Britax First Class Plus - buy online or get fitted in store?

[iamrubyfinch]

I'm thinking of buying a Britax First Class Plus, which goes from newborn to 4 years old. This is my first baby so I've never used a car seat before. They are around £79.99 to buy online and £99.99 to buy from a store where they fit them for you. Every penny counts at this stage, but safety is obviously the most important thing.

Can anyone advise how easy they are to fit? Is it better to get them fitted by a store? Or can it be done easily yourself? Thanks.

Will you not need a carrier type car seat for leaving the hospital?

Our hospital policy is that the baby needs to be in a seat.

and I'd fit it yourself, that way if you need to change car for any reason you know how to fit it in.

We've got one and they are straightforward. You do need a fairly long seatbelt though. I would go into Halfords and get it fitted more so you can check that it actually fits than anything as their advice is a bit iffy at times to be honest, and then say you want to think about it and order online. Or do john lewis still price match?

Our local hospital don't check car seats.

have you checked the britax fit finder to see if it will fit your car?

I've always used a Britax First Class from birth, and never had a problem leaving hospital with the baby in my arms.

Definitely don't rely on any fitting advice you are given on the high street
www.which.co.uk/news/2014/07/major-retailers-fail-to-install-car-seats-safely-374000/

If the Britax website fitfinder says it will fit your car I would buy online. It is not difficult to fit a car seat, the instructions that come with the First Class are pretty comprehensive and Britax make their own fitting videos too.

The main things to remember, that HAVE to be done when installing it rear facing, are to flip the plastic recline foot underneath the seat forwards and to have the seat in the fully-reclined position. It must always be fully reclined when rear facing so that it doesn't rebound in the event of a crash.

When fitted rear facing you should not be able to move the seat about by pushing it at the base/bottom (where the lap belt is - if the lap belt is as tight as it should be then the seat will not slide about). Neither should it move significantly if you were to place your hand where the baby's head would be and give it a good shove (to simulate it being thrown towards the front of the car in a crash). However the seat may feel slightly 'wobbly' if you try to move it side to side by holding it right at the top. You'll always be able to wobble it slightly, but as long as the movement is just slight and the seat is held firm at the base then this is ok.

Thanks for all the advice. Having now looked on the Britax Fit Finder (which I didn't know about before, so thanks) it doesn't fit in the car anyway! Back to the drawing board...

Ideally I wanted a seat that goes from birth to four years, as they seem better value for money but the car has an Isofix base, so any recommendations for a baby car seat that fits onto Isofix?

Or any recommendations for other birth to 4 car seats that aren't too expensive (around the £100 mark)?

Thanks

The first class wasn't on the FitFinder for a long time, if it still isn't it may not have appeared in the list. It's still worth a try in your car if you can find a local stockist.

@FitFlopWaddle Thanks for the tip.

If not look at the Joie seats or the Hauck Varioguard