Recommendation for car seat with seatbelt fitting

[Mushucat]

Hi, first time posting on mumsnet!

I have a 12-month-old baby who's on the large side - 95th percentile and tall. He's outgrown his rear-facing car seat and we need a new one that will grow with him, ideally til age 4 or beyond. The issue I have is that we have a 2010 Ford Focus with ridiculously short seatbelts and no Isofix.

Looking for recommendations for a rear facing seat that can progress into front facing, and fits with the seatbelt only - ideally from people that have had this same issue with Ford Focuses and know which car seats will fit. Currently looking at a joie tilt.

It looks like all the forward facing options will work fine with a shorter seatbelt but the rear facing ones are trickier as you need more seatbelt. We want to be safe though and keep him backward facing for as long as is appropriate.

Please don't recommend fitting Isofix ourselves, we looked into it and it's not for us!

Thanks so much in advance.

Joie Tilt is tricky to find now, and it won't last a high centile baby long enough, only about 2 years.

You would be best off not worrying about the forward facing stage, but looking at a seat like Axkid Move or Britax Max Space Pro as they have a much shorter belt path and can fit better with those shorter belts.

They last up to 125cm which will be about age 5/6 for a high centile child and then you can get a high back booster after that for forward facing.

All the longer lasting forward facing options need isofix and top tether anyway, so you will be best off keeping him rear facing until he can go into a high back booster safely (which is around age 4-6 depending on who you speak to).

I had a britax safeway m in my focus and had no issues. It fixes with tethers round the passenger seat in front, a leg in the footwear and the seatbelt goes through the seat part of the car seat so easily enough seat belt! ERF too which is obviously much safer 😊