Are these portable child car seats legitimate?

[katerose2022]

Hi all, DS is 1.5 years old and getting increasingly reluctant to get into the baby car seat he's been using since born. We don't drive but sometimes do need to get to places on an uber (we are in London). I saw a few online places selling these portable child car seats (https://little-dreams.co.uk/products/littledreamsuk-portable-car-child-safety-seat-child-protection-car-cushion-seat?variant=49153117454583&country=GB&currency=GBP&utmmedium=producttsync&utmsource=google&utmmcontent=sagorganic&utmmcampaign=sagorganic&gaddsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAACmDaRsapmvIFbkvva_ETAzaIDYiC) which look convenient but I don't know if they meet safety standards etc. does anyone have experience please? Thanks a lot!

No. Absolutely not. Sorry.

They are sold in China as "Taxi Car Seats" or in Russia as "No-frame car seats".

They don't meet ANY safety standard. They are worse than a seatbelt in a car crash - they just totally break under crash forces.

They are not even legal to use in a taxi, children over 3 must travel in their own seatbelt, and children under 3 must sit on your lap (don't put a seatbelt over both of you).

This article shows a crash test of one: https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/why-are-ebay-and-amazon-still-selling-killer-car-seats-a4kjj8v3Jxp6

You could look at Maxi Cosi Nomad or a seat like Halfords Impala or Cozy n Safe Fitzroy.

I see. Thanks so much for the very detailed comments! @BertieBotts

Oh or another solution is to get a black cab and push the pushchair in and lock it facing backwards into the wheelchair space. It's not as protective as a car seat, but it's probably better than being on your lap :)

A forward facing car seat with straps would be better than this eg a graco, not as good as the extended rear facing but better than nothing

There are a couple of decent 'travel' carseats for this age group – Nachfolger do one, I think, and maybe RyRy and TinySeats? @BertieBotts might remember more details.

They don't tend to be cheap, though – lightweight, folding, easy to unfold, and safe in a crash is not an easy combination to engineer.

Yes I did suggest a couple of cheaper seats in my first reply - Maxi Cosi Nomad, Halfords Impala, Cozy n Safe Fitzroy (would add Graco Extend R129 as well)

The Nachfolger is really difficult to find and the Tinyseats is very expensive. I had forgotten about RyRy Scallop but I think the Maxi Cosi is fairly similar.

Wheelchairs that are crash tested have metal buckles on their lap belts that act like seat belts in the event of a collision, pushchair harnesses have plastic buckles that would snap under the same conditions.

Yes, it's not an ideal solution - it's mostly for dense city traffic where you'll likely be travelling at low speeds under 20mph.

A proper car seat is safest of course.