a quick question about isofix seats...

[HeadFairy]

can you only use them in cars with isofix points? We have an ancient ford escort and we need to upgrade ds' car seat, but we want to get a new car in the next year or so. Are isofix seats better because they pin the seat to the car frame? It sounds like they are to me, but I'm fairly sure our car doesn't have isofix points (how can you tell?) but it'd be a waste to buy one seat now and in a few months another one with isofix.

Go to the seat you want to buy (I use Maxi cosi) and they have a list of compatible cars.
I think you can use them with the seatbelts as well (fairly sure) - again check n the website.
I bought Ds's stage 1 car seat a month or so back, and looked on the which website - the maxi cosi priorifix was the safest

You can certainly use them in non-isofix cars too, strapping them in in the usual way. Our Britax Duo Plus isofix comes with a little plastic strip to put over the isofix bits to stop them damaging the seat in the car when fitted not as isofix.

As for how you can tell if your car has the points, you look! They are like little metal hooky bits embedded in the seat.

You can usually use them in non-Isofix cars - BUT there's no guarantee you'd actually be able to use them in an Isofix car when you get one. Unfortunately Isofix varies from car to car ... good, eh? We had this ludicrous conversation with a bloke in Halfords where he started off saying oh yes, the whole point is that an Isofix seat can go in any Isofix car, and ended up saying that if the seat wasn't specifically recommended by the car manufacturer, it wouldn't fit. Useless. So we have unused Isofix points and a normal highback booster.

You'll either see the little hooks, or, like my car, they'll be buried in the upholstry but there's a little tag on the seats saying Isofix

most can be used with a seat belt too but it depends if you will be buying a car with the relevant points as they are significantly more expensive and even now not all new cars have isofix. You might want to look at the poossibles on the Britax Fitfinder to see what would be compatible.

Thanks everyone, I guess I've got to do some research!