Young Zachary is now starting to out-grow his first car seat (hes 9months old) and I remember a while ago there was a consensus on one particular that all STW’ers seem to recommend?

In addition, any for sale?

Hora – it’s one bit of kit you don’t want to buy used.

Rear facing for us but they take up lots of space and aren’t widely available in the UK yet.

Britax Evolva is a good forward facer than grows with the child. Halfords are always doing baby seats cheap.

The whole argument for not buying used is you don’t know its providence (i.e if it has been involved in an accident?).

Clean its nay problem.

Why waste? The amount of kids clothes they go through is bad enough. Even mrshora now agrees to use friends clothes and donate them on now to avoid waste.

Halfords have many half price – I’d get one of them.

We’ve got a Recaro Young Sport. It seems very good but I’m not prepared to roll The Mighty Vectra to test it.

Good looking lad BTW and I don’t mean that in a dodgy way.

I believe there is a website that specializes in selling used car seats, not sure what it is though.

Its one of the things that bugs me about car seats, we used a second hand one from a freind, but obviously it was a from a trusted source. You’d think the manufactures would use some kinda of indicator to show that the car seat had undergone excessive decellaration. We use “shock watches” at work which turn red to indicate the level of G a unit has experienced, something aong those lines.

For the record, Britax Evolva. We have seat in the garage for infants upto 4 years, we never used it as it didnt secure that well. It has a system that clamps on to the seat belt which had a habit of working lose. By comparison the Evolva doesn’t budge at all.

Thanks Harry, nursery think hes a real character and when hes sat next to bingo he sings in a wierd voice (it actually sounds like a happy song) whilst he grabs hold and hugs him. Its wierd to watch!

the posh version of britax evolva 123 can be had from toy’s r us for about £95 (other places may be cheaper), it’s a lot better than the older version I also have

most of the alternatives seem to be a 9-18kg then 18 kg +

the wfe has maxi cosi versions and both are nice

personnally I would only use second hand from a trusted source

null

There you go.

maxi cosi priori xp

5 of these floating around between my family and all work in every car we’ve tried them in, always secure and kids can’t undo the straps

last one I got was on offer in asda for £75, wife paid £90 in mothercare

Thats a good point- what age do all these go upto?

priori does up to 4 ish (3 with the monsters in our family)

A few years ago when we were looking there was only one test (Which) that looked at how these seats actually performed in a crash. The winner by a country mile was the Bébé Confort Iseos.

I’d buy new if only because you’ll get use out of it for no. 2 🙂

Matt’s got a good point – virtually always on sale in Halfords – bought our last one (the next stage on again, so a little cheaper I think) from there, Britax something or other for £40. Not really any point buying second hand at that price either.

Thats a good point- what age do all these go upto?

The Recaro Young Sport should last until the kid is 12 as long as a he doesn’t get massive.

The middle section of the seat is removable and the head rest is height adjustable.

A Recaro Start 2.0 (we have one of them also) is width adjustable but costs more.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-parents-your-car-seat-recommendations-please

Second the MaxiCosi, my kids found them comfortable and they’ve fitted well in several cars.

Hora, listen to sssimon. Our little Noel is just over 13 months now and the missus has gone to get his second car seat this aft. Subscribe to Which – its free/dirt cheap for a month. The Maxi Cosy Priory-whatever it is got the top rating. Think its about £200 with the isofix based etc etc so we’re off for that. I think second and third place were two Britax ones possibly. Recaro didn’t feature anywhere near the best buys…

There are certain things you can scrimp on and save a bit of cash – I don’t think (personally) a child seat is one of those…

We had the Maxi-Cosi Isofix one in place, when our car overturned. It obviously did its job. I remmeber crawling into the back of the upside-down car & the little one was just held safely in place, seemingly enjoying the adventure but very concerned for his Birthday cake which had also had a miracolous escape. 🙂
They are very heavy though, not one for car swapping every day.
We bought it because Wich magazine rated it the highest.
We’re still using its replacement today, & reckon it will fit till he’s nearly 4.

Which conducts tests from the side as well so give a good overall rating – usual standards just apply to front impacts I seem to remember. The lack of side impact protection on some seats is scary!

We have a rear facing BeSafe Izy. Good up to 4 years old, apparently.

We got it because of great reviews in the Swedish press (reviews which I now can’t find).

I wouldn’t go second hand for any car seat unless it was coming from a ‘trusted friend’ or whatever the phrase is. Ditto motorbike helmets (bike helmets too, now I think of it!).