Car Seat for Jeep Renegade

[SchnitzelvonKrummsverylowtum]

I spent the afternoon in Mothercare trying to buy a car seat for DS to go in our Jeep Renegade, and couldn't find one suitable for DS that is approved for the car.

DS is 2 and 2 months, weighs just over 16kg and is about 97cm tall.

Ideally we would like an isofix seat (though this isn't essential) with a harness. Apparently he is heavy enough to have a seat which just used the seat belt but I think he is far too young for this, and I am not comfortable with the idea at all.

Today we tried the britax evolva 123, and the cosatto hug, neither of which fitted the car. We also tried the cybex Pallas m-fix, but DS wasn't keen on the impact shield and it was extremely difficult to do the seatbelt up around him and the impact shield.

I liked the look of the britax advansafix but this isn't approved for the car.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can try next? We have exhausted the options I can find and we need a car seat for DS!

Gosh, he's big for two! I think you need to be looking at an extended harness seat unless you're happy for him to be in a booster by three, because if he continues the way he's going, he'll have outgrown Group 1 before he is three years old. He'll hit the weight limit at about three and they normally outgrow in height before then. That means even the combination booster with harness seats won't be any good because the harnesses are normally only designed for up to 18kg and a little shorter than the average height at 18kg. Also, isofix is only approved up to 18kg, so if you get a seat which harnesses later, most of them are not isofix any more (or dual fit isofix+seatbelt).

So you need to look at seats which will harness up to the next weight category which is 25kg. This might be harder to find. Do you mind saying what area of the UK you're in? If you're near any branch of the In Car Safety Centre they would probably be able to help you, they are experts at this kind of thing.

What seat is he in now and how does he fit into it?

From a quick look it looks like your options are the Britax Advansafix, which, even if it's not officially approved, might be worth trying it out to see how it fits, the Britax 2 way Elite, and the Diono Radian 5. I can't see any others which harness to 25kg and are forward facing.

There are the BeSafe iZi Plus or the Britax Max-Way, harnessed to 25kg but only rear-facing which you might not want (though it is safer). Concord Reverso plus is RF only, harnessed to 23kg/105cm (weird mix there).

Lastly there are some isize seats which are approved up to 105cm, which is likely to be a bit higher than the normal Group 1 height range, and the weight limits are slightly higher too: 18.5 or 19kg. That's the Nuna Rebl, Maxi Cosi two way Pearl, Joie i-anchor, Cybex Sirona M2 i-size.

If you end up with a seat which only harnesses to 18 or 19kg and you need to look at a booster in a year's time, it would be worth looking at the Britax Kidfix 2 - because this one has a special extra feature which prevents young children from submarining under the seatbelt.

Unfortunately, none of these seats are cheap

Thank you for your response! At the moment he's in a maxi-cosi pearl, but I'm expecting DC2 in 6 weeks and we'd like to use the base for the pebble, and as he is so big thought it would probably be good to look at our options now, as I can't see the pearl lasting too much longer.

I'm in South Wales, so quite a way from the In-Car Safety Centre.

I have e-mailed britax to ask about the advansafix. At Mothercare they told us that britax are very strict, and they wouldn't even try to fit the advansafix because of that.

I'll look at your other suggestions - I don't mind the idea of him rear facing, as long as the seat is suitable for him and the car. I'm not sure how he would feel about it though!

I hadn't realised how many problems his size would cause when it came to car seats!

Look at Little Treasures in Abergavenny or Simply Baby in Newport. They look like they have a better selection of these kinds of seats than Mothercare, and so they might be better informed. Mothercare staff's car seat training is very poor, in my opinion. There's a list of stockists on www.rearfacing.co.uk which will tell you shops that sell extended rearfacing seats (they tend to stock the later-harnessing ones, too).

Yes, it's a pain when they are big because of the way the Groups system in car seats work - because you're effectively forced into the next "stage" of car seat when he might not be ready for that, behaviourally/developmentally. The i-size seats are changing the way this works but there aren't many on the market yet and hence not much variety.

He might well find rear facing a novelty, especially if he can look out the back and wave at other cars!

Looks like the Max-Way is approved. But so is the Evolva, and yet you found it didn't fit. So I think it's worth trying to get hold of the models you want to look at if you can and try it out in the car.

Thanks so much for this - I'll give britax a call tomorrow and ask for their advice, as I can't find a stockist locally for the 2 way elite, and would like their opinion on the advansafix.

I'll also call little treasures in Abergavenny and ask what they have in stock that we can try in the car.

Who knew it would be so hard to buy a car seat?!

The only stockist of the Britax Two Way Elite in the uk is The In Car Safety Centre incarsafetycentre.co.uk/product/2-way-elite-cosmos-black/

Looks like the Radian is stocked at the Discount Pram Centre which has two outlets in South Wales. But again no info on their site as to fit.

Just tell your DS to stop growing