Next car seat for bog near 3 year old

[meow1989]

Ds is 3 in June and now over 17kg and 94cm tall. He's currently in a joie 360 which is rear facing and goes to 18kg so am having to consider the next car seat fairly soon. I would have liked to have kept him rear facing longer but a lot of the ones I've seen are forward facing from 18kg.

Can I ask for recommendations for safe, comfy and under £200 carseats? Our cars have isofix/fit connectors so it would be good to have this as well as the seat belt.

Thanks in advance!

Hopeful bump

I have 2 car seats with Isofix and a neck anchor which I think is quite new. The Britax romer is great

If you want rear facing until near 6 years old then axkid is the brand you need to be looking at.

Hes too small for a high backed booster with just the normal seat belt as hes only 94cm.

The problem you have is that 5 point harness forward facing go up to 18kg, after that you need to use the car seat belt.

I think the best option is to stay rear facing using a harness until approx 6 which the axkid will allow you to do

Actually i ve just looked and there is a fair few car seats that now forward face with a 5 point harness since i last bought a carseat

Axkid mini kid is great to rear face to 25kg but I have also got a diono radian 5 as a rear facing car seat to 25kg that is a bit more affordable.

Isofix only goes to 18kg so these are both seatbelt fixed but straightforward to change out with a bit of practice.

Britax have a couple of options for extended rear facing too. Britax Max way plus is plus tested or they also have the Britax Max way and Britax two way elite. All rear facing up to 25kg.

I've just bought a Britax Max way plus for my 4yo who is a similar weight.

The axkid seats are good and rf to 25kg, there are a few britax ones that do too. If you want ff then there is a joie one that harnesses to 25kg then converts to a hbb, but I can't remember which model it is. I'd does require car to have top tether as well as isofix though.

Just had a look and its the joie bold that harnesses to 25kg ff.

Hi OP

At not quite 3 I assume you want your little one still in a harness? I wouldn't recommend putting them into a booster seat at this age. So it's just whether you want rear facing or forward facing.

Up to £200 you don't have a huge amount of choice for rear facing at the moment - only really Britax Multi-Tech 3 on amazon which is £190. It doesn't use isofix, because isofix has a weight limit on it that these larger seats don't meet. So they are seatbelt fitted, they also use what are called Swedish Style tethers, which go around the seat in front or the front seat rails. You could also look at Britax Two Way Elite which is cheaper but it's a much older, more basic seat design and some people don't like it.

If you can wait until Easter or even May Day (sounds like you have time to do this unless he's 17.9kg!) there might be some offers on the Britax Max Way or Axkid Move for around the £200 mark. One or the other of these usually goes on offer - the Max Way has only just gone back up so probably not that one. The next sale point after May is usually July.

These are specialist ERF seats so you'll normally need an ERF specialist retailer or you can buy online. I'd recommend going through the specialist if you can find one locally, as they can help you with fitting. If you can't find one locally, look for one offering remote assistance with fitting and if this is not an option, watch some youtube videos for fitting the seat you choose.

Or you could look at forward facing seats. For these you'll need top tether in your car - they usually fit with a combination of seatbelt, isofix and top tether all at the same time. There aren't a huge amount of 25kg harnessing FF seats on the market but they are a bit cheaper. The two I'd probably look at are Joie Bold or BabyAuto Dupla (make sure to get the isofix version, not the beltfit version - this is incorrectly listed in many places as harnessing to 25kg, but it's actually 18kg. The isofix one is 25kg.)

The quality and reputation of the forward facing 25kg seats is a bit more unclear than the rear facing ones which are generally highly tested and rated. But if you need FF for whatever reason and you need the harness, then they do at least exist! Cozy n Safe is the other brand that do them (Excalibur and Hudson) but I think the Joie/BabyAuto is the better choice. The complaints I've heard about them is that the Joie has a tight crotch strap which can bother children, especially boys, and the BabyAuto doesn't seem to fit securely in all cars. But both of them are fine for most people. Joie Bold is about £160 and BabyAuto Dupla is about £100-130 depending on the shop.

Thank you for the advice all - I'll have a sit down and proper read tonight.

Thank you for info re seatbelt and high backed booster, I hadn't realised I could (and should) still have a 5 point harness at his size.

Rear facing for as long as possible if I can as I am aware of how much safer it is. I'm mindful that ds grows at a rate of knots so one that then changes to the next stage rather than having to buy again would be preferable.

Just wanted to add that we initially bought the Joie bold for my now four-year-old about a month ago as he was almost maxing out his18kg seat but have really not got on with it which is why we have now opted for the britax MaxWay plus. I've managed to pick this up for £215 which is normally around £290 I believe so not too far out of your budget if you did want to continue to rear face.

None of the rear facing seats convert into a booster for long term use, but when the time comes you can get a decent but basic booster for as little as £30-40, or £60-80 for one that's in the top 10-20 for safety, so it's not so important to save money by trying to roll them all into one seat, as they aren't quite as expensive as the harnessed stage.

The forward facing ones in your budget do convert. But it may be that they don't perform as well in booster mode as a standalone booster seat would do. I think if you have a Which? subscription you can see how the Joie Bold performed separately as a harnessed seat and then as a booster seat but the other ones haven't been tested.

Going by his current weight and height, a 25kg limit seat will probably last him until he's about 5-5.5 years old.

It's twice your budget so I didn't mention it, but there is one seat on the market currently which would do him up to about age 7 rear facing, which you might want to know about - Klippan Opti 129. It's unusual because it's approved to the newer regulation so it has a nonstandard weight limit of 32kg, and a standing height limit instead at 125cm. Your DS is higher on the weight centiles than height centiles, so this would last him. But of course it's significantly more money, and 5 is a much more suitable age for a booster seat than 2 anyway, so you might not need the higher capacity one. But I just thought I'd mention it in case you were interested.