Second hand car seat - safe?

[fearscape]

Hope someone can help!

I've just accepted 2 forward facing car seats (9mths - 4 yrs) from a friend who has used them with her 2 boys. I trust her completely so am sure they haven't been in an accident or damaged but they are now 9 years old. I've just had a look on a government website and found out that by 2008 car seats must be up to UN ECE 44.03 standard - all I can find on these seats is "E1". Really don't want to have to get rid of them as they are saving us a fortune but are they safe to put my son in?

Best thing to do is to ring the manufacturer and ask if there has been a recall. I did this to check if DS1s seat was going to be suitable for DD. In the end we did buy another seat as it was better but some car seats do only have a 2-3 year life span. If you say it has been passed on they won't tell you if you can use it or not so you will have to lie and say it is from your older child.

TBH I wouldn't use them but that's just my opinion. If they are 9 years old they may have degraded over time (not sure, someone else may know). They might not even be suitbale for your car. They certainly won't be the safest and most up to date models and I don't think that's a risk I'd be willing to take on a daily basis- maybe as an emergency in a relative's car but not every day. You can buy cheap car seats by shopping around- I got one from Kiddicare (britax Freeway(?)) last year and it was less than £50. No offence intended!

What model is it ? Chances are if they are less than 5 years old then they are fine and comply anyway, the most recent "innovation" is Side Impact Protection. We reused ds' 1999 Britax Freeway for dd until last summer. Do be 100% certain they haven't been in any impact though and that you know how to fix it securely in your car.

ah just seen they are 9 years old . In that case there is a risk of the plastic having degenerated so the safety structure could be flawed. With that doubt I'd probably go for a new one tbh.

Do check how well they meet or fail current safety standards - there should be someone at your local council who advises on car seats (trading standards?). Nine years old would make me worry, there have been major developments since then and they won't have been designed to last so many years, I think.

Big change as LizS says is side impact protection. It's tricky - the Which? car seat safety tests show some models even from manufacturers who do good seats fail horribly. People have posted results of Which? tests here so do a search (you have to subscribe to the mag to get the info out of Which?).

Any car seat is far better than none at all, but a 9yo one is probably not great.

exactly which car seat is it?

some car seats 9 years ago relaly were terribly unsafe... but on the other side i am using my 7 year old britax renaissance which is STILL one of the safest seats you can buy.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I guess this is what I was thinking really but didn't want to pass up on the freebies! I'll try and get hold of the manufacturer and see what they say.