Any help from parents/grandparents would be helpful.

I would like to use the Isofix mountings on my S3 rear seats.

My grandsons are 3 years and 6 months but looking to use the seat through to 10 years.

Any recommendations please?

Thanks, Phil.

New coming in Dec2016, no more booster seats allowed, about time to.

New i-size seats are being launched also:

https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/using-a-child-car-seat-or-booster-seat

Mothercare are good, they will let you try seats in your car and price match.

Isofix bases are quite pricey, maybe £100, then maybe another £100 on a seat.

Can't the parents just install the seat in your car when needed?

We use the maxi cosi 2 way fix base as it seemed to offer the best value/longevity (age range 0-4 years) and is compliant with new regulations.

http://www.maxi-cosi.co.uk/gb-en/car-seats/2wayfix.aspx

Makes for a very easy life when installing my beloved sleep thief.

Matt

I was looking at these as a possibility - I have a (nearly) 4 yr old, an eight year old and a nearly 10 yr old.

http://www.kiddicare.com/p/Graco_Affix_Car_Seat_in_Stargazer.htm

They're isofix compatible and a really good price (especially when buying 3!).

I'm just hoping I can get three of them across the back of my SIII when it arrives !!!!

Edited 17 May, 201610 yr by Toonaroond

If you're only using 2 of them then I'd recommend the Cybex Pallas Fix (http://cybex-online.com/en/carseats/pallasfix.html), uses an impact cushion rather than harness and will cover 9 months up to 10/12 years. Both of our boys love them and found them really comfortable. Although at 3 I'd look at the Solution-X fix as it's a little cheaper (no extra base or impact cushion needed)

New coming in Dec2016, no more booster seats allowed, about time to.

d?

Doing a bit more reading, it seems that this only applies to children under 125cm and that children over this height can use booster seats. It also seems to be the case that if you have an existing seat you can continue to use it, it's new purchases that are affected.

Also check out the safety reviews, some brands are unsafe. Graco isn't highly rated. Which magazine etc.

Definitely read Which for this.  From memory Which recommend you don't go for Group 1/2/3 seats (i.e the seats that go from 6 months to 135cm/12 years old).  This seems to primarily be down to their performance in an impact.  For your 3 year-old I'd recommend a Cybex Solution Q2-Fix http://cybex-online.com/gb/carseats/solutionq2fix.html (you can get then from Mothercare) as long as they meet the minimum weight requirement of 15kg

 

It's more complicated for the 6 month old who may need a Group 0 seat then a Group 1 seat before they get to the Cybex Solution Q2-Fix at 15kg.  If safety is the priority then most of Europe go with rear-facing seats as long as possible - something like the Maxi-Cosi 2wayfamily  http://www.maxi-cosi.co.uk/gb-en/car-seats/2wayfamily.aspx. These are really expensive though at around £375.  You might get away with just buying one of the bases then using their existing car seat to plug it into  http://www.mothercare.com/car-seat-bases/car_bases,default,sc.html?prefn1=brand&prefv1=Maxi%20Cosi&view=grid but the bases on their own can be £175

 

Avoid the booster seats like the plague - they provide no protection in a side impact.

Also check out the safety reviews, some brands are unsafe.

This is a bit of an overstatement!! As long as you buy new from a reputable shop and it has the correct certification then it will be inherently safer than not using anything and provide a certain/varying level of improved safety depending on which one you buy. It is, however, more than fair to say that some seats are safer than others!!

The law of diminishing returns applies here too (emotive as the subject of child safety is!!). I specced the crew assist option based on the fact that this gives you extra rear airbags to give greater protection to kids in case of a crash... But I won't be spending 3x £300+ for car seats on top of that. I might spend £100 each on a "proper" car seat for my two older kids who technically could get away with a booster seat as far as the law goes....my 4 year old's seat cost a fair bit more than that which seems logical too...

Edited 18 May, 201610 yr by Toonaroond

We use Scandinavian made seats by BeSafe. Our little one's first two seats have been rear facing and I will be moving him up to the next size once his height and weight exceed his current iSize seat recommended limits. He is still rear-facing even at just over 3-years old. I won't use anything other than iSize/ISOFIX type seats as I'm not convinced that belt fitting systems, tethers etc are really safe enough. Too many parents look at the cost rather than the safety and protection if their child, and to me that is just wrong. I think our two seats have cost about £600 between them, and his next one will be another £200 or so, but I won't compromise on his safety. I'm not criticising those that do as it's a personal choice and always should be - and if the air bag fails to trigger then what? I had crew assist added too as a back stop, not first line of defence.

