Car seat recommendations for lightweight 4yr old

[Pickpickpicky]

Hi all, DS turned 4 in January, he’s 103cm and around 14.5kg. He’s about to outgrow his Joie 360 ispin seat based on height and am struggling with what to buy next. He’s been FF for a while now for various reasons and so it’ll have to be a FF seat, however he still seems so small so Ive been looking at seats where he could be in a 5 point harness for a bit longer. Have been looking at the Joie Elevate (think I could use the harness until he’s 18kg?) or the Bold but have read mixed reviews. Budget isn’t particularly a concern (and not at all wedded to going with another Joie seat) just want to get the safest seat I can at this stage - any recommendations welcome, also if I’m being precious about the harness vs seatbelt point and he could actually go straight to using seatbelt that would be useful to know too.

Hi I have a very light 5 year old. They’re in a joie every stage in one car and a britax evolva in the other. Using the harness in both still. The britax is a very bulky seat but is roomy as they get older (used it for my older child up to age 11). The joie is narrower but has better side impact protection and more padding so is more comfortable for distances.

I would probably go for Recaro Tian in this scenario - it's R44 so doesn't have the height limit issue, but it gets a better safety rating than a lot of other 123 type seats. It's belt fitted with the 5 point harness mode and there is isofix you can use for extra stability in HBB mode. There is even a version (Tian elite) with built in headphones though that is a bit gimmicky.

He can use with the 5 point harness until he gets to 18kg or is too tall, then it converts into a high back booster seat.

Ideally it is best to wait until the child is as close to 105cm and/or 18kg before you move to high backed booster, though the minimums are 100cm and 15kg.

OTOH you could keep him in the Joie spin until he actually goes over to 106cm - this could take a while and he might be over the 15kg by then.

The Britax Evolva was a good seat but it's not sold any more. Otherwise that would be a good one to look at too.