Joie Stages in ERF or HBB mode: which seat shall I replace?

[MyCatHatesOtherCats]

Can anyone give me a steer on our car seat dilemma?

We currently have a (tall, 116 cm) 5 year old and a large (75th centile) 14 month old. DC1 is currently in a Joie Stages in HBB mode and the 14 month old is in a MaxiCosi Cabriofix on an Isofix base. He looks to be very close to growing out of this.

Plan A was to put DC2 in the Stages rear-facing and buy DC1 a decent HBB. I don’t really know where to start with a HBB though. I think I’d prefer one with an Isofix fit rather than purely the seatbelt.

We bought the Stages when DC1 was a toddler and we didn’t have a car, and so have never used it RF in our current car (Seat Ibiza). I am wondering whether it’s the best option, in view of it being belted and it potentially being awkward to get DC2 into it. Part of me is wondering whether we should replace this and keep DC1 in the Stages.

Any thoughts? Any recommendations for HBBs? Anyone else with experience of using the Stages as an ERF seat or HBB who can compare with others?

I was assuming we’d spend up to £200 replacing one seat but the budget is not set in stone so we could spend more if needed - but although the budget is not fixed, it is not unlimited (hence why we have a Seat Ibiza ).

Ooh that's a tricky question!

As your 14 month old is bigger, long term you might want a longer-lasting rear facing seat than the Stages. And the 25kg rear facing seats also tick boxes in terms of accessibility to child in seat (no seatbelt in way) and being more compact - they can be fitted in about 60cm of space if you need to, whereas the Stages takes up more like 80cm.

I think if you can up your budget to £250, you could potentially replace both right now. There is a Britax 25kg rear facing seat Multi-Tech 3 which is currently on offer on Amazon for £190, and there are various booster seats you can get up to the £60 mark which are likely to perform better than the Joie Stages.

If you wanted a different ERF seat to the Multi-Tech (which is not the most compact and doesn't recline), or a more substantial booster seat and therefore to do 1 at a time, my recommendation would be to check how the Stages fits RF in your car first, because it would make a bigger difference to put the 14mo forward facing than it would for DC1 to be in one booster vs another booster if that makes sense. If you can't fit the Stages in rear facing, prioritise replacing the RF seat. If you can fit it in rear facing (check all headrest height settings) at least for now, prioritise replacing the booster. The reason being, you'll need another booster eventually anyway, as the Stages is limited to 25kg (and about 125cm although that's just a guide, not a limit). It's also fairly heavy and bulky and not isofix, as you say. But mainly, rear facing in one seat is much as safe as rear facing in another seat particularly when children are younger, smaller and on the lower side of the weight limit. And I wouldn't necessarily rush to replace the RF seat yet if you don't have to, because a lot of the ones which are normally around the £200 mark are currently closer to £250, so I'd ideally wait until they come down in sales.

Anyway recommendations for each type:

25kg ERF seat that are compact and often go around the £200 mark:
Britax Max Way / Max Way Plus
Axkid Move

High backed booster seats up to £60:
Britax Discovery SL
Joie Trillo / Joie Trillo LX (LX has better side impact protection)
Cybex Solution B-fix (this is currently more expensive, but often goes around £60).

Up to £200:
Cybex Solution S-fix / M-fix
Britax Kidfix SL
Besafe izi Flex S Fix
Joie Traver / Duallo
Recaro Monzo Nova 2

The Joie Stages is quite short in HBB I think... My DD free out of before she 125 cm. Fortunately her sister had a German HBB for up to 150cm which she inherited (DD1 now uses just a booster cushion as shes 145cm... Not perfect but it was lockdown when we had to make the decision)

They don't need to be German to be up to 150cm :) Same models in the UK and Germany generally. All the ones I mentioned with the possible exception of the Recaro defo accommodate up to about 150cm.

Forgot to add Axkid Bigkid / Bigkid 2 to the second HBB list.

Thank you so much for your replies, especially @BertieBotts! This is exactly the kind of thing I needed.

That is a really good point about trying the Stages RF. I will give that a go this week. DC2 will be RF even if I have to buy a new seat, so if it won’t fit RF, that solves that dilemma. I’d prefer him to RF for as long as possible but we had to flip DC1 round well before 18kg as he just wouldn’t sit properly in the seat through trying to see what was going on, and the straps kept sliding down his shoulders. To be fair, we didn’t do much car travel then as we didn’t have one.

I had no idea a decent HBB could be that cheap! I will definitely take a look at those recommendations. Sounds silly but what’s the price variance about? Is it extra features or safety or what? I’d kind of assumed more expensive seats offered better protection and were more robust.

You do get a bit better safety rating with some of the more expensive ones, although some of the £100+ models do worse than the £60 ones! Under £60 you are getting a more basic model, although even a basic one will usually be an improvement over a multi group seat. Of the ones I mentioned Joie trillo and britax discovery are a bit less well rated than the others (trillo LX is better).

Generally with the higher prices you are paying for features like a strap between the legs to go over the lap belt and hold it in place, which can be good if you need something extra for a younger child or feel anxious about them being in a seatbelt. It isn't really necessary for older children. Or some of the more expensive ones expand sideways as the child grows. There are a couple which have an extra pad or strap for the shoulder belt which absorbs impact forces as well but I think those are hard to buy without going in person to see seats, so I didn't include any.

As usual Joie are good at offering price and safety all in one. The trillo LX and Traver are in the top ten safest models currently on the market. If you want to compare safety I find oamtc the easiest site to navigate, even though it's German.

But in any case £150-180 is absolutely top spec for boosters with £60-80 being mid range, whereas with harnessed seats you're looking at £350-600 being top spec and about £200-250 mid range. I always say as a rule of thumb expect to pay about a quarter of the money on a booster that you've been paying out for toddler seats or half for infant seats (not including the base).