Erf seat to use between multiple cars

[Ponderfully]

We use about 5 different cars during the week with the baby. He's growing out of his infant carrier and we need a new seat. I need one that's easy and quick to install. The cars are isofix compatible. I would like to keep her rear facing for as long as possible. Budget is about £500, but would love to spend less. Any help would be great, thanks a million.

How olds your baby? ours is 10 months and we've just got him the joie 360 its really good and very easy to move as our cars been in and out of manufacture warranty so we've had to put it in courtesy cars. It would probably take... about 60 seconds to install if you're familiar with how it worked.

The seat Is suitable from birth to 4 years and it can be rear or front facing.

Concord Reverso

It’s isofix and rearfacing only and suitable to 23kg. Really easy to move to other cars as it’s all one piece so no separate base.

Brilliant thanks I'll have a look at those.

Are you still looking? I would recommend you look at seats which have a rear facing limit up to 25kg. Unfortunately although the Concord has a close sounding weight limit it's only approved up to 105cm in height, which means your child will outgrow this roughly when they move into age 4-5 clothes. Whereas a 25kg seat is designed to take children up to about 125cm which is 5-7 years in reality.

Typically these seats need tether straps but you can buy extra sets for about £15 each and leave them in each car, they don't take up any room. You could even get the Axkid Minikid with one set of spares and then you'd only need to buy 3 more. That easily comes in under your £500 budget. www.paulstride.co.uk/axkid-minikid-free-spare-tether-straps.ir

A specialist would be a good place to look for advice: www.carseatadvice-uk.com/specialist-retailers.html

Thanks Bertie,still looking. Can leave tether straps in the car as they are taxis and other people will be in them when we arent.

That's OK, they would just tuck under the (front) seat and wouldn't be in the way at all. Or perhaps you could install the tether loops, rather than full tethers which would still reduce your time to install a bit but wouldn't even be noticed. Some pics here in case you haven't come across them before, I know when I first came across the idea of tethers I thought they might be huge things that were in the way when the car seat is uninstalled, but not really.

The issue is that any seat between an infant carrier and a high back booster is a pain to move between cars because they are all heavy and bulky. At least the 25kg seats fulfil your RF as long as possible criteria, and they tend to be more lightweight than an isofix seat as well. (The lightest one is the Britax Two Way Elite which you can get online from the In Car Safety Centre). The only seat that is truly easy to move between cars is an impact shield one, which is what I had for my older DS when I didn't drive, but that's not rear facing and newer info seems to push these out of the running safety wise.

I have the Joie 360 now, and I wouldn't recommend it for moving between cars because it gets such a loose fit in some cars it doesn't seem very safe to me. It's fine in our Suzuki Swift but in my sister's Hyundai i10 it was really rattly and loose, even after I managed to tighten it a bit more. It's also a pain to store as the leg doesn't fold away very easily so it doesn't sit flat on the floor. Isofix is meant to be easier and faster to fit, but aside from not having to feed seatbelt through slots it is not really that much easier or quicker IME as you spend just as much time fiddling with it trying to get it to engage properly. And then because they have so much metal in the frame the seats are heavy. The Concord as a PP suggested is not too heavy but I've heard the install takes a fair bit of strength which might be frustrating if like me you are a bit puny.

The Joie Stages is a fairly universal fitting seat which might be worth a look, this is seatbelt only fit, no tethers, no leg.