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

iminye30 That may be of some small comfort to parents whose children are old enough to legally face forward and who hadn't intended to erf, it is, however, of no consolation or comfort whatsoever to those of us who are legally required to still rear face our kids in an unsafe seat!

RosieThorn. I completely appreciate that and as I said we will be replacing ours. It was just a post to help those people who didn't know how they were going to get their kids to nursery today safely.
The report is clear that 2 and under was safe rear facing and it was safe forward facing. It was 3 year olds rear facing that was the issue. I was just trying to help people figure out practically how they were going to drive their kids around today.

We got ours from pramworld and have been offered collection and refund or replacement. Very impressed with their swift response.

Not impressed.

I had my son in a besafe and baby in a group 0 seat. When baby outgrew the baby seat I bought a Nuna Rebl so that my eldest could stay rear facing and the baby could go in the besafe.

My son is almost 4 so I'm now thinking of getting a decent forward facing seat for him, getting rid of the nuna and keeping my youngest in the besafe izi. So annoyed we spent the money thinking we were buying one of the best car seats possible.

I wanted the axkid but it won't fit in our car unfortunately.

There's a lot of panic here and on Nuna's facebook page. I've got 2 of these seats, and am obviously concerned having seen the video. However we must put it into perspective. Every car seat on the market will have passed the minimum tests required, so Nuna is quite correct to point out that this one does too, and is therefore considered safe. What I didn't appreciate when I bought the seat was just how low those standards are. The i-Size regulation does exceed the previous regulation as the speed is higher, but it's still only around 35mph. Not many seats have had this ADAC testing conducted, so there's nothing to say that many other car seats may also fail. We may be jumping from the frying pan into the flames!

I really like the swivel function of the Nuna Rebl, it's helped me so many times especially as I'm now pregnant and still having to lift my 14.5kg toddler into the seat when he's not playing ball. I do wonder whether it's this swivel function which has resulted in a weak point, meaning that it fails in this manner.

I do believe this seat is as safe as any other seat on the market. I will be keeping my toddler rear facing in it rather than turning forward facing as this is still safer.

Some retailers have been authorised to exchange for a different brand, or wait for the new "improved" Nuna Rebl in January. They don't know how it's different though yet. Unfortunately we bought from Mothercare which haven't been authorised (yet?).

I don't know what we will do moving forward, we need to weigh up the swivel function against seats which have passed this ADAC test of which there are very few. There is also the Swedish Plus Test, which would rule out the swivel function as well as no forward facing-able seats pass this test.

I complained to Mothercare yesterday and they still aren't responding. I am surprised that they are prepared to risk their reputation and name over this when other businesses are offering refunds. At least I know in future to buy elsewhere!

curiousmonkey I don't think it's panic so much as anger. We have been sold a (very expensive) seat on the premise that it exceeds current safety standards, not merely meets the minimum, and is safe for use for extended rear facing. Now we are discovering that actually the seat is not safe in the face of an impact at a speed which is not particularly high or unusual for the UK. I also liked the swivel function and, like you, found it helpful coping with a toddler whilst being heavily pregnant but frankly I would rather risk my back than my child's life! No-one wants theirs to be the child that proves how unsafe this seat is under real crash conditions but unfortunately that is exactly what Nuna seem content to let happen by refusing to recall. I personally think the anger is totally justified and would never ever purchase anything from this company again (or the associated Joie).

I agree with you, and the video evidence is damning. We just don't know how the alternatives would fare in the same test though, as it hasn't been done. Apparently the new Nuna Rebl is either currently going through or has gone through, and is expected to, or has passed (conflicting information on the internet!)

I've spent lunchtime researching other options, and have a shortlist of 3 now, none of which swivel. My husband and I will make a decision over the weekend about what we do. I'm happy to continue using the seat in the meantime though. My husband (an engineer!) always had reservations about the swivel being a weak point and it seems he was (sadly!) proven right. Nuna are due to call me back on Monday with a decision from their side re exchange/refund, and I'm seeing lots on Facebook about a code which can be given to retailers.

