Car seat for 3yo

[Woteap]

We have an Rf Izi Besafe car seat but our 3yo is outgrowing it - or rather the car seat is outgrowing our car. Can't really extend it out to give his legs enough room without making the front passenger seat unusable IYSWIM! Does anyone have any advice for what car seat to move him to next? He's average on height about 98cm and 15.5kgs. I was thinking of getting a group 1/2/3 - the Recaro Young Sport, Britax Evolva 123 Ultra (is the Ultra different to the Evolva 123 or are they the same?) or Kiddy Guardian Pro but am not overly fond of the impact shield. He gets car sick so the covers need to be able to come off easily and be washable and it would be nice if the seat could be reclined whilst he's in it. Or would i be better off getting another Group 1 seat til he's 4 and then a Group 2/3?? He has a younger brother so they can be passed on but after splashing out on the Izi Besafe I was hoping to economise slightly. Any advice gratefully accepted!

It it needs to recline I would get a get a group one as you can recline them when the child is in it. The 123 you have to decide before you but it in the car. When he is older you can get a 2/3 seat that goes up to a greater height if you have 2 children you will need 2 2/3 seat anyway.

we've put our 3 yr old into a kiddy guardian in DH's car and besafe izicombi in mine as she's just outgrown our britax first class (well she could go FF in it but I prefer the safety of the guardian) means if we need a tall passenger in the front seat we can use the guardian. It took her all of 3 trips to decide she loved the position with the cushion and grandparents are thrilled they can actually really easily get her in and out in the guardian

Thanks! Sleepless - compared to the Izi is the Kiddy lower down in the car -ie Is it relatively easy to get them in and out of? At the mo, if I lift him in/out I usually bash his head on the underside of the car roof! I have a Honda CRV so not exactly a small car. I've also heard the impact shield can make things a bit sweaty on a hot day (not that we've had many of those) - any experiences on that? Cheers!

This is really interesting, as we have had DD1 in a rf Besafe in both DH's polo and my focus.

Now DD2 has moved out of her stage 0 we have put her in the rf besafe in the polo, and in a random handmedown Nania seat rearfacing in the focus.

Behind DH in the polo we have put DD1 into a bog standard Mothercare ff stage 1 seat (she is very diddy so has loads more growing room in it) because although we prefer the rear facing position, DH just needs the legroom to be able to drive the car so we can't fit two rf in there. The small Nania seat in the focus doesn't take up as much space as a besafe.

How do you find the legroom in the Honda with the Besafe, OP?

the kiddy is much lower - that's been a bit of a disadvantage in my parent's lexus as the rear seats are so low anyway that DD complains she can't see out of the window

Hi pookamoo - we had DS1 in the BeSafe in the Honda from when he outgrew the Maxi Cosi Cabriofix at 9mths. He is above average on height (75th percentile) and legroom was fine for ages until he hit 2.5yrs - the headroom was more of a problem as the BeSafe sits quite high up. The BeSafe is behind the front passenger seat and DH (5ft 11) sits with his knees up against the glovebox. I drive (5ft 6) and can't have the BeSafe behind me to still have room. I love my car and don't want to change it just to fit the carseat!
Thanks sleepless - that could be a problem given how car sick DS1 gets!!

pookamoo - most Nania car seats (except the baby carrier/bucket types) only rf to 10kg even the rf to ffing ones. In fact I'd be willing to say all Nania combi seats only rf to 10kg given that I haven't been able to find one when I wanted to get a cheap spare seat. So if your DD2 has out grown her carrier by weight then she has almost certainly out grown the Nania seat by weight too. Sorry!

I'll check, truthsweet thanks!

She hasn't outgrown the carrier car seat, she's almost 20lbs. She just hated it so much and screamed for entire journeys, so we moved her out as soon as was possible.

Will update.

Well have plumped for the Recaro as took DS1 to try them out and that was the one he preferred. However the shop we went to (John Lewis so fairly reputable) claimed that the Britax Evolva 123 wasn't as safe as the Recaro as the bottom of the seat could move forward and swivel slightly upwards on impact. I have no idea where this info comes from or if it's backed up by test results - oddly both sales assistants I spoke to were very keen on the Recaro so it makes me wonder if they got extra commission on those seats. I hope not, I do like JL! Will update on the Recaro in a few months.