Joie every stage - what's the catch?

[welshweasel]

Looking at car seats for 10 month old DS. Currently have maxi cosi pebble plus in one car and two way pearl in the other but he's going to be too big for the pebble in a few months and I want a belted seat so that we can use it in friends cars and take it on holiday (rather than just get another two way pearl). Had a demo of the every stage today. Looks great. Extended rear facing, lasts til 12 years, really easy to install forward and rear facing. £150. What's the catch? Anyone got any experience with this seat? I'm a bit wary of things that seem too good to be true!

[AliceMum09]

There isn't a catch! It's based on weight, so if your son is approaching the 75th centile or above for weight on the growth charts he'll hit the rear facing 18kgs limit before he is 4 years old, but other than that I don't think there are any downsides to this seat.

I own a Joie Stages (used rear facing for my 4 years 8 month old daughter since she only weighs 14kgs) and have borrowed an Every Stage from a friend. I tried DD2 (the 4 year old) in it and she had no complaints, but then thought I would convert it to a high backed booster (that's so easy, it takes seconds) and see how my 8 year old daughter looked in it, since you don't often see it being used like that. This should be a picture of her in the Every Stage as a high backed booster, with DD2 in the Stages in the background!

I'd certainly recommend the Every Stage, or the Stages, to anyone.

[welshweasel]

That's really helpful, thanks. He's on the 50th centile so should be fine if he stays there. I think we will go for it.

[moggle]

Only thing that put me off was that the seatbelt gets in the way a bit rear facing and you have to post the child round it a bit when you put them in - but I think this is quite a personal thing whether it'd bother you, and certainly isn't a safety issue. We went for one that routes the seatbelt under the seat but they are then trickier to move from car to car as have tethers etc. Ours is only moved for trips to ikea!!

[FizzBombBathTime]

I have the joie stages for my 11 month old and one on standby for baby due 23rd Dec

They are awesome!

[welshweasel]

Yes I can see why the seatbelt would be annoying, although I guess only until they are old enough to climb in from the other side (we wouldn't have more than one car seat in the car). I looked at some with tethers but that seemed to overcomplicate moving it between cars/hire cars etc for holiday. Our other seat is a maxi cosi two way pearl and that's pretty high up on the sides so is also annoying from the lifting in point of view!

[AliceMum09]

Now my daughter is older I just post her over the seatbelt feet first and tell her to duck her head down! Or I put her seat in the middle and she climbs in from the opposite side to the belt.

[newfatherr]

i'm feeling your question, they're so cheap, but apparently they're pretty good, they got like a 5 star review on Argos www.argos.co.uk/product/1619218 with 142 reviews, guess its pretty good I just found it even cheaper here Joie Stages.
But i still its pretty hard to find out what the difference (catch) is between a 70 and a 300 pound car seat . I'll go for the middle

[YnnarG]

Which? say Don’t Buy as safety issues with group 1 use.

[BertieBotts]

Only when forward facing, Ynnar. Though I agree this is a general reason to be cautious.

However if you buy this seat and use rear facing until weight limit for that mode (18kg) is reached and then turn around and use as a high backed booster it is a very safe seat. In fact they have rereleased the same seat as the Verso, and the only change made is to remove fitting instruction and approval for using forward facing in group 1 (harness) mode.