Britax First Class Si - fitting and opinions

[JudysDreamHorse]

My DS is nearly 7 months but has almost outgrown his maxi cosi car seat. I'm keen to keep him rear facing for as long as possible and had been looking into seats which would fit our honda jazz.
DH however has just been in the loft and found a Britax First Class Si (we were given it 2nd hand last summer from a very reliable source - very sure it was not involved in an accident - and forgot all about it). Does anyone have any experience of it? Is it a good seat? I know Britax rear facing seats get bad Which? reviews as they can be difficult to fit. And how can I find out if it will fit in a honda jazz.
Thanks in advance.

We have one, well it's not being used any more but it was very good. Try the Britax fit finder on their website to see if it's meant to go in your car, or basically just try it and see.

Btw we used it from birth to three then got a Kiddy seat instead, really liked the Britax, the only thing was the seatbelt straps and the escaping problem - ever present sadly! Otherwise excellent, and it reclines a bit in forward facing at least (not sure if in RF)

It could be quite old - we have one that is expiring soon so do check the date stamped on the back of the seat. It will be stamped on the plastic back of the seat is a grid, there is a 'pip' in each square for each month/year, the last 'pip' is the month of manufacture. Add 6 years to that date and if it is near todays date I'd seriously consider getting another seat (especially if it has been stored in a loft - fluctuations in temperature can cause stress fractures in plastic which may be too small to see).

The Britax FC is a good all rounder and if you have locking/retracting seat belts, it is a pretty good seat rfing. Though, as a caveat, you do have to 'post' the baby under the shoulder part of the seat belt when it's installed unless you go in the other side of the car.

If you don't have locking seat belts rfing install is likely to be very sloppy. You can tell if they lock by pulling the seat belt all the way out and letting it retract a bit, if you can then pull it out again with out having to reset it (letting it go and it retracting it all the way back to it's shortest setting) it's not a locking seat belt.

If you want a fantastic cheap rfing then ffing high back booster car seat the Volvo rfing seat (really a de-branded Britax Multi-tech) is approx £130 from Volvo dealers and will last until around age 7/8. It rf from 9-25kg and from 15kg-25kg as a ffing high back booster.

Thanks for the comments Ingrid and Truth. I've had a look on the fit finder and the seat is no longer listed but the current first class seat fits (though only in the front RFing). It may be immaterial though as the girl who's seat it was is now about 6yo. Will have a look at the Volvo rfing seats so thanks again.

If the previous owner had it from birth it may well be older than 6 years depending on how long it was on the shelf for. Our one that is expiring soon is from DD1 who has just turned 5 but we bought the seat fairly early in pg and it wasn't hot off the factory floor when we got it either.

I've just stripped down another seat to take to the tip and it's not even 5 years old yet (DOM June 06) and it has visible stress marks on the plastic even though it was a spare and not used very often. I'd be very wary about the seat even though it would have been given to you with the best of intentions.

Also, a baby bucket/carrier is only out grown if there is less than 1" of shell above the head or if the child weighs more than the maximum allowed weight (13kg if group 0+ or if unless it is a group 0 it's 10kg).. It doesn't matter if the legs over hang. Though I'm probably just telling what you already know!

Thanks truth. DS has a very long torso (!) so his head is almost at the top of the Maxi Cosi. We'll definitely get a new car seat for him I think - I'm quite risk averse in this area! Any tips for stripping down the seat? I had read you should do it so that no one else picks up the seat.

Unthread the straps - there is a metal clip at the back of the seat that the harness slots on to so the harness height can be adjusted/or removed - and take off the cover. They can be disposed of in normal household waste (or if you are planning on getting another FC you can keep the cover as a spare).

The shell can be broken with a sledgehammer or jumped on, if you are that way inclined, or if there is any EPS foam on the seat that can be pulled off too. The shell and the EPS foam can then be just taken to the tip though I would put them in separate containers/areas just to be sure.

Some people do write on the shell something like 'Broken', 'Expired' or similar. If you are taking the seat to a municipal tip they should have rules on not removing items from the site so you wouldn't need to whereas if your council allows large items to be collected from the roadside I definitely would write on it just in case someone saw it and decided to take it.