Extended rear facing car seats that dont cost the earth?

[Firstty]

DD is 1 and out growing her car seat. DP drops her and nursery and I pick her up so we either need a seat that is very easy to transfer between cars or 2 seats. I would like to keep her rear facing until she is at least 2. If we need 2 then keeping the cost as low as possible would be ideal but obviously I do not want to compromise on safety. Anyone have any car seats that they would recommend?

If the consensus is that I should suck it up and buy expensive seats then I will do!

We have the joie stages for travel and grandparents cars, very easy to install with a seatbelt and rear faces to 18kg. I believe I got ours from Boots when they had a 10% off promotion.

Britax 2 way elite. RF to 25kg, can also FF to 18kg. Not rockingly expensive and less horrific for needing tonnes of space than the Axkid seats.

I have an AxKid Minikid. RF to 25kg and Swedish Plus tested (more stringent test).

There is a cheaper version, the AxKid Move. With a spare set of tethers they are easy enough to swap between cars.

Joie tilt is very cheap and very good for the money dd is in one now.

If you’re in the vicinity of York I have an unused one to sell (maxi cosi up to about age 6 years).

The Britax Two Way Elite is easy to rear face fix using the seat belt and tether straps, though I'd recommend getting a set of straps for each car so it's just the seat you're moving rather than straps too (extra straps are £20 ish).

Argh, britax 2 way doesn't seem to be on sale anywhere.

I have an expensive one, but will you plan to have more children? Ours is a Klippan triofix but it converts to a high back booster. I have gotten nearly 5 solid years of use out of it and dc2 can use it and 5. It’s solid and well made. Not cheap but for 10 years of daily use, it’s a worthwhile investment if you can afford it. We swap between cars several times a week with no problem.

You can only get the two way elite from in car safety centre in the UK. There's also a website you csn order direct from Finland which sometimes works out a bit cheaper than ICSC even with delivery.

We have a two way elite and axkid minikid, I like both. If you're on a budget go with the TWE for sure. I paid £150 for mine from Finland incl postage and it came within 3 or 4 working days.

lastentarvike.fi - change language to English at the top.

Don't know if you are in the South East, but if you are, you might want to get in touch with Margaret at Rear Facing Toddlers. She is very knowledgable, and will come out to you and fit the seats for free if you buy from her. She sometimes does good discounted deals on particular seats, and only sells the safest ones. I got a Joie Anxhor Advance from her with a free base. Saved a lot of ££££

We settled on a maxi cosi 2 way pearl in case anyone has the same issue. Got a second base (second hand so reasonably priced) and the seat clips in and out easily.