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Original poster

Jane Slalom Pro - with a Matrix car seat

19 replies

BethAndHerBrood · 24/06/2006 21:13

DH has just put our pram together, and we're having a bit of trouble getting the car seat fixed in, and then getting it out again.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom where we might be going wrong? Before we take it back to the shop tomorrow and complain about it, to be told "oh, you just need to fiddle with x"

Thanks, BAHB.

OP posts:

Original poster

BethAndHerBrood · 24/06/2006 22:00

Bumpity Bump!

Anyone??

OP posts:

PigeonPie · 24/06/2006 22:13

Sorry, can't help. Got the Matrix car seat, but not the pram (think the car seat in the flat position is great though!).

Coolmama · 24/06/2006 22:18

Do you have the attachment clips?

Original poster

BethAndHerBrood · 24/06/2006 22:22

The car seat is supposed to just slot in where the bumper bar goes, you just push a bit of the handle. The one I was shown in the shop worked a treat, but ours is being very stubborn!

OP posts:

cheesecakelover · 24/06/2006 22:36

It may be that it is because its a new one and the one in the shop has been used quite a bit for demos, which is usually the case for new pushchairs. It might be that you need to push a little harder and in time it will loosen off. We find this is usually the case when we get a new pushchair out for a demo.

NannyL · 26/06/2006 09:23

the matrix car seat is VERY dangerouse for babies to be in in a crash,if its in a lie flat position... not so dangerouse when used in the 'seat' position

Coolmama · 26/06/2006 09:36

NannyL - what makes you say that?

RuthT · 26/06/2006 19:24

Feel compelled topost as well. I have the Jane Slalom pram (which is fab and still use it at 11 months with no other pram) and the matrix car seat.

After I read the which report on car seats I went straight out and bought the BRitax ISofix. It basically said that they tested a range of lie flat car seats and could not reccommend one because they were not safe during the impact tests.

There are lots of older threads on this

NannyL · 26/06/2006 21:43

thw Which report June 2006

found it very dangerouus for a baby to be in it and unrecommended it as much as they could

crash test dummies were badly injured when travelling in that car seat (lieing flat) than when in other more 'normal' car seats.

Most libraries stock the Which? magazines if you want to go and read the report for yourself

Coolmama · 27/06/2006 19:23

Thanks - will check this out.

maisiemog · 20/01/2007 23:00

I thought NannyL's comments were unhelpful and misleading, as the she omitted to include that the Matrix carseat in the upright position, was given a Which best buy award in 2005 and deemed very safe. The material used on the lifting arm of the chair is a very strong compound used in car rollbars.
Writing that a car seat is 'not so dangerous' is a worrying comment, for people using said carseat. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a product.
It is possible that NannyL is arguing that the test by Which in 2005 is unreliable, however, this wouldn't say a lot for the reliability of the 2006 report.
One should be careful before posting misleading and alarmist comments NannyL.
Apparently the lie-flat test was carried out with a much heavier weight than recommended for the seat in that position, so is not strictly accurate, although certainly more worrying.
Not very happy with Which after replacing a very good product with an inferior product on the strength of a Which report.

NannyL · 21/01/2007 10:48

sorry maisiemog but i said very dangerouse in the lie flat positon, NOT so dangerouse in the seat positon...

its there in bacl and white if you read it...

also i post on here loads and writing the whole lot on every thread does sound a bit like a broken record. im sure if you searched for it you would see many times where i have quoted both which reports!

btw before june 2006 i had always said that that car seat (which i have had experiance with for 4.5 years now and HATED) must be dangerouse in the lie flat positon, and the which reports confirmed it!

all i can say is thank god my cousins wernt in a crash while lieing flat in it.... i even showed my aunt how in a crash the thing would end up on its side and baby wouldnt have a chance... ok im sure it wasnt always strapped in properly in their cars (of course i told them again and again about the importance of this too ) but equaly in the 5 cars i( have tried to strap it in, in i have NEVER maanaged to strap it in to my satisfaction.... but then im very* fussy when it comes to car seats

Flower3554 · 21/01/2007 11:11

I have a Jane pro generation pram with matching car seat. I don't know if yours is the same but there is an orange button on the underside at the top of the handle on the car seat which has to be pressed in and held before the seat lifts out.