My husband and I are both also engineers - he is now saying he had his doubts about the swivel point but personally I had no such reservations as I assumed it would have been designed, with an additional factor of safety, to withstand the forces it would be subjected to in a crash. It now looks like he was right, I was wrong - I'll never hear the end of it!

Mothercare has replied and sent a very badly written generic response but it says to ring Nuna to obtain a reference number from them, and if I cannot reach a satisfactory resolution to visit my local Mothercare store for an alternative or full refund.

Please let us know how you get on Fuzzy because I'm still caught in the game of ping pong between Nuna and Mothercare with central Mothercare Customer Services saying it's at the store's discretion and my local store saying no refunds until Nuna recall! I don't think I'm the only one being refused an exchange or refund by Mothercare stores either.

Of course Rosie. I received this response and simply called Nuna and said I wanted a reference number so I could get a refund from Mothercare. The conversation was only a couple of minutes and I was given the reference without any problem. Intending to go to Mothercare tomorrow morning and will be insistent that they honour what they have said in their email about refunding.

Just wanted to let people know that if anyone bought their nuna car seat from uber kids- they will collect and exchange it for a recarro zero 1. They have been ace and actually rang me to tell me this! So if you bought it from there contact them asap. X

Mothercare are now refunding in store, no quibble. Great service albeit a bit late.

Just found out about this going to try to exchange tomorrow. What options are you all looking at? We spent so much time researching and still ended up with a dud seat

silverlinings is that with or without the reference number from Nuna do you know? That is where I am having the issue.
jellybean we're looking at besafe models, ones that have passed the ADAC test and the Swedish Plus test. I think it means having to accept the loss of the swivel function though unfortunately.

rosie without. I hadn't known about the reference number from Nuna when I speculatively went into store yesterday...fully expected them to refuse,but they said they had received instructions to refund on request. They did offer me the Nuna Rebl number to call first but I declined and just said I wanted a refund. We bought it back January and I didn't have the receipt but luckily I still had the email confirmation of my order.

Rosie if it helps it was about 1:30pm yesterday when I went in and the staff passed me to a manager who check their 'system' as she said they'd have various messages through on how to deal with the issue. Perhaps you went into store before the decision to refund had been communicated? Might be worth going back today and hopefully you'll get a resolution?

Thanks for that Silver, the last I had been told was that they would only refund with the reference no. which I had tried getting from Nuna but that proved fruitless. Will try Mothercare again today, thanks for the update.

This is so upsetting! I have a three door car so the only other seat that's extended RF, isofix, isize & swivel is the Recardo - anyone know anything about it? Mothercare don't stock it

So glad I saw this post as we were going to buy this seat this weekend. Our second choice was the joie spin 360 but as this company is owned by nuna I'm at a loss at what to do. Back to the drawing board I guess. My DS needs a bigger seat ASAP so better get my research cap on again.

Also considering the Recardo but struggling to find much out about it, I presume it's been quite recently released? Does anyone have this seat/have any more info on it? Can only find online retailers that stock it at the minute!

unlikely the Recaro Zero1 scored 2.4 in the ADAC test (1 is the best score, 6 is the poorest. Anything over a 5 is a fail).
www.adac.de/infotestrat/adac-im-einsatz/motorwelt/adac_kindersitz_test_2016.aspx

We're avoiding rotating seats now though for fear the swivel function creates a possible weak point.

Hope you got a refund today rosie

Silver thanks for that - can I ask which seats you are considering then? My two year old is tall and heavy for her age, I want to keep her rear facing which is why we went for the rebl in the first place for the swivel as I find it very difficult getting her into non-swivel rear facing (we also have the joie I anchor in dh's car). Don't know what to do other than start by trying to get my money back at mothercare today on the rebl!

Thanks Silver, I'm waiting for DS'S new car seat to be delivered (we went for the Besafe x2 and managed to get Saturday delivery) and then heading off to Mothercare. I did phone the store this morning though and they are now saying bring old seat in with proof of purchase and they'll refund - no mention of needing a reference no from Nuna so here's hoping that's us sorted. I hope everyone else affected by this gets a satisfactory resolution!