Damaged car seat replacement advice for 5 yo

[Elz58]

tldr: recommendations for safest car seat for tall 5yo around £100 please!

Our car seat was damaged by an airline in the hold, and they’ve offered to refund up to £100.

We had a Joie Elevate using the seat belt before, which I was happy with but didn’t do much research at the time. We don’t have to do a like for like replacement apparently, so I wondered if there’s a safer/better one for my 5yo? He’s tall for his age.

Thank you!

I'd probably look at the Cybex Solution seats (G i-size is probably the current best one) and the Britax Discovery Plus 2. Sometimes you get the Britax Kidfix seats on sale but currently they are closer to the £200 mark.

Maxi Cosi can be comfortable but don't go up as high in the headrest usually so less good for tall children.

Joie have a booster seat around that range too but I think the Cybex/Britax ones are nicer.

Thank you, this is incredibly helpful. You’re very knowledgeable about this!

I was also looking at the Joie Traver (and i-Traver, which is more expensive although I wasn’t too sure why). Would you recommend the Britax discovery plus 2 over that one?

I was searching ADAC and Which test results for the safest, money no object booster seats, but couldn’t find any which were ‘very good’, but loads of ‘good’. Is this just because there isn’t a way to design a safety rating of ‘very good’ booster seat in the way you can for a newborn one?

Yes I think so - if you want a very good rated seat for a 5yo then you need a rear facing seat. Or the Cybex Anoris but he might already be too tall for that.

Actually I'm not sure between the Traver and the discovery. The Traver does have the benefit of an extending leg rest. Can you go to a shop and try them out? That might be the best thing, as you can see how they fit your DS and how comfy he finds them. If it's still sold, Joie did a rebrand of the Traver called Transfix for Halfords, which is cheaper. Halfords staff usually don't have great car seat training though, would recommend either an independent or John Lewis for that.

A couple which haven't been through the ADAC testing but the ERF specialists like are Avionaut Maxspace and Axkid Nextkid.

And besafe izi Flex fix is another good one but it is more expensive.

i-Traver meets the newer safety standard while Traver conforms to the older one but I believe they are physically the same seat so the cost difference is a bit like you're buying last year's colour. We're talking 3 or so years now though so the Traver might be older stock.

thank you again for this, it’s incredibly helpful! X