Group 1 rear-facing car seat experts, please help

[Lionstar]

Am getting desperate to find the best rear-facing Group1 seat for DD before she outgrows her infant seat. She is a small 17 months and still in her MaxiCosi easyfix!

We're really liking the look of the Akta Graco Duologic, especially as it can be used with isofix (for my car) and seatbelts for DPs. However I've got no idea where to source one from, does anyone else out there have one, got any ideas about suppliers (swedish or otherwise)?

Other possibilities are Britx Multi-way (really like this one but it's not isofix), but again where from? Also Maxi Cosi Rodi or the Britax Secura - we can get this from incarsafety, but prefer the look of the others. I know babyworld has started supplying the recaro polaric - anyone tried this one?

How one earth do you decide? I think the hardest part is finding suppliers who can ship to UK I suppose.

We have a Britax Secura Hiway but it isn't isofix. It is a faff to install as you have to tether it to the seat in front

We also have a Britax Roundabout from the USA which is isofix. It is rear facing to 35 pounds

Thanks TheBlonde, do the tethers make it really difficult to get in and out- how long does it take? We will have to swap between vehicles on a fairly regular basis, so ease of removal/installation is a factor.

I'd say it takes 15-20 mins

hi i am collecting my recaro polaric next week ,babyworld now have some reviews on the polaric.Have u been on rearfacing.co.uk it is quite good paul stride has started to sell one or two rf car seats.

We have the maxi cosi Mobi which uses tethers. The first time we installed it it took about 25 mins, but now we're used to it it takes about 5 minutes. Helps if you have 'anchor points' already in your car though (look at the swedish maxi cosi page (which is the only maxi cosi page to feature the mobi) and look at the instruction video to see what anchor points are)). If not, you'll need to use an adapter kit, which will probably add a couple of minutes onto the installation time.

I believe the swedish website www.toddler.se is quite good at shipping various rear facing seats to the UK.

Btw, I thought the rodi was for 15-36kg - if your daughter is still in her maxi cosi easyfix (the cabrio?), then she must be under 13kg??? The mobi is for 9-25kg.

I really recommend www.rearfacing.co.uk for more info. Good luck with it getting it all sorted out soon

Thanks for the ideas, still undecided though!

catski, yes its the 0+ infant seat she is still using, she is still only just over 10kg at 17 months, and quite short too - but the time is getting close to needing to move her on, especially if I have to order one from abroad.

Catski
Perhaps you could help me.

Both DH and myself are well over 6ft and trying to find a RF carseat that will leave enough room for us to sit safely in the front!

We've tried a couple of other seats (the Be Safe iZikid, Nordic Secura, and a Britax - all of which can be tried on a try-before-you-buy basis at the Essex In Car Road Safety centre) and none of these leave us enough legroom.

The other seat we would consider is the MAXI COSI MOBI but we need to know how big a gap you need between the back of the front passenger/driver seat and the back of the rear passenger seat upon which the seat sits.

If you could let us have this measurement (in cms preferably) that would really help us decide what to do.

Thanks in anticipation of your help.

bump

Sorry anonymama, just seen this! I will measure tomorrow, but I'm not too hopeful to be honest. We have effectively lost the front passenger seat in our Saab as the Mobi sits behind it and the front passenger seat needs to be pushed forward pretty much all the way forward as far as it can go. I'm 5'2'' and I can squeeze myself in - it's not the leg room for me that's the real problem, it's the fact that the seat back is also in it's most upright position. It's uncomfortable and I now sit in the back seat next to my son (if I'm not driving).

Having said that, of course it depends on different cars too. Not all will have the same problem as our saab (perversely, when we put it in our peugeot 206, a much smaller car, there was more room in the front passenger seat, and we didn't 'lose' it).

Is it an option for one of you to sit in the back? Something that I've seen my swedish friends do is actually put the child car seat in the front passenger seat (assuming you can disable any airbag), so then you don't 'lose' any of the seats. The swedish traffic safety association say that this is actually not a bad place to put a car seat (contrary, I think, to advice given in the UK) as a rear facing car seat is given protection in a crash by the dashboard (which the car seat is wedged against).

Thanks for this info. We were under the impression that the seat was more vulnerable in the front, but will look into this.

In the interim, I think we'll use a RF seat when only one of us is in the car, and use the FF one if we're all in it. At least that cuts down the amount of time that DS1 is FF.

Thanks for the advice.