Occasional toddler seat

[khaa2091]

25month old, 12.2kg. I’m very happy with rear facing Joie ispin 360 for regular use, but it is definitely not portable. I need another seat that is easy to move between vehicles (including a fiat 500) for family members. Ideally it could be taken on holiday (so not isofix), hopefully lasting a while.
I’m tempted by the Joie elevate R129 but interested to hear what works for others.

We've found a Joie Steadi very portable (both for travel abroad and compatibility with all cars we've attempted it with ~8) and the seatbelting super simple (we've now got another "occasional use" car seat and im realising just how great the steadi was in comparison!).

However my tall, long torsoed DD outgrew it by 28 months despite being well below the weight capacity. So depends on your kid - worth trying out in the shop and seeing if you've got a few clicks left in height with it.

(Also mine was bought some time ago - I don't know if the newer r129 version differs)

I wouldn't get the Elevate R129. It's very basic and you don't want basic with a forward facing seat. If you are going basic, go rear facing.

Graco Extend R129 is good, similar price and can be used either way. It's basically identical to the Joie Steadi R129 :) (The Joie one is a bit more expensive).

There is also the Graco Slimfit R129 or Joie Every Stage R129 which are basically the same seat as each other. They can be used rear facing up to 105cm/22kg and then forward facing as a high back booster seat (no forward facing harness mode) - they just got a reasonable safety rating with ADAC recently.

If you are keen on forward facing then I'd look at Maxi Cosi Titan i-size as this has the top tether and isofix which is better for safety. Holiday cars do usually have isofix unless you're going somewhere like Asia or South America where the cars are older.