Rear facing car seat meltdown how do we choose

[Liveinthepresent]

Am losing the will to live with all the options available !
Can anyone help?
All I know is I like the idea of rear facing if indeed it is safer ( but please tell me if there are other considerations I haven't thought of)
And we have only one car - VW Golf - not used isofix to date.
Can anyone recommend a carseat?

TIA

Phone up one of the retailers (we went with milton keynes) and say what your considerations are - it could well cut down your options and make the choice easier :-)

We went to see them when we had our golf and with us both being over 6 foot the only one that would comfortably fit in was the britax 2 way elite.

If Milton Keynes is in the wrong direction then there is a place called Securatot in Swindon. (NOt that this helps if you are in Scotland!)

Our car (Freelander 2) could only fit the BeSafe Izi Combi or the Britax Two Way Elite, so we only looked at those two.

The BeSafe is a lovely substantial seat with an easy(though only slight) recline. It is isofix and easy (thought heavy) to fit. It can be used rear facing with isofix or forward facing with the seatbelt, so on the odd occasion we need to put the seats down to make a huge boot, we can move a DC to the front seat front facing (airbag off etc).

The TWE looked like a great seat, but didn't seem so snug for a younger child. I didn't like the way it sat on the freelander's seats because of the shape of the freelander seats. It also seemed more of a faff to move because of the tethers, though it was much lighter to move. It also reclined more.

I am convinced that rear facing is safer. People fly forwards in accidents, so you need to have neck support forward in the car from the child's head (I hope that makes sense!). It is similarly safer to travel rear facing in a train.

There are a few places around the country that really know their stuff when it comes to rear facing. The In Car Safety Centre in Bletchley near MK is very good - they'll talk to you on the phone and make an appointment to try seats if you can get your car there. They've tried many seats in many cars, so can also advise over the phone and send the seat in the post if you can't get there. There are other places around though :)

After a lot of research we got our be safe izi from john Lewis. it is quite substantial but our little guy loves it. the only thing i don't like is sometime the buckle can be a bit of a faff.

Would not have considered a front facing after finding out that rear facing is the safest way until they are about 4 - in Sweden its compulsory to have rear facing.

Don't buy a sat until you've tried it in your car or spoken to an expert who has tried it in the same make and model of car. Just because a seat fits in a car of similar size to yours doesn't mean it will fit in yours. There are lots of variations such as angle of the rear seats, the size of the front seats, even the shape of the dashboard that mean a seat may, or may not, fit.

Thanks so much everyone - will have to dedicate a bit of time to research still but at least I know where to start.
Looks like something like the Besafe is a lot of £££ - but interesting if they stock in John Lewis as thats easiest place to get to for us.