Joie Tilt

[Asiama]

Hello, I'm considering buying the Joie Tilt car seat for my 14 month old. I'm a bit confused though because there seems to be two versions of it! Halfords has a black one and a grey one, and if you look at the specifications they are a slightly different size, the logo is not in the same place etc.

Does anyone have any experience of these seats, would you recommend it, and if so, which one?

www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductMobileDisplay?catalogId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=326501&productId=1600290&storeId=10001

www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductMobileDisplay?catalogId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=165764&productId=1514109&storeId=10001

Hi OP :)

One picture has the infant insert in the seat, the other does not. That's the difference you're seeing. Just two different product pictures.

I see what you mean about specifications - I wouldn't pay too much attention to those. They tend to be approximate on retailers' websites anyway and vary from site to site. Car seats aren't pefect cuboids so measurements can differ based on where somebody is choosing to measure between.

It's possible the Pavement colour is part of a slightly newer collection than the Black, but I wouldn't say it makes any difference - the only change to the Tilt I know of over the years is that they send a locking clip for the seatbelt with the newer ones, and if you need one and haven't received it, they will send you one in the post if you ask.

Oops just noticed you also asked if it was recommended!

I would recommend it if you are looking for the cheapest option to rear face up to ~3-4 years, if you have an absolutely miniscule car or if you are looking for a lightweight, low cost seat to use as a non driver, spare or for travelling. And even then I would recommend (if you have your own car) that you drive to a physical store of Halford's and try the seat out in your car and with your child before you buy, as it is known to be tricky to fit in some cars.

Other than those three situations, if you have more money to spend I would recommend spending a bit more. Safety wise the seat is fine, certainly in rear facing mode, but it's not very well padded, the recline is similar to a baby seat, your child won't have much room in it by the time they are 3 or possibly even 2, and the seatbelt will annoy you by being in the way all the time. It's not a bad seat, but it is a basic seat, and that should be kept in mind :)

Thank you so much, that's really helpful! We are definitely going to Halfords to try out.

We don't drive around that much, I expect he would be in the car seat at most for one trip a week and then for no more than 20 mins each way. We might go on holiday in the UK once a year, which would be at most a 5 hour drive plus breaks. I would really like to rear face him. Given how much we drive, are there any seats you would suggest we look at instead?

I would look at the Tilt anyway. But if you're going to Halfords you might as well see what other rear facing options they have :) You can then compare for fit in your car and comfort for those longer drives, and price obviously. I'd just keep in mind:

The ones incorporating every future stage (Group 0+/1/2/3) have a tendency to be not quite as good safety wise. The exception is Joie Stages, which is probably the longest lasting rear facing seat to 18kg (height wise) so gets extra safety points for that! Out of all these seats there are still none I'd say definitely don't use. If the fit and the comfort and the price is good, they might still be the best option. But don't buy one thinking it will save you money on the next stage, as a high backed booster can be as little as £35 and still be safe :)

Britax First Class, Cozy n Safe Nevis, and Maxi Cosi Axissfix Plus are only rear facing until about age 2, not the full age span of the seat.

Halford's own brand, Nania, Cosmo, Disney and Superhero brands definitely to be avoided (they perform terribly).

We have a Tilt as a spare seat and I think it's good value for an ERF seat - we use ours travelling abroad mainly. It is a small seat, my eldest managed to rear face in it till 3 but he is a small chap and was rather squashed in. It's quick to fit in the car (once you know what you are doing) which is a big bonus for us, and we've managed to make it fit in one of the three rear seats of every rental car we've ever had without buckle crunch etc. Because it is fixed by seatbelt is it slightly more awkward to get the child in and out, but not ridiculously so.

Hello all, thank you all for your advice. We went to Halfords and tried out the Joie Tilt. His head was nearly at the top of the backrest so I think it's probably not worth buying. We liked the look of the Joie Stage and are thinking of getting it as a non-iso fix version.

The shop assistant worried us by telling us we have to get iso fix as now that we are out of the EU it will become law in the next 6 months and anyone who is using just a seatbelt will get fined if the police stops them, but we can't find anything about this on the internet so not sure how accurate it is.

Pure rubbish. Our car seat laws aren't and never have been set by Europe. How frustrating that a trusted retailer like Halfords (one of their staff anyway) is pedalling this nonsense. I have a friend who works for Which? and I know that they'd be interested to here about this if you could be bothered reporting - just email them the store details and what was said. Understand if you have enough of your plate though!

What?? No. That Halfords staff member was talking absolute rubbish. Don't worry. Isofix only goes up to 18kg anyway so it isn't even suitable for all car seats, so this definitely isn't becoming law any time soon, and there won't be any changes to car seat laws due to Brexit - our car seat laws are nothing to do with EU, they are UNECE, which is a WORLD regulatory board, not a European Union one. ECE regulations that govern car seats across Europe are also in use in South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and several other countries.

