Group 1 Seats, smallish car.

[AvoidingDM]

I'm thinking about next stage car seats.
We have 2 cars, a big SUV, used at weekends and a small Nissan Note used midweek.
We have a Maxi Cosi Pearl which will go in one car. But need something new for the other car.
I was thinking putting the Pearl in the bigger car with the logic the kids spend less time in there and the car probably offers more protection due to its size.

What car seat would you recommend?

How old is your child? Do you want RF or FF? And what will their weight and height be at 4 years old? (Track this in their red book)

LO is 13months and smaller than average still in 9-12. I think he's 9kg but struggling to get an accurate length.

I'm thinking about RF but I'm aware of the limitations on the smaller car and also if he's swapping between seats is he going to complain about RFing.
I'm also thinking the smaller car is the one I'd most like RFing in.

He's likely to be less than 18kg by 4 years old then which gives you loads of choice of RF seats that would fit in smaller cars.

I'm not an expert so I'd recommend joining the Facebook group 'car seat advice for mummies and daddies' and searching for your car type. Or post and ask for recommendations.

If you're not sure about FF or RF, I really would do some research. RF is 5 times safer than FF and the crash test videos comparing the two are scary to put it mildly.

My son is rf in our cars and ff in childminder and grandparents' cars and doesn't object to the change. We have the britax two way elite which can rear face until 25kg, which for your child will be maybe 6 or 7? It is pretty compact so good for smaller cars. You can only get it from the in car safety centre.

I'm in Scotland so In Car Safety Centre isn't really an option.

You can also order the TWE online.

I've had a look at the TWE it doesn't look like it has much in the way of a recline for a small toddler who's likely to fall asleep in it. And thinking about it my LO is unlikely to hit the weight limit on either the 13kg infant seat or the 18kg toddler seats.

I moved my then 5 year old out a harnessed toddler seat because he needed to be able to do up his own seat belt for the school bus. I'm likely to run into the same issue of wanting LO to be able to do up his own seatbelt aged 4/5.

So I guess I'm looking at things that are more mainstream, Britax Duofix or the newer I-size version, the cybex ones.