seats and a 7 month old whose head tends to flop forward in her infant carrier when she falls asleep so I'm really interested in the recline function in a quite small car. I'm also considering the britax dualfix. Any thoughts? Thanks

[rb80]

@Adventuredad sorry to pick on you but you seem very knowledgeable!! Wondered if you might have a chance to have a look at my previous post but didn't know how to tag you then.......! Tia