Car seat confusion, brain fried!

[HeadlessChicken574]

I wonder if any of you kind folk can help me please. I want to buy a Group 1/2/3 car seat (universal ISOFIX), which according to the manufacturer will fit in my car. However I double checked in the handbook and it's completely contradictory. The first part says that universal ISOFIX will fit any car, but the second part suggests that only Group 1 will whereas Groups 2 & 3 require semi-universal. Am I seeing this right? It's one car seat, how can this be the case

IL-SU = semi-universal
IUF = universal

The other thing that has been marginally annoying is that while our first child is mega tall, it looks like our second is really quite tiny so we might not get use out of our 25kg seat for the second child. We had to have two of them as well so it cost us a lot for 18m use. We did find the tethering a bit of a pain and even in a big car found the passenger seat had to be pushed quite far forward. Basically in car seat terms it’s much more convenient to have a petite child.

We bought a new car when DC1 was 2, it has more space all around, and we got a Max Way Plus for him. He lasted in the Sirona until 3 in the end but is more comfortable in the Max Way Plus. We have DC2 now and she's in the infant seat atm but will go into the Sirona when she's ready. Our infant seat is not very roomy at all (something I hadn't considered when buying it is that I might end up with huge babies ) so I will have to weigh up the convenience factor of the portable seat v the comfort factor for her.

I expect DC1 will be in Max Way Plus and DC2 will be in the Sirona for a couple more years, then whoever outgrows their seat first, we'll put DC1 in a HBB and DC2 in the Max Way Plus.

The ones that do isofix both ways are the spin seats e.g. Joie Spin 360, Britax Dualfix, Cybex Sirona.

Or the modular ones ie separate base and seat - e.g. MAxi Cosi Pearl Pro

Any thoughts on 25kg RF one in front seat or is that a complete no no?

You can definitely do that. You will need to be able to disable the airbag as it's very dangerous (and illegal) to fit a rear facing child seat with an active airbag.

It can block your view of the side mirror. Some people use a towing/caravan mirror extension in order to make the mirror visible past the child seat. Or the Britax Two Way Elite has lower sides than some others, so is easier to see past.

Apparently in Sweden they consider this the safest seat in the car for a rear facing child, because the front of the car is often reinforced.