Are cosatto car seats really that bad?

[mylittlesandwich]

So before DS was born I knew very little about car seat safety. I went to a talk at mothercare and they only really covered isofix vs seat belts and that rear facing was safer.
I bought a seat that will keep DS rear facing to 105cm and was quite happy with my purchase. Fast forward a few months and I'm now doubting if the seat I shelled out for is safe enough. Sadly I can't really afford to replace it at the moment. It's isize compliant but cosatto don't have any seats plus tested and as this one can forward face it wouldn't pass anyway.
I can't find any stats for it online so I might not be looking in the right places, it's the cosatto come and go I-rotate.

There is a car seat group on fb who are fabulous and could probably find out for you.

Or on here there is a carseat section.

I think its @bertiebotts ?
Who is quite knowledgeable.

car seat page

And its @BertieBotts

I'm on a couple of car safety Facebook groups. From what I've learnt there the Cosatto infant carriers are safe but the seats for older children aren't as well tested as others. I definitely reccomend the Facebook groups

Hi OP

The cosatto seats are rebranded - that is, Cosatto contract out the development and testing of their seats to a generic manufacturer. These generic manufacturers often supply various child equipment brands with identical seats and so you can sometimes find the testing by spotting the difference with seats under brands which are popular in different countries.

The Come and Go rotate was tested under the name "Heyner Multifix Twist" and received the score "Satisfactory", which isn't great, but also isn't awful. It's the lowest passing grade, basically.

I don't know if Which? have the Heyner seat listed in their testing, it seems unlikely as Heyner don't trade in the UK where Which? is based. If they have, you could look up the individual test result comparing forward facing to rear facing.

It is quite possible that the "Satisfactory" test result refers to forward facing mode, and it performs absolutely fine in rear facing. Rear facing is extremely safe, so much so that generally it doesn't really matter which seat you use for it. It's forward facing seats where a poor quality one can make a huge difference.

But I am afraid I don't know the individual results in this case.

Thank you, I just feel so guilty that I might have bought him a seat that won't keep him safe. I obviously didn't do my research properly. I have a cosatto pram so recognised the brand.

It's not your fault OP. There should be so much more awareness if this and to be frank, there needs to be better minimum standards in the UK.

Often the Joie car seats are on offer so the Stages might be around £110 ish if you keep an eye out and save up? I second the FB GROUp CSFTL and car seat advice UK.

At the end of the day if you don't have the cash right now there s not a lot you can do but I would advise to save and get a better one when you can. I have seen (for e.g. Axkid) some manufacturers do giveaways on their insta from time to time so would suggest keeping am eye out for those too x

Just checked ADAC results but they only cover the cosatto "hold" not the come and go

I didn't know much about car seats before having DC1 and in hindsight would have chosen differently!

If you are considering getting a better one, Joie seats are good value and well rated safety-wise. You might find there are special offers over August bank holiday weekend.

I've had a look at a few seats I could probably stretch to but they all rear face to 18kg, I'm probably going to need a 25kg one because my boy is quite big and those are more expensive. I don't know if I should hold off in the seat I have until I can afford the dearer one or buy a cheaper one now and then have to replace it again.

If you can't afford to replace it at the moment then try not to worry about it. Yes a safer car seat might make a very slight difference in an accident - but how likely are you to be in an accident anyway?

Save up for a better one by all means, but don't feel guilty about buying a car seat that is safe but not safest on the market. Having a decent sized modern car, being a cautious (but not too cautious) driver and luck also play a big part.

I have dug a bit further for you and found this info from a German site (Google translate - square brackets my notes). It seems that the poor test result may be due to the reclined position of the seat, but also that with a larger child, the whole seat moves quite a lot in impact which can cause a problem. Note also that this testing was done on the original version of the Come & Go, not the i-size version - it may be that the i-size version is improved, although generally it only means added side impact protection. However, if a more upright position is allowed for rear facing in the newer version, it is likely that using that position will give better safety. I would also from this make sure your front seat is as far forwards as it can go.

"These are the backward notes of the MultiFix Twist:
For this reason, we asked the ADAC for the individual grade for the rearward- facing installation of the MultiFix Twist and are disappointed: Unfortunately, the seat only achieved a 3.2 in the frontal impact test even when installed against the direction of travel . The MultiFix Twist was only tested in the lying [most reclined] position, because according to the instructions, only this may be used for rearward-facing installation.

The load on the neck of the Q3 dummy (roughly equivalent to a 3 year old child) was 1,942 N in the test . This is a significantly higher load than we know from good reboard [extended rear facing] child seats. The seat shell yields a lot in the event of a crash, which means that the child's head moves far towards the front seat and there is an increased risk of an impact on the front seat. It is therefore also questionable whether the MultiFix Twist in an upright position - which according to the current instructions is not permitted anyway - can achieve significantly better values.

The seat was not tested with the Q1.5 dummy [18 month old], as experience has shown that backward-facing seats achieve the worst values for the largest possible dummy that is approved for the seat. Any good values for the small dummy, however, do not comfort the only satisfactory marks for Q3, after all, the seat should be able to safely protect a child in all variants and until the end of the period of use.

