Car seat

[Anyouchka]

Hi moms

We are expecting our first baby in a couple of months and would love recommendations on a car seat / travel system.

In short we don't have a car (live in London) but need a car seat for whenever we use a cab (to bring the little one from hospital) or get a lift from friends so we are looking for a car seat that can be fasten with the car belts (rather than a base). Ideally, we would also want to be able to plug it onto the pram for extra convenience.
I found a brand called Puggle that does just that but saw some nasty reviews about it's safety. Does anyone have some lifesaving recommendations to share?

Puggle is Online4Baby's own generic branding - I would expect that they don't go into standard pram adapters aside from anything else. (Online4Baby have rebranded themselves but I can't remember their new name now).

Is cost a consideration? I would look for a travel system compatible car seat which goes into universal adapters so you can be really free with the choice of buggy.

Only infant carriers (the type with a handle lasting up to approx 1yr) can be used with a pram. If you go for this type, look for something with an 80cm+ height limit.

Britax Babysafe Core, Avionaut Cosmo or Cybex Aton (any version) are probably the budget/long lasting ones and esp the Britax and Cybex can often be discounted. I think Amazon has the Britax seat at a reasonable price currently. The Silver Cross seats are also roomy (but only work with Silver Cross prams). Or you could look at whatever comes with the prams that you like - just be aware that a 75cm height limit will usually mean you can only use the seat up to around 9 months and it will be annoying to give up the pram compatability as a non-driver. Basically all infant carriers give good results in crash testing - they will vary on how supportively they position a newborn, with some of the cheaper/generic ones in particular being worse for this, but if you don't expect to use the car very much, and your drive home from hospital is less than 30 mins or so, then this might not really matter.

Or if you wanted something longer lasting which doesn't work with a buggy, I would probably look at Graco Extend R129 or maybe Halfords Impala? But with these seats I think it's even more likely you'll struggle to get a good fit from newborn, and they are much bigger to transport around compared to a carrier which can go on a pushchair frame.

Thank you!!