car seat for granny's car?

[petuniastar]

hi there - my ds is 1 and I have a britax 2 way elite car seat for my car. I really like the rear facing as read a lot of things about this being much safer.

I had resigned myself to spending another £200 to get the same for granny's car (I can't be doing swapping the car seat around as too much hassle and we both have bad backs - also not that confident of doing it correctly in a hurry). But now realise granny has a 3 door fiat punto so we can't use the 2 way elite anyway (it attaches to the front seat).

So I am looking for an alternative seat - max budget £200. Are there any cheap(ish) rf seats suitable for a 3 door car? I guess I could go slightly over budget if nec. Or else what would people recommend for ff car seat?
My ds is a tiny little thing but we can't use his baby stage 0 car seat anymore as he gets enraged at being all squashed up!

Thanks so much for any help you can give - I keep looking at reviews but so hard to work out what is suitable for a small car.

Could try Joie Stages?

thanks - I'd never even heard of that seat! I just did a search on it and someone said it's a which "don't buy" though due to not being good in safety trials? Not sure if better to be rf in not so good seat or ff in better seat?

Britax dual fix swivels 360degrees which might make it easier to get in and out. But about £300 if you find an offer.

Depending on the weight of your son you could consider something like the Britax First Class. The rear facing weight limit is only 13kgs, but for a small child (like my DD2, who is 27 months old and weighs 23lbs, or 10.4kgs) you can use it rear facing for quite a long time. Then you'd have to turn it forward facing after that, which might not be acceptable to you - I guess it depends on how often he'll be going in that car and how you feel about that.

The First Class has been on sale for £84.99 in most places for ages, but just recently seems to have gone up to £99.99. I think the RRP is supposed to be about £160.

My DD2 is in a Britax Multi Tech, I wouldn't bother moving it to another car as it's heavy. Luckily we only have one car, and since she's so small we can just use the First Class RF or the infant carrier (yes, she still fits in that!) if she needs to go in anyone else's car.

Hi thanks for the helpful replies! The britax dual fix sounds good but not sure I could justify spending so much (more than we spent on his "main" seat) given he's not in granny's car that much.

The britax first class sounds great. Alicemum09 - is it very big? because googling it that's what a few of the reviews say - I wasn't sure if it'd be too big for granny's car. Some people have said things about child being too near the roof of a car but looking at cars outside I don't see much difference in height's of normal cars (not 4x4s etc) so maybe it'd be ok in a punto.

ds is only 21lbs so he could in theory be in his infant carrier I just feel a bit guilty about it as he hates it. But then I'd feel bad putting him in a "less safe" seat when he could still be in the infant carrier iyswim.

We had our two way elite in a 3 door car. It just involved the adult sitting on the seat next to them to strap them in, then getting out again. You can adjust the tethering, depending on how much leg room the kid/front passenger needs respectively. If there's usually only a front passenger when child not fitted, you can just 'pop' the tether buttons, move seat back, and then re attach and tighten with seat forward again when child needs it.

thanks all. I've ordered the britax first class - feel relieved now I can stop researching.

I was about to reply, then saw that you'd ordered a First Class anyway!

But I'll write it anyway, just in case anyone else is reading this and is in a similar situation.

The First Class isn't too big at all. Front to back in the car it takes up less space than the Britax Baby safe infant carrier (not on a base). Yes, it's higher than an infant carrier, and I've had it in a Renault Scenic and now a Peugeot 5008 that are quite big cars, but it would definitely fit in any car. It's the same size as any other Group 1 seat that is forward facing only.

Make sure that when you go to put it in the car rear facing that it is fully reclined. It has to be fully reclined at all times when RF. This doesn't mean it's really laid back though, as the angle of your car's seats will tip it up a bit. And you must also flip the recline foot, the piece of plastic under the seat that swings back and forth, towards the front of the seat to install it RF.

Alicemum09 Thanks for the tips! (sorry I asked a q then didn't wait for reply - I saw a review where someone mentioned having the seat in a Nissan micra which made me think it'd probably be ok- and I had spent so long trawling the web I just wanted to get the thing ordered).