Car seat for 3 year old please!

[ISDA2020]

Hi all,

I would be grateful for any help!

I posted earlier regarding getting a FF car seat for my 3.5 YO (15.5kg) from Halfords due to insurance reasons. Having spent all night down the rabbit hole of car seats- I’m so disheartened by the Halfords collection that I’m thinking of just buying from another retailer.

Budget is approx £200, I need a car seat which :
•Last till 12yrs
•Has a 5 point Harness is till he’s a bit older
•Cupholder would be super cool but not essential
•FF
•Relatively easy to use

My Car is a 2016 BMW 3 series.

Any tips? The Britax Advansafix seems to be recommended a lot but there’s so many different types.

Have a look at Argos. I got my DD a great forward facing one from there that lasts until she's 12. I went for the Cuggl Wave one that £45 as I just needed a no frills car seat but they do a few that are forward facing only. Just looking and they have a Cosatto Ninja that has a cup holder. The one I've got is the easiest one I've ever had and makes me annoyed with myself that I've pissed around for so long with hard to use/move car seats 😂 x

Joie Bold ticks all of those boxes (including cup holder) and you can get it from Halfords.

We've got one, very happy with it, and find all Joie car seats easy to use.

(FWIW, we had an Advansafix first, but didn't get on with it so returned it as we'd bought it direct from Britax, we were able to do so).

I saw your original post regarding car seats and turned in the direction of Britax because of it! There’s a place near my mums which has it on display so going to see it today. Would you mind if I asked what were your issues with it?

Also going to have a look at the bold now.

It’s such a minefield to navigate. I’ll have a look at these too! Might just save a bit of money!

What's their height. Most isize harnessed FF seats have 105cm as the height limit so probably soon outgrown. It's not safe to used an adult belt till 4.5/5 minimum and the best HBB options have a crotch strap and they aren't multistage seats.

Do you know how tall your LO is? This will influence what seat is best suitable for him.

The Cuggl and Cosatto seats are cheaper but they don't have the safety features of some of the higher end seats. If you have the budget available, it is worth spending more for a higher end seat as the safety difference in this category is quite big. Cosatto Ninja is a high backed booster only, but the equivalent is Zoomi if you're looking Group 1/2/3.

The newer Cosatto Zoomi 2 is a bit better than the older version in that it has deeper (more protective) head and body protection and it comforms to the newer R129 regulation which has a stricter crash test and some rules about features which can help prevent accidental misuse. Although it has the addition of isofix, you do still have to belt fit this seat.

In terms of the best safety for up to £200 though I'd look at the Maxi Cosi Titan i-size - 4/5 stars safety from ADAC (Which). Harness can be used up to 18kg/105cm. Fits using top tether and isofix. Nice roomy seat. It is right at the top of the budget though.

You can sometimes get the Britax Evolvafix on offer at about £150 but it's £220 currently so not such a good deal.

If LO is tall for age and close to 105cm already, then you could also look at Joie Bold - not the i-Bold as this has the 105cm limit as well. Joie Bold R is the right one. It seems to only be in stock at "OnBuy" though which I don't really know anything about as a retailer. Or you have Cozy n Safe Hudson on amazon. Again not the i-size one. This is again a bit cheaper with unknown safety rating, but has the higher harness limit and isofix + top tether :)

Thank you for replying! He’s short for his age, currently 95cm. Halfords recommended the I-Trillo FX which we bought (but I will now return).

Happy to spend money because I’ve seen some scary videos of inappropriate car seats.

Would you say Maxi Cosi Titan Plus i-Size would be a good fit?

P.S. it’s actually your posts that made me realise
that the seat we bought is probably unsafe for him, so thanks for all your help already!

He is currently 95cm and on the shorter side.

Car seat safety experts would say you'd be better off buying a rear facing car seat that will last until 25kg, like the Axkid Move (£229) which will be the very safest option. And to then get a safe HBB with a crotch guard like the Be safe izi flex or the Britax kidfix - these HBBs are much safer for younger kids who can submarine under the seat belt.

If you must FF, the experts I've seen on the car seat safety UK Facebook group always recommend the Joei Bold as it's harnessed up to 25kg. You could join the group and ask them for any other options if that's not suitable.

Ah yes the Joie Trillo won't be right for him yet. In fact as it's the i-Trillo, he's not actually tall enough for it as children need to be over 100cm to go into an i-size booster seat. 95cm is probably a year or so off this. Halfords always seem to have very poorly trained staff.

Maxi Cosi Titan sounds like a good option in this case! I'd recommend the i-size because the harness goes up taller on it than the older version. If you're willing to stretch to the Plus or Pro, the Plus is a more luxury/enhanced comfort version whereas the Pro has the enhanced safety features - though it's not that much of a difference compared to the normal i-size one. It has the Air Protect bubbles in the headrest like the Maxi Cosi Rodifix Air Protect, which has been one of their top performing booster seats.

There's no reason to get the Joie Bold if the child doesn't need the 25kg capacity on the harness - it has a worse safety rating than most other 123 type seats (especially the more recent ones by Britax, Maxi Cosi, Recaro and Silver Cross).

I don't know why it always gets recommended on those pages except that I think they tend to say if your child is under 18kg they can rear face.

Rear facing is safest, but I'd be totally happy with a 3.5yo in the harness on a Maxi Cosi forward facing seat, and it will have plenty of capacity for him by the sounds of it.