Which car seat is best for someone without a car?

[hester]

I live in central London and don't drive, so obviously don't have a car. I do, however, have a ten month old dd and we get minicabs or lifts from friends quite often. So far I've been lugging round a Group 0 carseat when necessary - a hassle but do-able. However, I'm going to need a Group 1 seat pretty soon and am horrified by how heavy they are.

How on earth will I manage to cope with baby, buggy and car seat when travelling out of town (typical journey is to my in-laws: train journey with two changes, then a cab ride at the other end)? Has anybody else found a solution to this? Can anybody recommend a carseat that is lightweight and fits most cars?

All advice really appreciated!

Anyone?

Hello
We are also carless in London
The car seat thing is a pain. I haven't found any easy solutions yet.

We have a Group 1 Britax Isofix.
For trips to airport etc we book a minicab with a car seat - often tricky as you have to fit it without a manual

For my parents who we visit by train I took the easy option and bought a car seat online from kiddicare. Yeah it cost but we have saved overall by getting the train instead of hiring a car and using our own seat

Sorry should have said had car seat delivered to them so they pick us up with the seat already in

Thanks so much, TheBlonde (feels so rude to call you that!), that's really helpful. Does your car seat fit most cars? I thought Isofix was still in a minority of cars?

We got isofix as we will be buying a new car soon (been saying this since January)
You can easy fix them with a seat belt too

Mrs Badger has listed the 2006 best ones as per Which here

Britax website will list which cars have isofix
Most of the new ones do so when we've hired cars we've used it

Ask in shops which is the seat that is easiest to fit properly. That's what you need. We have a maxi-cosi (a priori, I think) that has seemed to fit lots of different cars quite well... but is not lightweight, admittedly.

Thanks both of you - I really appreciate your help

We are in the same position, and have a £35 one from Argos (its blue, if you want to look it up, cant remember the name).It converts into a booster, so you can effectively fold the seat down to make it one flat piece, and strap it onto a rucksack or suitcase. But tbh, last time we went to parents, we ordered another one to be delivered there, which will then do for ds2 when he grows into it, and my Dad can bring it down here for us!

hi hester, I bought one for my parents to keep in their car and it gets moved around a lot. It's very lightweight and easy to carry - it's a chicco one from Toys R Us and cost about £60 last summer.

That's amazingly cheap - do you reckon the quality is up to scratch?

My one? We've never had any doubts about it. The only thing I'd say is when they're still quite little, they looka bituncomfy nappping in it because it doesn't recline.

If you are going to buy a combination, 3-in-one seat, i would strongly recomment buying the Britax Evolva 123 over any other type. However, these seats are not particularly suited to what you want to use them for! They are fairly fiddly to fit, and often we find big problems with buckle crunch, which of course makes the seat totally unsafe to use. A Britax frst class SI would be your best bet, as it has an alternative routing, meaning that it is slightly more flexible fit- wise, however, it's a big heavy seat. My recommendation would be a Britax freeway. It's a lightweight easy to fit carseat, but it's base means that although it's a basic design, we rarely see buckle crunch. I think this seat would be far better than anything else, and you can fit it in recline if you are going on long journeys.
Britax car seats are stocked widely, but if you go to mothercare.com they have all the ones i have mentioned. (also look up the advance sp as an example of a three in one)
Hope this helps!