Heyner's MultiFix Twist passed the ADAC test with an overall grade of 3.2 , but it does not meet our requirements."

www.familiebaer.com/kindersitztest-2019-adac-stiftung-warentest-ergebnisse/

Cosatto don't trade in Germany, hence why they are not listed at the bottom of the review, but Welldon is, and you can find other references online to Cosatto = Welldon. (You can also see it's the same seat with different fabric, if you compare directly pictures of the Cosatto and the Heyner Multifix Twist).

It's a bit tricky because Mothercare can't be seen to favour any one brand over another. And it's not always easy to find out which brands make and test their own seats and which are rebranders.

Rear facing is still safer than forward facing in any seat, so if you can't afford another seat at this moment I would keep using it and keep rear facing, in the most upright position that the seat's manual allows and your DS can tolerate (if he is still little, recline doesn't matter as much, and it's better for him not to be chin to chest) and with the front seat as far forward as it will go. The load values they quote for the seat are still good in comparison to a forward facing seat, they are just poor in comparison to other rear facing seats. You can put neck loading values into context with the graphic in this article:
erfmission.com/crash-course-crash-testing/#:~:text=Swedish%20PLUS%20Test&text=This%20is%20a%20voluntary%20test,neck%20in%20a%20frontal%20collision.&text=The%20crash%20forces%20the%20neck,facing%20%E2%80%93%20compared%20to%20rear%20facing.

People are recommending the Joie Stages, but I can't in all conscience tell you this will be better! The same website has a breakdown of the results for Joie Verso, which is the rear facing only version of the Every Stage, and they are fairly similar - slightly better results on the neck loading but not by much. Joie seats are wonderful - rear facing affordable at any budget - but it doesn't make much sense to replace one "not the best rear facing seat" with another. It would be a good replacement if you were using a cheap forward facing seat.

The cheapest plus tested seat is the Britax Max Way.

Not sure if link worked - the purple graph in that blog post, anyway.

Yes I would absolutely keep him in it while you save up for a 25kg seat if that's your long term plan. It is likely that this seat still protects smaller children better - bear in mind it is with the 3yo dummy it got the poorer result, and that even that "poor" result is still better than most forward facing seats. So don't worry too much about it. Car seats sold today, even the most basic ones are huge amounts safer than the seats we were driven around in, and we know that car seats save lives even when you go back and look at studies from the past where car seats were much less protective than they are today.

Always read the manual and make sure you're using it correctly and don't stress too much over which seat you already have.

The Britax Max way is £199 but the Max Way Plus is on offer for £215 at the moment which is an excellent deal!

There's also the Britax Two Way Elite, not plus tested as there's a FF option, but it's good for rear facing isn't it? And only £160 at tonykealys.co.uk/products/britax-two-way-elite-cosmos-black

I don't know how the two way elite compares to other rear facing seats. I suspect it's better than the cheaper 18kg/105cm ones which have recently come on the market, simply because there wouldn't be any reason to still sell such an old seat (it's from the 90s!) if it was crap compared to modern ones, and because a lot of the older blog posts which reference all ERF seats being under 1000 N neck loading are pre these cheaper 18kg seats being released, but on the other hand - it is from the 90s and there are more modern seats around. Plus most people tend to purchase the comfort insert as it's not very padded, which brings it up to £180 which is the same as Max Way / Diono Radian 5. And you either have to import it (no support) or get it from the in car safety centre who charge £180 anyway.

The Max Way is normally about £180, which is as cheap as you can get one generally, and if you can find voucher codes or haggle then you might even get it cheaper.

I know the MWP has a good offer at the minute but I don't think the OP can stretch to £200+ at short notice.

Fair points.

OP maybe you could save up and buy one of the 25kg seats that Bertie recommends in the Black Friday or new year sales?

@BertieBotts thank you. It still has one recline position in rear facing mode. I had been looking at the MWP when I was able to replace. It's such a good deal but I just don't have the money.
That information you found while not great does make me feel a bit better about continuing to use it for a few months until I can get something better. He's 9 months but probably nearer the size of a 1 year old.
I've spoken to DH and we're thinking use this one for now and we'll go for the max way plus when we've got more cash. I've just returned from mat leave so hopefully it won't be too long.

Don't worry too much about the deal on the max way plus. Axkid Move is also a really good one which often goes on sale, and Britax Multi Tech 3 is often around that price too and is also good. You don't need £300+ for a 25kg seat :)

Just checked the In Car Safety Centre where they have the MWP deal and they do offer Klarna if that is of use to you. But he might be better in the more reclined seat for now anyway as he is so young. You could always phone up or email the in car safety centre for advice.

The Max Way Plus is often on special offer for £215, we got it ages ago for the same price, so it should come up again. And as Bertie says there are other good seats for similar price.

Thank you both, I know it's unlikely that I'll have a crash but I've had really bad luck recently with vandalism etc and I think it's freaked me out a bit. I have a decent car that should keep us safe if we did crash but you know how it is, all you want to do is to keep them safe.

We had cossatto for our two(now teens) and they were very sturdy. I never looked up studies though as they all have to be fit for the job to be sold in UK.

@BertieBotts sorry to bug you again. Is the max way as good or almost as good as the max way plus? It's on offer at the moment and I could afford to pay it up over 3 months which is an option.

Yes the max way is a good option :) it's got a bit less side impact protection and the headrest isn't as padded. Those are the only differences.

I have heard britax are strict about the fit list so you might want to check your car is on it.

Already checked, it's on there fine.

That's it ordered in a lovely blue colour. I should never need to buy a rear facing seat again!

Yay! :)