Best/useful/cost effective car seat and pram

[Junglegal]

Hi all, looking for ideas on the above please?
There are so many options out there.
Amy adice on what's good/handy and cost effective?

Thanks

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This thread is a little old now so some of the suggestions may be out of date, but if you’ve landed here looking for a pushchair or car seat for your newborn, we’ve recently updated our best pushchairs and best baby car seats articles with lots of great options, as tried and tested by Mumsnet users. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

Depends what you want really… You can get one and done car seats like the Joie stages which will be very cost effective since you should never need to buy another one but that style isn’t one you can carry baby around in with the handle or put on the frame of the pram. As for the pram- what do you want out of it? Something that can push through a muddy field, has a huge basket for shopping, can covert to a double, take as an airplane carry on, fit in a small car boot… You need to narrow it down a bit by thinking about your lifestyle and needs.

We had a Doona car seat/pram convertible and found it great for quick trips to the shop and such, though it doesn't have a basket and wouldn't be suitable for extended use of more than an hour or two due to the position it holds baby in. It was all we needed but we aren't very adventurous and anyway, we were in the middle of a strict lockdown, but it wouldn't suit everyone.

I went through stuff like the which guide and mother and baby reviews online and narrowed down what we needed/wanted and what we could afford either new or second hand. Also went to John Lewis to push some to see what felt right for us.

One persons view of affordable is different to another’s.

I used a birth to 18kg convertible seat then a dedicated booster. Used a wrap/sling so no need for a removable car seat or pram, just a reclining buggy from 12 months.

The best advice is to always get an infant carrier, max that out, then buy a seat according to your child's centile.

The problem. With the all in one seats is that they perform quite poorly in testing, and they only rear face until 18kg. Children are safest rear facing until age 4, but some hit 18kg before then. My son was a 100th centile baby and hit 18kg at 16 months and outgrew the Joie seat we had. It would have been very unsafe to forward face at such a young age so we had to buy a 25kg rear facing seat.

I wish we had held off buying the next stage seat until he maxed out his infant carrier so we knew what centile he was on.

I have the maxi cosi coral and love it. The inner part of the car seat comes in and out easily so you can carry them round without having to take the big heavy car seat out. Very useful when she falls asleep in thr car seat and want to take her inside without breaking my back or waking her

Ooh, I'm in the same boat. Looking for something for Walking lots/through parks/on stones etc

I'll have a look on which guide.

@Svara
What do you mean by 'Used a wrap/sling so no need for a removable car seat or prams', can you use a wrap instead of a seat ?

We had a Graco, really good, did the job.

Yes, a wrap/sling meant I didn't need an infant carrier to carry around or a pram, just a car seat for the car that could stay there (birth to 4 seat then booster).

Not in the car, but you can get a car sear which stays in the car and use the wrap to transport the baby so you don't need a car seat which clips onto a pram.

I would recommend a 360 car seat. We have a Joie one which has been great. I know above PP said they "only" rear face until 18kg but that is long enough for the majority of people. Very few babies are 18kg at 16 months old - most are nearly 4 by the time they hit that weight.

Get any old pram, as long as you have a carry cot or the facility to lay flat it’s fine, some really good cheap second hand ones. Given my time again I’d go with a second hand travel system (minus the car seat) and then get a pushchair for when baby is older, I’m stick to death of my travel system. The car seat is where you need to be more discerning.

i saw a rec for joie steadi upthread and that’s fine for an older child but a newborn won’t get a good fit in it for a good few months.

infant carriers are much of a muchness safety wise due to their shape but there are some with crappy inserts and some with supportive inserts. Don’t buy a car seat second hand. But a good budget option is the maxi cosi tinca sometimes called the cabriofix it’s around £100. It’s not idea to put them on a pram chassis but if you must you can get maxi cosi adapters and it can fit on any pram.

^ same with joie 360 seats, young baby won’t get a good fit

We bought the Ickle Bubba v4 Stomp travel system and it was brilliant, we’re using it again for DC2. It comes with a pushchair and loads of attachments including carry cot, car seat and isofix base, loads of accessories like sun visors, changing bag (which was a bit rubbish so got a new one) but it was so easy to use and great on bumpy terrain too. At the time we got it when it was in the sale and the whole lot was about £470.

Bear in mind, if you plan to have multiple children, a multi stage seat isn't necessarily the best value as you will need to buy a second anyway.

We had maxi cosi pebble and pearl seats. They aren't cheap, but do the job. My eldest rear faced until she turned 4 and moved into a high back booster.

Pushchair wise, we had a Britax affinity 2 (don't know that they exist anymore), but I would go for practicality like being able to wash it all, easy folding, good to push where you normally go over looking beautiful!

We looked at so many different ones and had a lot of demonstrations. Ended up getting the iCandy Peach (not the cheapest) and Maxicosi Pebble. However, if you’re looking for something not too expensive, we though Joie seemed really good for a more affordable price. Nice to push and very user friendly.

Some of the new i size infant seats don't last very long, the coral mentioned up thread has a 75 cm height limit, that's about 12 months for an averagey baby but I know some much younger babies have hit that limit, very expensive seat that didn't last long. Similarly for weight, if you have a chunky baby they can outgrow an 18kg seat before they're sensible enough to use a 3 point belt let alone physically developed enough.

I'd look for an 85cm 0+ infant seat and then go from there I think.

I found Cybex Aton 5 the best car seat in terms of value and safety and usage. That fits on any pram that uses maxi Cosi adapters as the car seat adapters are fairly universal between brands. (Not all brands, but many use the same ones and once you've worked out what they look like you can see which ones are cross compatible)

Then I'd look at the Joie pushchairs, maxi Cosi pushchairs, the cheaper Cybex pushchairs in the silver and gold lines, maybe silver cross. Or a second hand bugaboo, Uppababy, Joolz etc.

That IME is the best value combination. The Joie car seats are cheaper but they don't have a nice position for newborns IMO. The maxi Cosi car seats are popular but the bases way too expensive and car seats don't last long. Too much money for what you get. Cybex cloud is lovely but again, I don't want to pay £400+ for an infant car seat. Not worth it.

My favourite buggy was a maclaren umbrella fold one. It was very lightweight, folder up to nothing and was fine to use from as soon as they were old enough to sit up. I just had a car seat and a baby carrier/ sling for when they were younger than that. Prams / travel systems are big, expensive and faffy.

@BertieBotts good point, just belt fit the car seat to save on the base. I know a few people who never really used the clock in and out thing of the base because the baby hated the seat, the parents hated the seat or the baby was so heavy they just transferred the baby out when they arrived

I don't think they are meant to stay in the car seats for very long anyway, maybe maximum of an hour/ half an hour? so it is better to take them out when you are walking around.

In all honesty, buy a cheap one. I had a fancy pram, thought I needed one, dd hated lying flat, didn't like looking at me either (nosy) by 6 months I'd bought a (then) $10 buggy and she loved it. When dd2 came along I bought a double reclining buggy plus a head cushion for dd2, still forward facing and they loved it, had tears when at 4&2 it was outgrown

Yes, I did belt fit my first car seat with DS1, was absolutely fine, never missed the base. DH really wanted a base for DS2/3 so we got the Aton with base because the base was £100 rather than £150-200 (!!) like a lot of the companies charge. The ability to put a toddler seat onto the same base is completely useless - it just ties you into buying the specific toddler seat from that company and most of them are overpriced. The vast majority of toddler car seats come with their own isofix built in or they are belt fitted and don't need a base. Waste of money.