Car seat safety - is seatbelt-only ok?

[atvh]

I live in London and take a lot of taxis and Ubers, as I don’t drive. I’d therefore like to get a car seat that can be strapped in using a seatbelt only, and am looking at a Bugaboo Turtle, partly because it will clip onto the Bee 5 pram. I’m just a bit concerned about safety though - as presumably Isofix is safer for the baby than using just a seatbelt. What are your thoughts?

I'm also pregnant right now and researching car seats. I think isofix is probably safer overall but I just got a trial subscription to Which and looked at their reviews and tests, it seems like a some car seats perform really well in their tests even when fitted just with a seatbelt. I'm still very confused though so it would be great to hear from more experienced parents

I'm in the same situation and have also wondered this but haven't looked into this yet. We often use Zipcar and Ubers.

Isofix isnt safer as such, just that it makes mistakes less likely.

Belted seats are just as safe, I think in some cases better than isofix as you can get a better angle/fit etc.

Plus with most isofix baby carrier seats the seat itself isn't isofix, it clips to a separate base.

Neither of us drive so we just had the seatbelt one. Was hardly used though

Seatbelt fitted is just as safe as isofix, as long as its fitted correctly.
Seatbelt can be better, as you can adjust the angle of the car seat a bit, often the slant of the seat in the car can cause an isofix seat to be more upright than is ideal.
Be careful with which reviews, they place as much importance on the selection of colours as the crash test results.

I think that a correctly fitted seatbelt only carseat is pretty safe; the issue is fitting it correctly - DD had a seatbelt only carseat as a baby, and it was all too easy fit it incorrectly. If we had another child, I'd get an isofix seat, though saying that, we have our own car, and never use taxis.

Our car isn't young though (9 years old) and has isofix - are there many cars made now without it? You would have to carry the base around though, so depending on how you use it, that might be a pain.

Isofix removes the possibility of strapping baby in wrongly. I like it because it's so much easier. We have a Cosatto travel system which included a group 0 car seat. It can be fitted with either a seatbelt or you can buy a separate isofix base.

Isofix isn’t safer. Definitely don’t get it if you don’t even own a car as you’ll have to drag the base around with you. It’s just that once you get the base installed then it’s pretty much impossible to put the seat in wrong so it reduces the margin of error. If you’re worried about this then maybe get your seat from somewhere where they can show you how to safely install it. We had 2 seats because we found the isofix only one we originally bought was a hassle for travel and with hindsight it was a waste of money and we should have got a seatbelt one from the beginning.

Isofix i diddnt like i find just the seatbelt safer if done right,i diddnt like the thought of no seatbelt around the seat
Mummy of 6 all seatbelt used all fine with just that. Ive just had a baby and just the seatbelt is fine we have a maxi cosi fits well in our car.

Great, thanks. I’m relieved that I won’t have to cart around an isofix base with me everywhere.

Seat belt fitted is fine but usually quite fiddly. I wouldn’t want to have to do that if I had just flagged down a taxi at the side of the road.

When I had my baby I just stopped using Uber and only took black cabs. I leave my son in the push chair and put the push chair in the back cab so that it’s rear facing. I then hold onto the frame to stop it moving when the taxi goes round corners. My London friends all do the same.

Also, you don’t have to buy the (very expensive) bugaboo car seat. Most will attach to the bee frame so long as you buy the car seat clips. We just had a cheap maxicosi.