Car seats and buckle crunch - heard of this?

[northerner]

We've got a maxi cosi priori carseat, bought from Mothercare about 18 months/2 years ago.

I was at a playgroup on Friday and they had a car seat safety woman there from our local council, basically, she looked at our ceat seat and told me it is not fitted correctly as the buckle part of our seatbelt is longer than most (common with Vauxhall Astra's and Vectra's apparantly) so the buckle of the seatbelt is too high up and rests against the base of the seat. Which means at best the seat moves around more than it should, and at worst in a hight impact collision the buckle could pop open under the strain. This is known as 'buckle crunch'

I have spoken to maxi cosi today, who are aware of this problem, and did admit that it means that my son is not as safe as he should be, but they said it is an issue with Mothercare as they sold me the seat.

Mothercare say that it is not their problem (they didn't fit the seat in our car, but did demonstrate in store on one of those seat things) At no time did they mention buckle crunch or tell me what to look for, even though they asked what type of care we had. They say it is up to me to go away and check it is secure.

So I am now left with a car seat that doesn't keep my so as safe as it should.

What do you think? Should I take this further with Mothercare or dose the blame lie with me and should I just stomach it and buy another car seat?

TIA

I wonder if they collect statistics for wrongly fitted seats.

The Government is so keen on nannying about everything it seems that car seats would be an area worth interfering in.

I first bought a car seat 20 years ago and I assumed that current ones were a) easy to use safely and b) extremely safe - so I hope everyone who sees this thread will take a second look at their seats and have them checked if possible by the local police road safety unit as someone suggested earlier.

I found mothercare the worst place to buy a car seat. We went last month to get dd a group 2 car seat. I found one I liked and went to the conter and they just went to scan the seat. When I asked if they would check it fitted first they said' if you want us to but its not nessesary' i cant believe they said that as they should be checking every seat they sell in the car. In the end I went to a independant store and they tried one which didnt fit as the seat belt wasnt sitting properly and made me choose another seat. They even told me that if I bought a seat anywhere else and wasnt sure if it fiitted correctly I could take it there and they would check it for me. I know where ill be going in future. Certainly not Mothercare.

does anyone have the latest Which? and could possibly tell me what's so terrible about the cruiser plus (I subscribed to Which until last month - wish I'd kept the subscription just that bit longer)? Always loved it - it's impossible to fit wrongly (I thought) and looks comfortable.

Hi, geekgrrl - I haven't read my copy yet but according to the online report:

"This seat offers acceptable protection in a side crash, but it's not safe enough in a front crash. Don't buy."

It scored 37% (the best buys scored c 70%)

It did well on:

Ease of use
Fitting in car
Belt routing
Buckling up
Daily use
Instructions
Correct use (how well it's designed to avoid incorrect use)
Comfort

But less well on:

Front crash (worse than average)
Side crash (average)
Overall safety (worse than average)

• which are the most important things so heavily weighted I'd guess. The Cruiser just uses the car's seatbelt, doesn't it? So it wouldn't stop a small child flopping forward as well as an integral harness - I'd imagine that's where it falls down.

HTH!

Thanks Janh - I use it for a 4 year old so maybe it's not too bad.... although I can feel 'new carseat buying fever' coming on....