Oh god where to start, baby due at end of Jan and clueless

[QuirkyTiger]

Car Seats, I have looked at threads here but that is not helping me.

I have a wish list about these confusing things. I have no real background with this because last time I helped my brother buy one, it was going into the one car and equivalent of the AA fitted it for him. My cultural background of child rearing in Australia is not helping with the jargon that comes with this field.

We don't own a car so it will have to fit into a variety of cars from cabs to mates cars to hire cars, simple in and out is needed.

From new born to as late (3 to 4) as we can go, we are only having one kid and because it won't get huge amounts of use want to use it as long as possible.

Rear facing and meets safety standards.

No need to be part of a 'travel system' as we have a buggy already and they seem heavier than a buggy.

Easy to get a child in and out when mother is only five foot and father's back is not great.

And good price, we don't have huge amounts of spare cash and we have been looking at sales but there is so much out there.

Thanking you in advance, this is so confusing, more so than cots!

[BertieBotts]

I reckon you want to look at the Joie seats. These seats are excellent for the price, which is low, and they tend to support rear facing for a good long time, which is always a useful option to have. As for fitting into every car, I don't know, but choose a belt fitted one and you should be alright. There is even a Joie seat which supposedly fits right from newborn up to age 12 (when you stop using one) but the ones which cover fewer groups would be fine too, as once your child is out of the bulky harnessed seat stage, you'll probably find it much more convenient to buy a cheap booster anyway.

[BertieBotts]

Make sure you get one which covers Group 0+ since this is the newborn one - then it goes as follows:

Group 0+ - 0-13kg (birth to ~15 months)
Group 1 - 9-18kg (1 year to 3.5 years)
Group 2 - 15-25kg (3-8 years)
Group 3 - 25-36kg (6+ years)

You can see there are overlaps in each group, and group 2+3 seats are normally combined. Ages are approximate.

[BewareOfTheToddler]

The Joie seats are Stages (I think this goes from birth to 25kg, supporting rear facing to 18kg) and Every Stage (supports rear facing to 18 kg and should go up to age 12).

We have just bought the Joie Stages for us, and we don't have a car yet (DS is 2). We have an Every Stage for the grandparents' car, which we've been happy with and it's easy to fasten with a seatbelt.

You definitely need something that can be fastened with a seatbelt rather than Isofix.

Bear in mind that car seats are heavy even before the baby is in them - getting a Joie Stages out of a taxi with a sleeping newborn in would be a pain in the neck. You may want to think about a more traditional baby seat like a MaxiCosi Cabriofix (which can be used on a lot of pushchairs with adapters). These have a handle so you can carry the seat easily with baby in it. This is what we had for DS as a baby - we were in London with no car so would use it on the pushchair chassis for trips to the grandparents, some cab rides, etc. DS was small and light so we got 18 months use out of it. Might be worth considering?