Rear facing car seats

[Magic Johnson]

Well just found out about these today, wow that is all. 90% more likely to incur serious/fatal injuries in a forward facing one. Also they are as rare as rocking horse you know what, and expensive too!

Anyway looking for recommendations from you guys, I have a 3 door GP. Want to be easy to fit, and has to be useable in front seat. Isofix would be nice for when we get a bigger car, but it can't be purely isofix.

Cheers!

 

[ThisBitterPill]

Research suggests a child is more likely to be injured if travelling in the front due to a higher number of frontal impacts. Plus if you are using a child-seat in the front, you have to disable the passenger airbag.

I see why you'd want to put it the front though. You will certainly struggle getting the seat / child into the back of a 3dr (or more importantly, OUT in case of an emergency!) The downside to fixing it to the front seat is that you won't be able to tilt / slide the front seat with it in there. This means the driver's side is the main access, which can be inconvenient and could also compromise safety if you have a DS impact and you or your rear passengers can't get out due to the car seat in the front.

Not trying to scaremonger you or anything, but a 5dr would be my priority.

As for seat recommendations, we had a Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix and Family Fix base where the base stays fixed to the ISOFIX and the rear-facing carry seat clicks in and out. You can also use the Cabriofix without the base if you don't have ISOFIX by using the seatbelt to secure.. We now have a Maxi-Cosi Priory XP seat (our lad is nearly 2 now) which uses the normal seatbelt mounting method, but is equally secure when fitted correctly.

 

[Magic Johnson]

Indeed, your points are all something I've noted whilst researching this myself HOWEVER priority is a bigger house rather than a bigger car (swamped, SWAMPED with toys etc), so this is sort of a stop gap. I'd love to go out and buy a big 5 door saloon and isofix the car seat but don't want to dent our savings, naturally this will be utmost priority once we have our bigger house.

We discussed it last night; giving up the passanger seat or carrying the little (heavy) one in to the back and trying to do the harness up etc, we settled on in the front.

Re the ones you've mentioned, they're all forward facing from what I can see?

p.s thanks for the reply

 

[Hellcat]

You neglect the most important part.

How old/heavy is the little one?

 

[Magic Johnson]

4.5 months, about 8kg I guess.

I want her to be rear facing until 4yo, in accordance with the rest of Europe.

 

[ThisBitterPill]

The Cabriofix is rear facing (as I think are all stage 1 seats?).....

Looks like Maxi-Cosi's option is the Mobi:

http://www.maxi-cosi.co.uk/gb-en/products/car-seats/toddler/mobi.aspx

I have no experience of this particular seat, but as a brand I can recommend them.

 

[Magic Johnson]

Away to Dunfermline this weekend (closest rear-facing dealer) to try out some rear facing ones. I have a bad feeling that the GP 3 dr won't be big enough to accomodate, or it will be nigh on impossible to get the child in without a huge amount of effort.

One can only try, they said they are happy to try even though he had a woman in last week with a 3 dr GP who decided against it a couple of weeks ago due to space.

Anyone recommend any seriously safe forward facing ones?

Ta,
MJ

 

[Magic Johnson]

Well we went to a specialist dealer, and the unit itself was biiiiig. Too big for the 3 dr GP!

So we've had to bin that idea (

) and have settled for isofix forward facing, I think this is the one I'm going to go for:

http://www.mothercar...=britax safefix

Gets great reviews and is the safest one I can find. Plus the isofix is built in, you don't have to buy the additional base. It's £180 on mothercare, but £260 in Halfrauds/Kiddicare etc.

We're going to try and keep her in her small rear facing one for as long as possible though. If we had a bigger car I would have definitely went for the rear facing, looked absolutely indestructable, it costs £360 but I'm absolutely confident the kid would be 110% safe in it. Also there's no way you could swap it out, far too much hassle so it would be a permanent fixture in your car.