Seat Belt Fitted Car Seat For A Van

[jc29]

i need to buy two car seats for our Reanault Trafic crew van that will go in the second row of seats. One is for my 18mo (12.7g) and the other for my 3.5yo (16.8lg, 98cms).

The van has isofix points but no top tether hook so the seats will need to be seatbelt fitted I’m assuming?

i’ve been looking at the Joie Fortifi, but it hasn’t been ADAC tested, and the Britax Romer Evolva, which scored 2.7. Does anyone have any advice/recommendations on either of those, or any other suggestions?

Thanks! 😊

Have you thought about rear facing for the 18mo in particular?

For your 3yo I think Britax Evolva would be a good choice. It tends to fit well in vans and it has a decent safety rating. I probably wouldn't bother with the Fortifi because it looks to be very similar to the Joie Every Stage, and that got a poor crash test score for using with the harness. It makes sense to look at 123 seats because while he does still need a 5 point harness, he won't for much longer. You could keep using the harness in the Evolva and then convert it to a booster seat when ready. The SL (softlatch) version would be worth getting as a non-isofix booster seat can be a bit of a pain.

There are isofix seats that don't use top tether, they use a foot prop support instead. Check what your vehicle manual says about foot props, though you should be OK if the floor is solid. That would allow you to use something like a Joie 360 Spin or Britax Dualfix for the younger one, which are popular seats and would let you keep rear facing a bit longer.

Or for belt fitted seats you could look at the longer lasting rear facing seats - Axkid, Avionaut Sky, Britax Max Way.

Or the Joie Steadi R129 is a nice two-way belt fitted option.

If you want to forward face then I'd still look at isofix seats as they tend to protect better than belt fitted and you can get some which just use the leg rather than the top tether. Look at Maxi Cosi Tobifix for example.

Thank you so much for such a detailed reply.

That has given me a fee things to think about. I didn’t think I could use a leg rest in a van. Glad to hear I can. And thank you so much for yur opinion of the Joie Fortifi. I was worried about it being similar to the Stages seat.

Thanks again. 😊