Need a Group 1 Isofix seat and totally confused - help!

[Pistachiois50pmore]

Currently our one year old is in a Britax Trendline seat-belt fitted seat, and it's been okay for occasional journeys but he just doesn't look that comfortable or safe. We will doing lots more travelling in future so we need to get him a new one.

I would like an i-size/Isofix seat, and I know it needs to be Group 1. We're happy to keep him rear facing for as long as possible, as long as he is comfortable.

Flexible on brand and price but we'd like a good one. (I guess about £200 is a realistic budget?!).

As well as choosing a seat, we need help installing the Isofix base and the seat itself. Where is the best place to go for this? I really don't want to do it via YouTube tutorial - it will end in tears. Will throw money at the problem if necessary. We won't be taking it out of the car very often, for what it's worth.

What do I do next?!? It's so confusing and I am not very technical. Our car is a 5-door 2010 Honda and Isofix compatible.

Mine went front facing so can't help with rear facing but if you go to Halfords they will fit it for you. The isofix is dead easy though they don't have a base at stage 1 so they just clip in.

I've been looking at group 1 seats, but the ones that stay rear facing until 4 and have a base (either separate or attached) seem to be about £350! I really like the BeSafe izi ones that extend but it's an awful lot of money, especially when we don't use the car much. In contrast some of the belted every stage seats are about £180/£200 so I'm not sure what to do either! Following to see what others say.

I think Joile at mothercare do a rear facing until-age-2 one. For £200. It wouldn't need isofix. They install at mothercare too!

Thanks all, I'll look at Halfords and Mothercare. It's crazy though, the current advice seems to be to use Isofix and rearward face until 15 months, but the vast majority of seats for this age group are front facing! Waaaah.

Hmm, bit more googling... so I reckon it's one of these we need:
www.madeformums.com/reviews-and-shopping/10-of-the-best-rear-facing-group-1-car-seats/30907-2.html

Not cheap, really - but BendingSpoons I guess maybe you found something similar?

So if I can find a Halfords or Mothercare stocking one of them, we should be laughing...I hope!

We have the Joie 360 spin. I really recommend it, the spinning function is perfect for me as I have a bad back and a car-seat refusing toddler so it makes it slightly easier to wrestle him in!

Sorry, meant to say - it can be either rear or front facing. We mainly face it backwards but if he's having a total tantrum you can just turn it forwards.

Yes it's been driving me mad! They say it's safer to stay rear facing but then sell the safe seats at 2 or 3 times the price. I found John Lewis also stock some, but it's not the cheapest.

I've also seen the Maxi Cosi AxissFit recommended as it swivels, but again it's expensive.

There's a fantastic Facebook group called Car Seat Advice for Mums and Dads, if you put the car type, budget, child height weight etc, they'll give you the best options.
Isofix is only up to a certain weight (18kg I think) so you'll get a longer lasting seat if you don't go for isofix. We've just got a Britax 2 Way Elite, rear facing until 25kg, £170. It's great!

We have the axxiss fit in PILs car, that's another good swively one. It only goes forward facing though so it's not as 'safe'.

I think there is one that also does rear facing, the similar names confuse me! The Britax two way elite sounds good, a more manageable price.

www.lastentarvike.fi/verkkokauppa/Car-seats/Car-seats/Britax-Two-Way-Elite,-Cosmos-Black.html

This Finnish site is the cheapest for the Britax 2 way.

We ended up getting the MaxiCosi AxissFit swively one on special offer at Mothercare. I know it only does rear facing until 2ish, so not perfect - but it ticked all our other boxes and with the offer it was more than a hundred quid cheaper than the other truly extended ones (we looked at a Joie but that didn't work with our car, so couldn't get that) and we couldn't justify the extra expense. It's only height/legroom that stops it being rear facing for longer, nothing else, so maybe DS will be short and we'll get a bit longer! It's a big improvement on what we had, anyway.