Affordable car seat help please!

[buckyou]

2 children, already have 4 car seats and now need to get another 2 for my mothers car. Really don’t want to spend a fortune but don’t want them to be in anything unsafe.

All my other seats are extended rear facing so I’m convinced of the rear facing argument but my mum has a tiny car and will only be picking them up from nursery and driving 2 miles up a country lane every now and again so I think FF will be fine.

Both fairly tall, 12 months and 2yo (3 in June). Would like something that will last a bit and preferably < £100.

Ideas? Never really looked into FF seats before.

Youngest in the passenger seat with impact cushion FF older one in the back? So long as passenger seat us pushed all the way back.

A rear facing seat doesn't take up any more room than a forward facing one if you leave the minimum recommended room between the back of the child seat and the back of the front seat. I have an axkid minikid (rf to 25kg) in a Hyundai i10 with sufficient room for a 5ft 10 front seat passenger.

There is no 0/1 FF only, if you want a 0/1 then it will be RF and FF, because Group 0 is always rear facing.

If your little one is over 9kg and you won't ever use the RF function of a 0/1 seat, then you might as well just get a group 1 unless you happen to find a 0/1 cheaper. Beware of the ubercheap 0/1s though! There are a lot of crap ones on the market. I'd only trust Joie and Britax at these price points. I doubt you'd get any other brand cheaper. I'm not even sure about the own brand car seats any more, so probably just avoid them.

The Tilt is always going to be cheaper than the Steadi, so you can rule the Steadi out on price. The only difference is it's more padded.

The First Class and the Eclipse you might want to look at and possibly try out just because the First Class has such huge discounts ATM. IIRC both of these are recommended for cars with short seatbelts because they both have two belt routings (First Class only in FF mode). I used to have a First Class for DS back when proper ERF was out of sight for most people and I really liked it.

The Eclipse is Britax's most basic seat but it does the job.

Then I'd probably check the Evolva - it's big so that might be a fit issue (they should have a fit finder on their site) but actually it might be alright for a 1yo. I'd look on the offchance but not expect too much.

I would fit the seats for your mum (assuming she'll have them in all the time) and make sure you kneel your weight into the car seat at every stage when you tighten the belts. IME this gives an absolute rock solid fit (I've done it personally with the Eclipse and First Class, not seen the Joies IRL) and the seats should not move around. So if you're looking for usability for your mum I'd look for things like the straps being easy to adjust/tighten and if there's a recline, that it's easy to use without changing the fitting of the seat itself.

Check Britax and Joie's website and their fit finders, then you can rule out any which you see won't fit, but even if they all fit, this is only 3-4 to look at in total.

Mothercare price match their website so ask if the price is higher in store. Sometimes you can get discounts this way.

Does your mums car have isofix points? If si she should be able to click into the isofix bases easy.

Isn’t that just an infant seat that would ‘clip in easily’? I think it will have isofix it’s fairly new.

Thanks again Bertie.

If I’ve not been clear, I don’t want ERF seats.

Yeah but you can get them which last a long while so would do the 12mo.

I bought a Britain’s Romer 123, it tilts back, easy to adjust, feels really sturdy and doesn’t look cheap. They’re on sale in Argos at the moment for £74.99

Yes bases are only for infant seats, which presumably you already have and are all mostly the same size. While most 12mos fit into one, it's possible that OP's DC doesn't. You generally find bases for Group 1 seats when they are being gimmicky and offering a "family" or "modular" base which is a clever marketing trick and no more. You'd still have the RF harnessing in the back problem if you went for a base fitted Group 1 seat which RFs longer. It might be easier with a 360 type seat, but these will be over £100. In fact isofix bases tend to be close to £100 on their own! So seems like a no go when there are acceptable cheaper options.

He’s not been in his infant seat for months so not sure if he would still fit. He wouldn’t for long that’s for sure. He’s 98th percentile for his height.

I quite like the look of the Evolva. It says it fits in my mums car. 2 of those would only be £150 from Halfords and they look fairly robust.

We ended up getting 2 Halfords group 123 for £75 each. They looked a lot better quality and more comfortable than the Joie Elevate or the Britax Evolva. Fit well and kids seem happy.