safest child car seats
Child Car Seats – do you know where a good website review is?
Hey all…do you know where I can find a review on what the safest car seats available are? Looked around and the only one I can find is ‘Which’ and to get the review costs 80 quid for a subscription!
Really looking for an impartial web review on the safety of all the seats available and the ease of use of each seat.
Any help greatly appreciated.
By the way I’m in the UK so American websites are not any use as seats differ here.
Ta….
Hi there.
Can’t you get a free ‘trial’ subscription to Which? I did it about 6 months ago for exactly the same reason and it was really good. They had pictures from crash-tests which were really useful.
If they’ve knocked that dodge on the head now, you could team up with some of your friends from your local hippy parenting group (I don’t know if you’ve joined any of them) and share the cost of a subscription for a couple of months.
As an alternative, there’s a quarterly magazine called ‘baby gear’ or something similar. It is JUST a review of baby and toddler equipment. They review different groups of products in full so the latest issue might not focus on car seats, but every issue goes through the top 10 of every item you might wish to buy.
If all else fails, this is what I remember from the Which? website:
- don’t buy the car-seat that looks like a carry-cot. It smashes into a million pieces in an accident.
- most of the stage 0 car seats are very similar in design and safety features. The more expensive ones tend to feature accessories like sunshades rather than extra safety measures.
- if you’ve got isofix in your car, it is a bit safer than non-isofix seats provided its fitted properly.
- the convertible stage 1/2/3 type seats can be less rigid than the single stage ones.
- for stage 1 make sure the seat has its own straps and doesn’t use the seatbelt.
- the most important thing is that the seat doesn’t move at all when properly fitted in your car – so ones that have seat-belt tensioners can be good because they stop the seat from wobbling around.
All of the major makes performed well, but I do remember Britax coming out well (and that’s what I ended up buying).
Good luck
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