Ailsa2 · 26/01/2007 10:28

What a mine field! If any of you use the Slalom Pro on the beach, how do you get on? Was advised by salesperson not to buy as sand would destroy the front wheel and brake. Any thoughts, please?

Ali5 · 26/01/2007 11:16

We have Nomad Pro (4 wheels not 3) and when we first got ours the orange button as mentioned by Flower was really stiff and it was tricky to get the car seat to click in, although dh could do it much better than me, so I think it's just a new pram thing as it's a doddle now for me. Love the Jane though, it's worth the money.

AitchTwoOh · 26/01/2007 11:35

i LOVE my Nomad, and i also loved the Matrix. the orange button did slacken off quickly and i found it a breeze.

i wish i could remember the exact details now but i did investigate the lie-flat issue at the time and i decided to go with it. as far as i was aware Jane said that the tests had not complied with their own recommendations for weight because the article had to be the same across the board.

i just don't see how the seat could roll, really, it's tightly attached to the axle of the car, not reliant on a stop-mechanism on a seatbelt (which has always seemed supremely dodgy to me after i saw a consumer programme that tested the mechanisms of seatbelts in black cabs and found that half of them didn't work in an actual crash situation).

just looking at the baby in the lie-flat, i can't see how that massive tight belt that covers their entire abdominal region isn't as safe as a five-point harness. but i'm not a safety expert, obviously. when DD was tiny i hated seeing her in a sit-up carseat as she just looked so uncomfortable. also it doesn't take long for breathing to become compromised in that position.

the one thing i would say is that you should have the matrix fitted by a jane-trained person, because Jane insist that you twist the orange clip things as you attach them and that seems counter-intuitive so you need someone to show you.

i also marked the area on the belt where the clip goes in pen. i wanted to see if the belt would stretch at all or the clip move. the clips did move after a while, so i made sure that i tightened them every single time. it was easy to do, though, so not a problem.

i suppose that any seat is dangerous if incorrectly fitted and the seatbelts not kept tight, so the main thing is to keep an eye on that regardless of whichever seat you choose.

good luck, i really think my Nomad has been an excellent purchase. And it still looks great after a year...

AitchTwoOh · 26/01/2007 11:37

oh, and in the drawings it has the lifting arm set back in the lie-flat position, which i found confusing... i always left it up so that if we were in a bad roll it would protect the baby like a little roll-cage.

pollydoodle · 31/01/2007 23:35

I have a Jane lie-flat car seat that's nearly 2 years old - having researched car seats heavily at the time. And one of the reasons I bought it was because there were also reports out there saying that it was the only lie-flat car seat that WAS safe - there were a couple of other ones they tested, both of which were removed from sale as a result of the tests. In fact, it came out better in the lie-flat position than many of the ordinary car seats, plus it did really well in the sit up position, which is why we decided to buy it.

I think the tests were done by Which or one of the European Which magzines, but unfortunately I no longer have the references to hand. I also think the car seat might have been modified slightly since we bought ours so I don't know if the modifications have been detrimental. Or indeed if it is a slightly different model from the one that NannyL used over the last 4.5 years.

MM - I'm with you, I found NannyL's comments unhelpful and condescending. We were shown how to fit the seat by a trained fitter and never had a problem getting it to fit very securely. of course it would have been nicer if it had an ISOfix fitting but given the hash made of creating the standard that's a whole separate issue. And yes, I too am very fussy about doing a lot of research beforehand and making sure that a seat is correctly in, every time I use it.
H20 - we had a setting on ours that was half up for the arm, as you said, to form a little roll cage. There was a little indicator on the side that marked the positions and that was the one they recommended for lying flat. also meant you could hang something to entertain ds from it )

We had the jane carrera pram (was just before the Carrera Pro came out) and it is still going strong and getting compliments. It was the only new-born pram that we could fit in our boot at the time. Have thought about getting a smaller lighter pushchair but when I came to investigate, there didn't seem to be that many that were significantly smaller and lighter, so still use it.

AitchTwoOh · 01/02/2007 19:22

i know, polly, there was a little arrow that indicated the 'arm-up' position, but in the photograhy they deffo had it down, which i always thought was very weird. anyway, like you i thought nannyl's rant against the matrix a little ott.

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