Best car seats for my 3 year old?

[sunflowers93]

Helloo! Looking for some advice on the next best car seat. Looking for something with a reasonable price. My son turned 3 in September, he is 18kg and 102cm. He’s currently in a cybex sirona s2 which the maximum weight is 18kg. I can’t seem to find any with a decent safety rating on them for the multiple stage ones. I noticed the Britax Romer KIDFIX i-Size Car Seat had a good safety rating but I’m not overly keen on the idea of him not using a harness yet if I can avoid it Any kind suggestions welcome!

No help but bumping as I'm looking for similar for my DD too! I hate looking at car seats. It feels like such a big decision 😫

Hey @sunflowers93!

Is he currently rear facing? Would you be willing to keep him rear facing until 6ish (when he maxes out the seat)?

There are numerous good options for him, at this age he is by far safest rear facing (check Axkid for example).

If not, the Cybex Anoris T2 is one of the safest forward facing seats on the market I believe, but still less safe than ERF. :)

Car seats are a nightmare aren't they!

It really is isn’t it! I spent all day yesterday stressing about it! Haha 😫

Thank you for your suggestions! 😊 he’s currently forward facing. I’ve had a look at the Cybex Anoris ones because I like Cybex but from what I’ve read the front bar thing would have to come off at 105cm (I think that’s right) which with him being 102 now could leave me in the same predicament in a short while. I keep looking at the Ax kid ones as I’ve heard really good things about them but the ones I’ve seen are a little out of my budget 😕

If your looking for an extended rear facing there's lots of offers on for the axkid move and the britax max safe, as they are the older versions. I've got an axkid minikid for my 4 year old. Been using it for a number of years and absolutely love it. Littlepeas online seem to have a very good sale on. I know they run the extended rear facing group on Facebook and from what I've read will offer alot of remote ongoing support if you're not local to them.

My dc had the graco ones with harnesses that removed to become boosters. I do recommend if properly installed because it performed excellently in an accident involving my dd, the police said it saved her life and the fact it was properly installed made the difference. (We replaced it after the accident of course) .

Whatever you choose make sure it fits properly and fastens securely, the most expensive seat in the world isn't good if not properly installed. I've seen so many large extended rear facing not fitting properly

We got an Axkid one 2, it's great. DS is very comfortable. We found it with £200 off, I think they do regularly go on sale. And it'll last for ages so maybe worth the investment.

@sunflowers93 I don't think that's true about the bar on the anoris, I just had another read and can't see anything about that- again I might be wrong though!

There is a verified Facebook group for second hand ERF seats too :)

Hi OP,
At just turned 3 I’d definitely suggest continuing with a harnessed seat as he’s unlikely to be mature enough to sit still in a HBB and not play with the seat belt.

If you’re open to turning him
back rear facing you’d get a good few years out of an ERF seat. Have a look at the Britax Maxsafe Pro or Safeway M: both are 36kg or 125cm seats and available under £200. These are both space hungry seats though, and you can struggle in smaller cars with less roomy cabin space. For longevity the Axkid Minikid 4 or Movekid are also 36kg or 125cm, but have a much longer shell. They are also more compact.

If you decide to go with a ERF seat, please look into buying from your local independent retailer as they will give you ongoing support for the lifetime of the seat.

lovely thank you very much I’ll take a look! ☺️

Oh ok fair enough I will have a look into them again thank you! :) I don’t have Facebook unfortunately so won’t be able to see them!

Yes that’s exactly what I was thinking that’s why I have been really hesitant about going down that route! I’m definitely not objected to going back to rear facing. I will have a look at your suggestions thank you very much! :)

I wouldn't put him into a high back booster at his current age and height.

You do have a few options however.

The In Car Safety Centre have some of the Klippan ERF seats up to 25kg on clearance for £150/£125 - if you contact them they can let you know which are most suitable.

As FamilyAreEverything said, the Britax ERF seats are also on offer with various retailers.

Any of these (Klippan/Britax/Axkid) ERF seats would last until around 5-7 years depending on the weight limit.

