Recommendations for car seat 0+ and 1 for occasional use

[suzytwo]

Hi all,

Longtime lurker, first time poster, I hope to tap into the sage advice of all the collected brains on here.

We're expecting our first little one in July and are currently trying to figure out car seats. We don't own a car, and don't plan to anytime soon, so we use car rentals and Zipcar when we need a car occasionally.

Rather than buy a 0 car seat, we've been thinking about buying a 0+/1 seat which we'd keep at home and use when necessary up until kiddo's 4 years old. The thinking is that we wouldn't get much use out of a separate 0 followed by a 1 car seat, and this way we'd buy once and be done for the next 4 years.

However, I can't seem to find many parents that don't own their own car and still have a 0+/1 car seat (such as Britax First Class or Maxi Cosi Opal), anyone have any experience?

The one downside I can think of is the size of the car seats which might not fit every care we'd hire, is there anything else we haven't thought of?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Suzy

I would get a 0+ seat maybe with a base (the bases fold) britax, maxi- cosy or graco all have good ones. I think the britax one has the longest back so will last the longest. Children can stay in these until they are 13kg or until head is level with the top( they are all a bit diffident so you need to read instructions) These seats are easy to fit in car and go in more cars as they don't need as much belt as the 0+ 1 seats. You also will have the option of putting it in without the base if it fits better.
Then I would get a 123 group seat like kiddy car seat these seats are light and easy to move and really safe. It is safest to keep baby rearfacing as long as possible but the kiddy is reported to be the next best thing.

You will be able to use the baby carseat around the house as a extra seat for your baby.

We have the Britax First Class Plus and think it's great One thing I like about it is that you can keep it rear facing for a lot longer, a couple of friends also have them, they live in a country where children have to be rear-facing until 3, so it is ideal for that. It is quite big, but that is true of any car seat that you would have to store in your house. The Britax website has a tool to check if the car seats fit in certain cars, but I'm sure most cars are ok.
I would definitely recommend it over a 0+ and then a group 1-3 as I wouldn't feel comfortable putting a very small toddler in one of those even though they are supposed to be from 9 months. DS has just moved to one of those from the Britax at 2.4 and DD is now happy in the Britax at 8 mo Am happy that I can keep her rear facing in that a lot longer, and she is a lot happier in it than her 0+ as it is higher and she can see out of the window

We have a first class plus. We got it (as a hand-me-down from a trusted source) when DD was 15/12 and was too tall for her maxicosi cabriofix. She's still happily rearfacing in it at 2yr9m. e also have a besafe izi combi isofix which is brilliant but very heavy

The first class is pretty lightweight to move in and out of the car and not terribly hard to fit (altho not easy but I think if you do it often you'd get better at it) it lives in my DH's car and he takes it out when he has a car full of adults and fits it again or puts it in mum's car in a few seconds, takes me forever but I am very spatially challenged

I agree first class is a good seat If it fits your car rearfacing. My friend had it and it didn't go in either grandparents car rear facing. One of my cars in wouldn't go in as there wasn't enough belt.

I think there's only a potential problem of not enough belt to fit the first class if it's rear-facing? From what I can remember, it doesn't use so much belt in the forward facing mode. What car size do you normally rent? If it helps, we have a scenic and our friends have a focus and it is fine rear-facing in both of those

it's fine rear facing in my mum's hona jazz, my husband's skoda octavia, my dad's lexus and our babysitter's old vauxhaull corsa. The only time we've ever had to fir it forward facing is in our motorhome but that's more because the seats are not deep enough for it to be stable rear facing but it will lock tight and sit firmly forwards (and we decided that was OK as the motorhome usually only goes very very slowly)

wasn't fine in my scenic not enough belt. There is no standard lenth even with the same car.

Thanks everyone for your answers, much appreciated!

Can I just add that iirc the britax first class is not supposed to be used rf over 15kg as the weight is not supported on a crash unless forward facing.