Car seat for 3.5 year old

[Minster2012]

Hi
Expecting DC2 in may & have a DS currently 3.5 years & 107cm height.

In my car, primary car, I have a seat for him which was from birth that I will be using for the baby, so he needs a new seat.

I'm struggling to make head nor tail of a good car seat for DS without having a which account. Have looked online at the joie /Halfords & the joie traver but what else should I be considering?

In DH's car he has an infababy seat now using 3 point harness but last year these were £65 & now they are £110!

Ideally under £100
Thanks

I don’t mean to sound negative but it’s nigh on impossible to get a decent car seat for under £100. And I’ve actually found out that often you have to spend £300+ if looking for something rear facing.

If rear facing which is safer and they are under 25kg. Axkid move is around £250 and Axkid minikid is currently on offer but you will struggle to get a good seat for £100.

I wouldn’t buy a child car seat for under 100.
This is the one area where I’d never ever try to save money on a child safety.
We bought Joie Bold - for my then 2,5 year old who is in 90 centile so a very tall toddler.
I searched everywhere and also got brilliant. advise here from people who new a lot about seats.
We are so happy with it and would highly recommend eacoecially for big toddlers

We have a Britax Romer which is more like £170 but it will last for years. I'd not go cheap on a car seat, tbh.

I second PP - Britax Romer is also a great seat. Britax or Joie Bold - best choices. Neither is under 100 though and rightfully so

For a tall toddler I got the britax kidfix iii S. It has a padded strap and a bit that goes between the legs as an extra contact point. It feels safer to me, although I am not an expert.

My DD is in a Mothercare car seat, it cost £50? It had a 5 point harness from age 4-4.5 and now she uses a seatbelt cos she’s too big for the harness. My friends all use similar seats for their kids..

What’s wrong with a seat like that? Other than it doesn’t face backwards but I’m quite happy to forward face my 4 year old.

Thank you, I don't want rear facing, his current seat is rear facing as well & he's not been rear facing in it for a while so I'm happy with not rear facing.

Thank you @Bobholll and everyone else, I shall look at the ones suggested

You are supposed to rear face until the child is 4 - apparently they have much more of a chance of surviving an accident that way. This was never a thing when my much older children were little but advice seems to have changed.

If you definitely want forward facing, Joie Bold was the only one I could find which offers a five point harness up to 25kg.

@SeedsSeedsSeeds you are right that having a crotch strap is safer, it prevents "submarining" where they can slide out under the seat belt in the event of a crash.

I don't have any specific seat suggestions as we arent at that stage yet but a crotch strap is a good thing to look for in a ff seat and also avoid any seats with white plastic clips on the straps - these have been shown to snap in an impact and completely give way. I think they are called "team tec" (sp) seats.

@Itsnotover you aren't "supposed to" rear face, it's just the recommended thing. He's 4 in the summer.

@FoxtrotSkarloey thank your, I don't need a 5 point harness, in fact he's better on the 3 point one in DHs car so that's not a huge issue but I do like the idea of the crotch strap bit I was looking into that last night thank you @SeedsSeedsSeeds & @lochmaree

@Minster2012 To clarify my point, sorry, it's not the fact it's a five point harness that I see at the benefit, it's the fact that it has a harness at all rather than using the car's seat belt. I assume this is what you mean too by crotch strap bit because he'd be very young to be forward facing otherwise. My DS is the same age and it really surprised me how few options there are for the 16kg plus stage (I forget which stage/group thing it is) with a harness.

Another option is the Britax Advansafix, but I think at 107cm your DS would already be too tall to use the harness. They do have a crotch tab which holds the car seat belt between the legs, to stop submarining, but I preferred the Joie with the full harness.

OP check height/weight rules but you can probably get a seat that uses the car seat belt now, my dd is 4 and thats what we have, we don't use the harness anymore. They are much cheaper.

You can rear face till 25kg and around 125cm tall 6 years plus in some cases. It's to do with bone development and a child is more likely to be serious injured I think they say 5x more likely and forward facing harness are not recommended as the put more force on the neck then a seat belt would.
Plenty of advice online if anyone is interested. Backwards travel is safest for everyone including adults.

@Lazypuppy

OP check height/weight rules but you can probably get a seat that uses the car seat belt now, my dd is 4 and thats what we have, we don't use the harness anymore. They are much cheaper.

This is what I did when the existing seat was needed for the new baby and DD was almost 4. She met the height/weight requirements and the manual said it could be used from 3 years. Plus she’s sensible so I knew I could trust her not to muck about and keep the belt on. We bought a fancy Cybex one that was about £200 but in general high backed booster can be picked up quite cheaply.

Have a look on the Which? Website. There are seats under £100 that pass all the safety tests.

At that age ours swapped to Graco high backed booster seats using the adult belt, around £30.