Nuna Rebl fails ADAC test

[FruitBadger]

I purchased a Nuna Rebl last year for my Son and became aware of the post on Nuna's Facebook page earlier today. Fortunately my retail has confirmed they are prepared to offer a refund or exchange if I wish but want to other families who have purchased this carseat know what has happened...

Nuna UK's Facebook Page

This has just come to my attention too I'm so disappointed. Which retailer did you purchase yours through? I have sent an email to mothercare. It's been given a Which Don't Buy!!

I've contacted Mothercare and currently they are not offering refunds or exchanges. their response was: "The test which the car seat failed was an independant one by a German company. The car seat comply's to ECE R129 standard and so no refunds or exchanges will be given"

I've just posted on their Facebook page. I'm not sure my retailer will exchange (small independent) but I've emailed them and Nuna. After laying out £400 I'm fuming.

I'm hoping the DM are reading this thread as it's an actual public interest story rather than the usual stuff they like to report from mumsnet!

I bought mine through a small independent retailer that specialises in ERF seats. Nuna have instructed some retailers to offer exchanges or refunds on a "goodwill" basis. Fortunately my retailer is one of those. Very disappointing, for a product with a premium price tag I'd expect a premium performance.

If Mothercare aren't helpful and you paid via credit card it might be worth looking into whether you can claim via Section 75

I've been caught up in it too and been fobbed off with the 'retailer refund' from Nuna but Mothercare are saying they can't refund without a recall. I've been on the phone to the CAB's Consumer Helpline to try and get advice and am waiting for someone to call me back.
Researching other car seats in the meantime as I'm not happy at all to put DS back in the Rebl!

I'm researching other seats too. I need to get DS to and from Nursery today and tomorrow, c12 miles on A roads. I'm going to carry on using it for the next couple of days because it did pass the iSize tests and Nuna are apparently adamant it's either a faulty batch of seats or something ADAC did in the test. I will be replacing it with something else at the weekend though.

They keep saying "but it meets ECE R129 standards". The ECE R129 only tests up to 30mph!! So they are essentially saying it's safe ONLY up to 30mph. If you crash at 40mph the seat detaches from the base and you are putting your childs life at risk. So ridiculous :(

hanflan that also doesn't take into account that if you were to have a head-on collision with another moving vehicle the impact speed would be your speed + theirs so if both travelling at 40 then impact would be 80mph! I tried pointing this out to Nuna when the woman tried to argue that "in real life you won't hit a brick wall at 40 mph because you would react and brake" but she didn't seem to understand. Not very reassuring!
FruitBadger I'm definitely replacing - their response is in no way reassuring and I'm afraid they now just come across as a money grabbing greedy company unconcerned with safety or a good reputation!

The which report is here www.which.co.uk/news/2016/10/first-i-size-child-car-seat-to-fail-which-tests-455155/

Really stressed about it, obviously don't feel safe to keep using it other than for the two mile crawl to nursery, where we certainly won't exceeded 30mph. Nuna's response isn't reassuring at all and this will seriously damaged their brand if they don't deal with it in the right way. Looks like we'll need another seat too, anyone know of anything similar? It was the erf, swivel and isofix which were important to us.

DH set the hoover on fire two days ago too, this is an expensive month!!

Cybex Sirona was the other one we were looking at. Has great reviews.

Oh yes, I remember we tried that before when car seat shopping. It was fine for rear facing but I didn't think dd would take too kindly to the impact shield if we ever front faced her. Regular seatbelts cause enough tears :-(

Two way Pearl?

Think I've narrowed it down to three options, all of which have passed the Swedish Plus test. I'm avoiding iSize seats because DS is tall and will be over 105cm not long after he turns 3 (an aspect of iSize that I hadn't fully appreciated when I bought the Rebl). If anyone is interested my shortlist is...
Axkid Minikid
Axkid Rekid
Besafe izi plus

I did look at the Britax Max Way too but my retailer doesn't physically have this in stock and I want to be able to walk out of the shop on Saturday with a new seat.

I've discounted the Diono Radian 5 because it scored the same as the Rebl with ADAC .

The new Sirona which complies to i-size regulations (called the M2) doesn't have the shield, it's just the normal 5 point harness.

I think the other comparable swivel seats are the Maxi Cosi AxissFix and Joie 360.

I don't trust the Joie until proven otherwise, it's made by Nuna.

The AxissFix only rear faces until 87cm in height, DS is 85cm now and only 22 months, so that stirkes it from my list.

The Britax dual fix is a really really good seat. We were stuck between that and the nuna. Glad I went for the Britax now. X

We chose the axkid minikid over the nuna rebl due the difference in weight restriction. So glad we did now but I feel for you all.

Thanks, we went to try a couple, the old cybex sirona (store didn't have the new version) and the britax dual fix. Might get in the new cybex to try, but apparently it doesn't swivel. DH has a dodgy back and finds the swivel very useful. Looked at the axiss too but even for tiny dd it wouldn't rear face for long so that one was out. Will investigate the other ones mentioned.

It just sheared right off the base

Just in case anybody's not familiar with the ADAC, it's not a consumer body like Which, it's the largest German car breakdown company (equivalent to AA or RAC) - but they also do loads of car-related tests.

The ADAC used to have a pretty good reputation, but last year it came out that they were faking results in their own surveys, loads of resignations, breast-beating, etc.

I think the product tests are fairly reliable though. We've certainly always consulted them before buying tyres, bike helmets, etc.

Here's the test itself.

The seats are divided into different age groups. The 'grades' are on the far right - like German school grades, they go from 1,0 at the top to 6,0 at the very bottom - 5 and below is a fail. So the top grades go to the two Cybex models for babies under a year, and the Kiddy Phoenixfix for 1-4 yo. Shocking that the three models which failed were the most expensive.

There was a comment that a higher proportion of seats failed than would usually be expected.

Really shocking. Only had it for 2 months too, £400 down the drain. Can't believe they aren't recalling it.

I was at the Baby Show Olympia last Sunday and had a demo of the new Jane Gravity car seat. It was much like the Nuna Rebl but was cheaper and unlike the Rebl the headrest was flush to the shell so obviously more comfortable. Had three Jane pushchairs in the past and two Jane car seats, all of which have been great. Hope that helps.

I'm gutted. Itnoffered the best support for my disabled daughter with no tone. What else is there for us?!

Don't Panic!

Obviously we will be replacing ours as the result is shocking! However if you read the full review in forward facing mode it had good safety results. This means you can be confident that your child is safe to transport forward facing whilst you sort out a new seat.