Joie Bold would be worth a look also for £150ish if you can find it in stock - it has to be the old, R44 Bold (or Bold R), not the newer R129 i-Bold. The original one has a 25kg harness limit with no height limit on it and then converts to high back booster. It's forward facing only. Discontinued, so can be difficult to find stock but it does seem to still be around in a few places.

If that is out of budget you could look at Cozy n Safe Hudson, Cozy n Safe Excalibur or Puggle Safe Fit & Grow which are each around the £100 mark - again, avoid the i-size versions. They are 25kg harness without height limit, convert to high back booster, FF only.

A 25kg limit FF seat will last him to about age 5 in the harness, but they do then convert to HBB, so in theory you won't need to buy another seat.

You could also look at the Britax Advansafix or Evolvafix seats, or Silver Cross Balance i-size, these are forward facing too, all have a harness limit of 105cm/21-22kg and then convert to high back booster, they are better in terms of overall safety than the 25kg limit ones, especially in the high back booster stage (which you'll use much longer), but the harnessed stage won't last him as long - likely around 6-8 months from now, if you go by height limit, or somewhere between age 4-4.5 if you are happy to overlook the height limit and take it to the weight limit (personally I'd be OK with that if it's only a centimetre or so).

Anoris I think is not really worth it, because it will only last you a year or so, the weight limit is 21kg as well (115cm height limit), doesn't convert to HBB and it's over £400 even for the older model.

You might have been looking at the Cybex Pallas models which use the impact bar up to 18kg (or 105cm/21kg for one model) and then convert to high back booster, but these don't really have an advantage over the 5-point harness seats, because they don't have built-in airbags (like the Anoris).

So in summary -

If you prefer RF you could look at the ERF offers at the moment under £200 - Klippan or Britax. Definitely worth it if you plan to RF for the long haul.

FF options:
Joie Bold - longer lasting harness up to approx age 5.
Cozy n Safe Hudson - budget choice with harness up to approx 5.
Britax/Silver Cross - better overall safety, but might only get ~6-12 months from the 5 point harness.

No advice as our DS is in the same car seat. He's 3.5 and weirdly I was wondering today what the weight limit is as he said his car seat is too small. He's only 12 kg so I plan to stick with this for a bit but not sure what to get next:
. We want to RF as long as possible.

Is it the height limit which is bothering him? The older Sirona models were a bit shorter than the newer ones, but at 12kg he's a way off the weight limit (18kg) just yet.

I can't remember how the headrest adjusts on that model - some of the Sironas it's an annoying button under the headrest you have to sort of reach in and do it when they're not in the seat. Some of the newer ones it is easier with a loop above the headrest. Make sure you've moved this up for him so that his shoulders sit comfortably beneath it.

It is also worth checking if there are any loose pieces of polystyrene under the fabric cover, as some Cybex models have a newborn wedge here which can be easily missed! And if he is still sitting on that then it will be boosting him up too high in the seat. Any polystyrene which is stuck down is not meant to be removed.

The overall height limit on the seat is 105cm but some children did outgrow the older Sironas at shorter heights than this.

To continue rear facing you could look at the Britax models which are currently on offer, Axkid Move/Movekid/Minikid 2 or 4. (I have just seen all the Klippan seats are sold out unfortunately.)

OP's son is heavier and would not suit the Axkid One, which is the isofix version, but your DS is lighter so would get a decent amount of time out of it if you wanted to look at the offers on this currently.

Thanks that's really helpful. I'm not sure but I must confess I haven't checked the headrest so I will do that tomorrow! I'm not sure if he really feels it's small or it's my DH who thinks it's silly DS is still RF because most of our friends' children aren't. He thinks I'm being neurotic and overprotective and so he has often suggested turning him around and said his legs look like they don't have enough room. I wonder if DS has picked up on this. Otherwise he's never complained even when we've taken other children out with us in their FF seats.

Ah OK - I see what you mean. Yes the spin seats are a bit short on leg room. The Swedish type seats are better for leg room when rear facing. My 3yo isn't keen on RF in his Joie spin seat any more.

He's not very tall so I think he's okay but we'll have to keep an eye on it. I'm keen on RF as long as possible.