is my 7 yr old car seat now 'out of date'?

[ipanemagirl]

we have 7 yr old Britax rock a tot car seat used for ds & in v good condition. Mothercare bloke said some car seats are considered redundant post 5 years.
Surely this is nonsense!

Carseats don't formally have a use-by date.

But some things to consider

Extremes of temperature cause micro-fractures in the plastic making it more likely to fail. The older the seat the more cycles of temperature it has been though. If it has been stored somewhere like a garage or loft it would be worse.
Safety standards change. A seat which would have got 5 stars in a carseat safety test 8 years ago may struggle to get 1 star in todays tests. As a very minimum the carseat has to legal meet either R44.03 or later standard (R44.04).

I think I would re-use a carseat that was up to about 4ys old (and we do).
Over this I would by new. Even a chepie model is likely to better than an 8yo top model IMO.

It is only my opinion though.

that must be WHY my car seat broke....

it had always been strapped into the car, as had always been in constant use, and cars get extreamly cold in the winter (covered in ice) and extreamly hot in the summer (when the car is like a greenhouse)