Also, once you've bought a car seat it won't suddenly get unapproved. It's legal to use a car seat/product you've bought to a regulation that was current at the time it was bought for the reasonable lifespan of the product (which is generally 6-10 years for car seats) regardless of whether the regulation itself has changed in the meantime. For example, it's still perfectly legal to use seats approved to R44/03 even though these are not sold any more. Those seats could be over 25 years old at this point and R44/04 was brought in about 15 years ago.

You will be fine with the non isofix Joie Stages. Maybe don't buy it from Halfords! I would be concerned they might not bother to fit something correctly if they are happy to spout totally made up nonsense.

That is very reassuring to know, thank you both! The assistant seemed a bit "Brexit happy", making comments like now we are FINALLY out of the EU like they have been promising for a long time we can go ahead now and implement OUR car seat regulations and not be controlled by THEM. It's only when I left the shop and had some time to think that I realised there is nothing stopping us tightening our regulations over what the EU requires so therefore questioned the accuracy of what he said.

In terms of the life expectancy of a car seat, how does that work for seats that are designed for stages 0123? We were considering the Babyauto Infinity Fix for example. Is the life expectancy dependent on use, or do the materials start to deteriorate regardless? How do you know the seat needs to be replaced even if it hasn't been in an accident?

Lifespans are just an estimate - you would need to speak to the company directly to confirm, but most say for those all in one seats, you can use it until the child outgrows it even if that surpasses the usual guidance, but you then shouldn't reuse it for another child. Whereas for example a baby seat or toddler seat might well be used by several children for a year or two each before reaching the expected usage limit. Personally I'm a bit sceptical of the idea of expiry dates for car seats anyway, certainly they aren't going to crumble to pieces at the 10 year mark, but in any case, you should be OK to keep using a seat throughout the groups that it has. The reason to discard them after a while is simply wear and tear - parts get lost, padding gets squished out of covers, covers get washed and may shrink, clips to keep the cover on get snapped, instructions and warnings printed on the seat may wear away. Misuse is more of an issue with older seats than material deterioration. And of course over 10+ years there have probably been increases in child seat safety.

WRT that BabyAuto seat I would want to check the size of the booster seat mode against other standalone booster seats and see if it's as big. If not you might be looking at getting a separate booster later on, but as said, these can be very budget friendly so would not worry overly about it for now, just to be aware it may not be as large as a standard booster seat. You do need top tether for that seat in both rear facing and forward facing mode, if you have top tether, it looks good. (I might go and recommend it to someone else actually who was looking for a top tether seat!) Also I would check the seat/harness size similar to the Joie Tilt just in case, as they list on their website/manuals that their 0-18kg seats are up to 3 years (whereas most manufacturers estimate 4 years). Whether that means their seats are shorter than average or they are just being conservative, I'm not sure :)

Hello again @BertieBotts and @MissusMaker Thank you fit all your advice so far, could I trouble you with one more question?

I went to buy the Joie Stages seat and found the Joie Every Stage seat for nearly the same price. I'm now wondering which one to go for. I'm quite happy to buy another seat when my son grows out of the Stages, so for me this is about which seat is best for up to 25kg. The fact that the Every Stage goes up to 36kg is a bonus. Do you have any ideas or any tips on what I should be looking out for?

The difference between these two seats is just in the booster seat mode. The harness on both of them (rear facing or forward facing) is only allowed to be used up to 18kg. I don't know how the Every Stage performs as a booster seat, but I know it performs very badly as a forward facing seat with harness, so if you are ever likely to use it in this mode, I would go for the Stages instead.

On the other hand, you get a bit more height out of the Every Stage so it can potentially be used with the harness for longer especially if you have a child who is both tall and light.

My child is tall and light, so I am a bit concerned that I will have to front face him before I would ideally like to. It sounds like the Every Stage will allow me to use the seat for longer with a harness if I do need to forward face him, but it won't be as safe as forward facing him with a harness in the Stages? Why is that?

They both have the same 18kg limit on the harness, but you can bring the headrest up higher on the Every Stage than you can on the Stages. I don't know what the exact difference is - but most children will outgrow by weight before height anyway for both of them, and if he's tall but light then it's likely he'll be able to rear face/use the harness until 4 anyway.

I don't know exactly that front facing with harness is worse in the Every Stage than it is in the Stages, it's just that testing (Which? and ADAC) showed the Every Stage performs very badly when forward facing with harness, so this is not a recommended position for use. The Stages hasn't been independently tested - so it's possible it has the same problem, but if you assume it's average then average would be better.

But if you want to maximise rear facing then you might not need to forward face with the harness on either seat, anyway - you could rear face up to 18kg and then use the seat as a front facing booster with the adult seatbelt (or replace with a new booster seat).

The seatbelt routing and leroom is supposedly a bit better in the Stages.