Please can you help choose our next size car seat

[prepareforharvest]

We currently have DD (9 months) in a nuna pipa next. She is about 15th percentile so should fit in it for a little while yet. When she starts nursery we’ll share pick up and drop off so will need a car seat in both cars. Both our cars are small and with the infant carrier the passenger seat has to be all the way forward. DH’s car is three door so I think a seat that can safely be used in the front passenger seat might be best.

We’re vaguely thinking we’ll aim for another kid when DD is about 2.5. We might have to consider a bigger car at that point.

DD’s not a great sleeper and I’m not feeling up to a great deal of research/thinking so would love it off someone could do my thinking for me and advise on
a. A decent seat for DH’s car, probably just used for a short nursery run as in the “second” car so ideally not too pricey. It would be good if it was fairly easy to transfer into another car as he will sometimes do drop off at my parents’ who don’t have a car seat.
b. A next seat for in my car.

If you’d like to just advise on what car seats we’ll need for our whole “car seat journey” infant carrier -> high backed booster for two kids 2.5 years apart and likely to be fairly small that would be amazing!

For DH's car maybe Joie Every Stage R129 or Graco Slimfit R129 - this can be belt fitted so would work in the front, but you'll need to check whether he can see the side mirror. The older Joie Stages might also work well here, or Graco Extend or even Halfords Impala.

Or for the back Cybex Sirona Gi i-Size might be a good choice as the button to spin it is located on the front of the base, it's fairly compact front to back, and it's on a good offer on amazon at the moment. If the cars can be parked close to each other, this is easy to move from car to car, but it is heavy, so not the best if needing to be carried some distance. Make sure it's the Gi version as this has the base attached as opposed to the G version which goes into Cybex Base G.

The Cybex is a decent seat so could also work as an option for your car. When you have DC with a small gap like this, I think it's well worth having spin seats for after the infant carrier, because it means you can wait until the older sibling is close to outgrowing the seat to decide if you want a Swedish type seat like the longer-lasting ERF seats (e.g. Avionaut Sky, Axkid Minikid etc) or a forward facing seat with harness up to 105cm (e.g. Britax Evolvafix) or 125cm (e.g. Joie i-Irvana Max) or a combo like Avionaut Stardust. With DC on the smaller side, the spin seats last long enough, and it's nice to have that spin function while they are little.

I won't advise on HBB seats just yet as IMO, better to look at what's available when you get to that point, plus with HBB it's really about what fits best to your car and what's most comfy for your child

Actually I think the price checker was showing the wrong price on amazon and the delivery is long - but the Cybex is not a bad price at other stores anyway, the Maxi Cosi Mica is also on offer on amazon, has the button in the right place for a 3-door car and is cheaper. You could also look at local stores to see if you can test the seat in the car too to see how much space it takes up.

Thank you so much @BertieBotts, that is super helpful. I shall investigate your recommendations