best car seat for a small car

[livingzuid]

Hi all,

Having a bit of a dilemma about the best car seat to get. We have a 3 door Polo and, whilst roomy as little cars go, it still isn't huge. I was hoping to get a car seat from newborn through to four years and saw some on the Mothercare site I liked (and were great value) but now worried it will be too big to fit in the car? We don't mind climbing in the driver side and putting the baby in the car when the seat is rear facing and behind the passenger side and secretly hoping DH will surprise me with a bigger car before the birth but some of these long-term car seats look huge and not sure they support the baby's head too well.

Any thoughts and suggestions welcome, particularly seats that are at the lower price end :) many thanks

You would be much better with an infant carrier seat until 12-15months. It will be far easier to get the whole seat in and out. Strapping a newborn into a fixed rear facing seat in a three door car won't be easy. Then they're likely to fall asleep and you'll need disturb them to lift them out the car, with a carrier you can lift the whole thing without waking them.

Then changing to a forward facing seat when baby reaches over 13kg. By around 18months they'll be able to climb in and out themselves making things much easier.

Combined stage seats also don't perform as well in safety tests and it's better to buy a seat specifically designed for each stage.

The britax dualfix looks pretty good, but I'd agree with the pp in that an infant seat may be easier while the baby is tiny and hopefully sleeping lots. I picked up our besafe izi go infant seat today, with isofix base, and it's pretty diddy looking :)

Thank you both that's really helpful :)

I would recommend heading to somewhere that will show you how to fit them in your car. I know that mothercare, kiddicare and halfords all do this near me. I naively assumed that the seat I had chosen would fit. Luckily it does, but only just!

I too have a 3dr car (fiat 500) and it is a real pain getting the seat in and out. Unless you are in a mother and baby parking space you don't stand a chance because you have to open the doors wide to get it out. I have now turned off the front passenger airbag and the car seat is in the front

foxey that's a good idea I wonder if it is allowed here (I am in the Netherlands). I will get dh to look into it.

thepowerofcake I will tell dh to check that out. It would be hugely helpful. Apparently Halfords here is not nearly as helpful as back home we were back in the UK for a visit and a bulb went. He was pleasantly surprised when I insisted that Halfords would change the bulb for us, didn't believe me at first!

Sorry that is lots of work for dh but my Dutch socks :(