Cheap toddler rear facing ?

[blue2014]

Does anyone have any recommendations

We need something rear facing, not iso fix, for one year old (for grandparents car)

Thanks 😊

Thanks so much tea - that's really useful, I still haven't made a decision!

Why are Which bad?

I don't think Which are bad, but you do need to look at their results in depth and see if they apply to you. ADAC have their test results online, but in German, but modern browsers (Chrome, anyway) will translate this for you.

Which tend to review stuff and give an overview for the average user. ERF car seats tend to be difficult to install which rates them low because the average user does not install car seats correctly anyway. The most common error is not tightening a belt fit enough, but routing errors etc are also common errors, especially if a seat has confusing or complicated instructions.

Which also doesn't like multi-stage car seats, which is a fair point, as they tend to make compromises compared to a dedicated one-group car seat, and they'll take the safety rating of the least safe seat position and apply it across the board. But you can see what the safety ratings are of each position by viewing their detailed results. If you only plan to use a seat in one position, it might not be relevant to look at the results across all of them.

Thanks Bertie - I really appreciate the advice I'm getting

That's a good point about the seat position- especially if you plan to rear face and it also forward faces. The Hauck varioguard, for example, gets a really poor rating, but I think if I remember rightly it's due to its performance when belted in forward facing. Which isn't really applicable if you only plan to use it rear facing with isofix, as an example.

Honestly I'm driving myself crazy with it now. The more I look into safety ratings the less safe everything seems

We're considering forward facing (Maxi Cosi tony or Britax romer eclipse) mums car is 3 door and small and we wonder if she may struggle to get DS into a rear facing? I did really want rear facing but I'm just getting lost in it all.

Theyll only ever be going 5 mins round the corner to a play group!!

The Eclipse is absolutely fine for that scenario. I wouldn't overthink it. Choose something your mum is unlikely to get wrong, that's the main thing. FF is probably easier in a 3 door car.

If you like I can try and find again a report about totally unregulated car seats from 1980 which saved several children's lives despite not possibly passing modern safety tests. IIRC the only children who died in the report were either extremely unlucky in their position in the car (no seat could have saved them) and one very sad case where the child was trapped in the seat because the mechanism was not easy to release, like modern ones are.

We got the hauck varioguard when it was on offer for about £100. It has a safety warning on which that it isn't safe to use it forward facing with a seat belt. But we use it rear facing with isofix, so it doesn't worry me.

We also have a britax 2 way elite which is more £ but fits up to age 6. When Dc1 grows out of it Dc2 can use it for a couple more years.

In a small car the Britax two way elite is a good choice. You do need to leave the seat in front of it in the same position.

Yeah I saw the poor reviews on the hauck

Oh Bertie - you're a star, you've just completely quelled my anxiety with your last paragraph! Thank you so much

Ok, I'll have made a decision by tomorrow maxi Cosi Tobi or eclipse it is then ...

Mothercare have got Britax first class plus for a ludicrously knock down price. Noticed it in store today.

I know .. that's what got my attention