One real problem with the U.K. Child Seat market is that there are persistent stories about rear facing seats causing car sickness. I can say that in all the time our little one has travelled in cars (of all types), he has always rear faced and NEVER been car sick. If travel sensitive then kids will be car sick regardless of which way round they sit. It is whatever they get used to, or their parents cave in to. If you talk to the manufacturers (as I have at shows) they just say that they can't sell the seats in the UK, but no one else has this problem so they are all available on the Continent.

Some Continental countries mandate rear facing to the age of four and don't seem to have a problem, but in the UK no one wants rear facing seats because of the scare stories, so they are very hard to get despite being much much safer.

Edited 18 May, 201610 yr by FelisBengalensis

We got a CuddleCo Auto Clix group 1-2-3 seat from Smyths toy shop on offer (about £75 iirc). It fits perfectly in the Superb and is narrow enough that it doesn't overlap the sculpted seat base. The unit has ISOFIX rails on the bottom (not a separate base) and a top teather. Took less than a minute to fit and is very sturdy and comfortable (my daughter hated her last seat). We only got it because of the Mamas & Papas safety recall the other week, which was prompted by one of their car seats shattering during a car crash. Poor kid. :( Just beware that the S3 has a sort of 'wedge' at the back of the rear seats where they join to the backrest. This means only some seats will fit. All ISO seats should fit fine (because by nature they plug into the anchors on the rear of the base), but several of the seatbelt-type seats we tried just wouldn't fit properly because of this foam 'wedge' keeping it too far forward to he held safely.

 

Definitely visit a shop that allows try before you buy; I suspect most if you ask, but definitely Mothercare, BabiesRUs and Smyth's do.

I had crew assist added too as a back stop, not first line of defence.

.

The first line of defence is to eliminate or drastically reduce exposure to the hazard i.e. not drive kids around in cars or to do so in necessity only and at safer times/in safer areas/conditions (not when it's raining etc). It's just that no one thinks twice about that part and is more than happy to drive kids everywhere at anytime - even for very short distances (not good for health as well as safety!).

The second line of defence is other control measures such as engineering, guarding, procedures, enforcement etc the government has more of a role here than we as individuals can influence directly with driver testing and licensing, MOTs, barriers, lines on the road, traffic lights, speed cameras etc etc.

The FINAL line of defence is PPE - seat belts, airbags and car seats being the main ones. This is only designed to work AFTER something has gone seriously wrong.

If someone wants to seriously improve their child's safety in cars then the first thing they should do is reduce the amount of time their kids spend in the car, but very few people ever consider safety as a deciding factor before making a journey.

The other thing we could do is work on improving our driving skills - we can ALL get better at this. I'm an advanced driver and have over 20 years of medium to high mileage driving under my belt, my driving gets audited 3 times a year as a company car driver and we have behind the wheel advanced driving training every couple of years and yet I know that I still have a way to go before I'd consider myself a "safe enough" driver and I am as prone as most people to taking my eyes and mind off the road from time to time - yes, even when the kids are in the back. Anybody who says otherwise is fooling themselves.

We can't eliminate all risk, but we can focus our effort, money and time where the biggest impact can be made (excuse the pun). Spending an extra £200 on a "top of the range" car seat over a perfectly effective but cheaper one is not as effective as spending the same amount on a series of advanced driving lessons, a speed awareness course or even spending an extra night in a hotel rather than "pushing on through" to get home late at night/after a long drive when you know you're tired and you're having those long blinks....and the kids are in the back...

Already an Advanced driver, and an ex-Police Class 1. So at least that's covered. As for seat safety I look at it simply. How much is my child's life worth? The answer should be everything. £200 for a seat is very little to pay when viewed from that angle, but that is my choice.

How much is my child's life worth? .

Sorry, but that's the wrong question and you're kidding yourself if you think that 2x£ = 2x more likely not to be seriously injured or anything like it. Once you get to a certain standard, diminishing returns applies - big time in the case of high speed collisions.

My point is that the very best thing to do is to reduce the likelihood of the worst happening by reducing exposure to the hazard and increasing the skills/awareness of the driver. And the second part is never "covered" no matter how good or experienced we are.

Yes, we should all spend as much as we can/want on PPE, but we should never lose sight of where the real improvements can be made in terms of keeping our kids safer. As Lance Armstrong never said, "it's not about the car!!"

Each to their own.........moving swiftly on.

If you're only using 2 of them then I'd recommend the Cybex Pallas Fix (http://cybex-online.com/en/carseats/pallasfix.html), uses an impact cushion rather than harness and will cover 9 months up to 10/12 years. Both of our boys love them and found them really comfortable. Although at 3 I'd look at the Solution-X fix as it's a little cheaper (no extra base or impact cushion needed)

I have the same one and can only recommend it. Not the cheapest, but good build quality and materials.