how do you work out which car seats fit your car?

[MyMrKnightley]

Ok confused mum to be needs HELP!

All the car seats state that you need to check which car seat fits your car but not how to do this. I live in the middle of nowhere so don't have a John Lewis or car safety centre nearby.

Spoke to a lady in mothercare who seemed very vague about it all really, so any experience of mothercare in this area? She seemed to suggest you ordered the seat and then when it arrived they checked it in the car. Seemed abit arse about face to me.

Have got a halfords near but mixed reviews about whether they're any good. Also don't think they sell the easyfix base from maxi-cosi which I like the idea of, easy to put seat in and out and the seats I hear good things about. Also the fact that if we get a car with isofix then this base will still be suitable for baby number 2 with the new laws on I size isofix a must is a plus.

Sorry for the ramble but confused.

No help sorry.
We just bought a car seat that you thread the seat belt through?

If you like the maxi cosi I would start with their website. You input what car you have, model, year etc and then it tells you which of their range is compatible.

Mothercare can also check this for you. I had a very knowledgeable sales person who knew exactly what she was talking about, so maybe speak to someone else when you go back.

One tip on isize if you end up getting that - I don't think you are able to order online, think you have to do it in store (at least ghats the case with the maxi cosi pebble plus and 2 way Base which I got - both Mothercare and John Lewis say you can only order in store)

You've probably already bought your seat, so maybe I'm a bit late in responding, but I would say to use the Maxi-Cosi website with caution! It told me that their seats would fit fine in both my car and my husband's (neither of our cars has Isofix) but when we went to John Lewis to buy the seat and base, they told us that the seatbelts on our models woould be too short for the seat and base we had selected, and we had to choose a different model. We did try them in our cars to check, and they were absolutely correct!
It's also worth checking if your car has a top tether point (ours don't) as a lot of the Group1 seats need one.

Re the iSize laws, it won't stop you using a non iSize seat if you already have it , but you won't be able to buy a non-isize seat after August. You can retro-fit isofix points to most cars (that's what we're doing) We ended up using the Maxi-cosi Easyfix base, fastened in using the car seatbelts and it worked fine for us, but now we're getting the next size seat it's worth getting the Isofix put in.

Non- I-size seats will be sold until at least 2018, and will be legal to use for some time after that.

I think there are currently less than 10 I-size seats on the market, so it's definitely not going to be the case that after August you won't be able to buy an 'old' ECE R44/04 seat!

albertgirl do you have a Ford Focus by any chance?

Are you on Facebook? There's a great group on there with v knowledgable people that can advise you. Group is called 'Car Seat Advice for Mummies and Daddies'. I'd start there.