OK newborn baby
Recommend a car seat to be swapped between 2 cars
one is a Fiat Panda Dynamic
the other a Suzuki Swift
which is the best and why?
Edited by Pugugly on 11/05/2009 at 20:04
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In my experience this depends very much on which child seat fits most snuggly into the seat. Take both cars to the shop and ask to try their display models.
If money isn't too much of an object I'd buy a child seat that has a separate base. These are wonderful as you can fasten the baby into the seat then simply clip the seat into the base that is left securely fastened in the car. There are very few jobs more trying than attempting to wrap seat belts around a child seat when it contains a baby intent on piercing your ear drums.
So, one child seat and a base for each of your cars - I seem to recall that the bases now have telescopic legs that secure the seat against the floor - all of which makes for a very secure arrangement.
I personally always fastened the child seats in as securely as possible, with no concern to the state of the upholstery once the seat was removed (not that any damage was ever caused). I mention this as a leading supplier once insisted on demonstrating how the child seat should be fitted and left so much slack in the seat belt that the child seat could be moved backwards and forwards by a good ten inches.
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Interesting post.
I am now a Grandad and I am astonished at how far child seats have come since I was a new Dad 30 odd yrs ago. I drilled my own holes in the parcel shelf of a Mk11 Escort, bolted in this flimsy black plastic shell and .....ta da, a child seat.
My son got one recently and it reminded me of a rally drivers seat, cost over 200 quid and strapping the baby in almost defeated me, especially the bit where you pull on the bottom middle strap until it goes green to indicate it is tight enough.
The seat was rock solid in the back of my C4 Picasso. Obviously, safe as houses if done correctly.
I'll get the make and post it here later.
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I drilled my own holes in the parcel shelf of a Mk11 Escort, bolted in this flimsy black plastic shell
I'm in the same position and am amazed at the security of modern kiddy seats compared to what was available thirty-odd years ago. I suppose that at least we bothered to fit what was available.
I remember drilling the door pillars of an A35 to fit seat belts.
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Our Maxi Cosi was excellent - same model which fits onto Bugaboo and Quinny prams. Problem is this was almost 4 years ago and things move on. They still do the prams and I don't think the seat has changed much.
Using a belt to fasten it in is no harder than putting your own belt on once you've done it a few times. Wrap round, clip in then pull really hard to take up the slack.
You need to take both cars and try the seats though as some rear seat belts are short.
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My first Grandchild is due in June.
This has been a most informative topic - thank you for all the tips about taking the car etc.
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We just bought the Recaro one. Its ISOFIX with the seperate base. Really pleased with it, and wish we had gone down this route with the our older children. The base ensures a perfect fit every time, and its also a lot quicker in and out than with a belt.
ANother thing for us to consider was that I have a back problem, so lifting is not to bad, but bending in and out of the car iritates it. Being able to just lift the seat and drop it on the base has helped a lot.
The Recaro base also has one other advantage in that when little one has grown out of the first stage seat you can buy the next stage and it works with the isofix base, so you get the second stage with isofix cheaper than the other comparable seats.
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Reccomend you go to mothercare and try a variety of seats. They will fit them for you, to make sure you do not get "buckle crunch". The most important thing is that the child seat will sit correctly in your car(s) as this is not always obvious at first. We had decided on a child seat. When we tried it at mothercare, we were shown that due to the sculpted shape of the rear seat squabs in my wifes car it was dangerous due to the buckle position(buckle crunch). We tried three other seats and only the last one was ok. This was a britax.
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One word. ISOFIX. Make sure your cars have the hooks by rummaging between the seat cushion and seat back. Some cars even have a helpful little label saying "ISOFIX" on the seats.
If you are in the South of England try Oliver's Babycare in Winchester. Excellent range and they will make sure any seat you like fits your car(s). Very good small business, well worth supporting. Wish they had a branch in Reading.
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ISOFIX is great in theory.
Getting a single seat which fitted in our two cars proved impossible for us 2 years ago - despite what the info sheets said the three seats we tried didn't fit.
We ended up with a seat in each car.
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As a dad of 2 boys one almost 3, and the other 6.
we've had a few child seats in our time....
of course with the first seat, you get a rear facing seat, then when there strong enough to sit up on here own, you swing it round to be front facing. remember to turn off any passenger airbag if you put the baby in the front of the car, and that the insurance may have to be informed, as you've disabled a safety feature.
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right,
britax. they have a great site, you basically enter in the car, and it tells you what will and will not fit.....
a little while ago we read an article about impact testing a bit like car NCAP testing but involving child seats, front and side impacts. Britax came out very well....
yeh its really temping to buy a 2nd hand one for pennies but unless you know the history of the seat its not worth the risk...bit like buying a 2nd hand crash helmet...
also with 2nd hand items some of the fixings/strapping might be missing or damaged.
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good luck buying a seat, and with the growing family...
"are we nearly there yet!!!"
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paul.
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www.britax.co.uk/car-seats/fit-finder/
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and another
www.thebabywebsite.com/article.870.Child_Car_Seats...m
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heres the link I've found for you.
paul
Edited by Paul G1pdc on 12/05/2009 at 13:41
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For a newborn a seat with a seperate base in each car would be ideal, wish we'd had that option but they were new and very expensive at the time.
I wouldn't bother with a seat for each car with a newborn, you won't be needing that seat for very long and I always found it easier to get the seat out of the car to put the baby in anyway, although I did get a few funny looks as I used to put the seat in the boot (saloon) to strap the baby into it before lifting the seat and baby into the back seat.
When the baby goes into a forward facing seat at about 9 months I would recomend getting a seat for each car if you can leave them in the cars all the time.
Tack's comments above remided me, when I was about 5 or so I had a 5 point harness that was bolted into the back of my dad's mini, and then later on my stepdad fitted proper 3 point belts in the back of his mk 2 escort, this at a time when new cars didn't have rear seatbelts as standard. Maybe this is why I have no problem with seatbelts when many others of my generation moan about having to wear them?
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I rang my car's manufacturer (Jaguar) to ask about their car seat products as their website was confusing...and they admitted that their products were Britax anyway and Britax were their recommended supplier
so I rang Britax having looked at their website, because I was still a bit undecided and wanted to 'get it right' for obvious reasons.
An exceptionally helpful lady at Britax gave me some really good advice, even to the extent of what to expect from the stores that sold them i.e. get them to properly show you how to fit the seat in your own car, as Britax provide training for their staff. Just as well I did it like that because when I rang a well known quality store to enquire which seats they had in stock and did I have to book in advance for a member of staff to be able to fit the seat in the car park...they advised me they didn't provide that service.
When I got all pedantic and asked to be transferred to a head of dept...it turned out the store doesn't fit the seat for you as such (so it's not their responsibility and they can't be sued later etc)...but fit the seat in your presence, to show you how to do it..then undo it and watch you fit it, so they know you've done it correctly...and you drive away having fit it yourself. Trouble was some staff only knew the bit about the store not fitting them... and unless i'd known what Britax told me, i'd have driven off with the product and done my best on my own..which might not have been good enough.
Many seats ARE fitted incorrectly, so it wouldn't matter how good the seat was if it wasn't properly fixed.
Hope what i've said makes sense.
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We've just bought a group 1,2,3 car seat - Safety 1st brand, I'd not heard of them, but we enuquired and found they also own Quinny and Maxi Cosi.
Toys r Us staff fitted the showroom model, then I did the fitting. They won't sell you a seat until it's signed off as being suitable for the car.
For £94 it was a bargain - same features as Britax and Recaro costing £150+.
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