How do you know if a car seat is compatable with your car?!

[isl7]

Probably a stupid question but I’ve spent the past hour on google and seem to be getting nowhere!

Without taking your car to the shop and trying the seat (which isn’t possible at the moment), how are you supposed to know if a specific car seat will fit? Or do all with an isofix base fit if you have the isofix points?

I’m looking at the ickle bubba travel system which includes the galaxy group 0 seat and isofix base. I can’t see anything anywhere about compatability with specific cars though. I have a Suzuki swift so pretty small and have read about some making the passenger seat need to be pushed right forward. Which makes me think all can’t be compatable?!

Sorry if it’s a stupid question but I’m new to this!

Apologies if this isn't relevant, but we have just purchased a Joie 360° spin, when we were first looking to decide which one to buy Mothercare had a list of what cars were compatible with the seat. You could maybe call them if your not able to get there? Also the particular seat wasnt listed as compatible with my husband's car so I emailed the manufactures directly and they were able to advise.

Thank you! Maybe it’s just because it’s a smaller brand then. I’ll give them a call. Just wasn’t sure if because it didn’t say anywhere it meant it would be compatable with everything but it sounds like none are compatable with everything!

I have a Britax car seat, on the manufacturer website on the page for the seat it has a compatibility checker, you just select make and model and it tells you if it fits. I think if you have isofix points in the car then any seat using an isofix base should be compatible (but that's just an assumption)

www.childcarseats.org.uk/choosing-using/child-car-seat-fitting-and-compatibility/

The car seat manufacturer will have fit lists of the car models it fits in.

Mothercare had a list of car seats which are comparable for cars. I've got an Audi A1 S Line which has buckets seats and I really struggled to get one that fitted. Luckily we found one and I didn't have to sell my car!! X

All isofix points are the same. But not all seats are (as in the seat that is in car rather than the child carseat, but that they're the same either). You'll need to test your chosen seat in the car as even those that say 'compatible' aren't necessarily going to have a good fit, such as the bucket seat issue above. Sometimes belting the seat in gives a better (and safer) fit than isofix.