http://www.car4play.com/forum Car4play forum en-gb Tue, 19 May 2026 15:17:13 +0100 Copyright: Car4play webmaster@car4play.com (Technical) 5 car4play688991 Tue, 19 May 2026 15:17:13 +0100 Thanks all for feedback - the car seat we currently have is a Cybex that we bought second hand from FB Marketplace - nice clean home etc and it was identical to the seat my daughter was using as well so I was able to clearly see that everything was as it should be. I guess I will just wait and see what seat my daughter gets next and maybe try and replicate that but some good suggestions and information here that I will use when it gets to that time. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688991&v=e car4play688919 Sat, 16 May 2026 21:00:25 +0100 A neighbour got sandwiched on the motorway a few years ago. Not a great deal of damage and the kid wasn't even in the car but the insurers automatically replaced the seat. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688919&v=e car4play688917 Sat, 16 May 2026 19:59:26 +0100 Chris, totally agree. We helped our daughter select hers latest ones at Halfords. These were required at short notice when they’d been tailended at speed on the motorway and the car was written off (badly damaged fore and aft). We needed new seats to bring them home. Having seen how well good seats protected our boys I wouldn’t skimp on seats. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688917&v=e car4play688910 Sat, 16 May 2026 15:33:58 +0100 You know you'll end up either using theirs or buying a top notch rear facing one! Thankfully ours, 9 & 11, are out of them now. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688910&v=e car4play688906 Sat, 16 May 2026 14:53:06 +0100 "I’d rather buy a cheap new approved one that a used “better” one online." Would you? Which? has tested cheap (Chinese) baby seats available on certain online sites and found they can fail at only 30mph. Depends who's doing the "approval". http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688906&v=e car4play688902 Sat, 16 May 2026 09:53:57 +0100 GOOGLE SAYS The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) advises that children must travel rear-facing until they are at least 15 months old. However, RoSPA strongly recommends keeping children rear-facing for as long as possible (ideally up to four years of age) because it offers superior protection for their head, neck, and spine http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688902&v=e car4play688897 Fri, 15 May 2026 20:54:07 +0100 My first granddaughter was rear facing up until she was five and a half, my daughter had a seat in her car and we had a second for our two cars (isofix) - no doubt our second granddaughter will follow suit. First GD is now front-facing as she is too big to continue to RF and is in a seat that should take her up to twelve (Britax Römer) - daughter has two isofix seats in the back of an older Polo. RF is definitely something that is currently promoted on parenting websites. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688897&v=e car4play688896 Fri, 15 May 2026 20:45:26 +0100 We're an age group ahead of you Bobby as Grandson George is now four and a half. He had a Joie I-Spin from birth. It can face either way and can be turned ninety degrees to face the car's door for getting little ones out. Used with him facing back until around two after which it was used other way. Miss B says that by that age facing back he used to get really hot (the aircon didn’t seem to reach him!) and worked up and it was also really distracting trying to talk to him when you couldn’t hear him properly - which then again caused him to get frustrated and worked up The i-spin didn't use the 'top tether' set up to restrain it from toppling forward but rather had a telescopic post resting on the car's rear floor. That was a mismatch with the 'lingo as that area was suspended above the steel floor pan. When we holidayed with them we took the Fabia which was OK. He was still facing back but the panoramic roof added a view. He's outgrown the I-Spin very recently and now has a Joie I-Bold which can be a child seat with 5point harness or a Booster Seat. We have an I-Bold for when he's with us as well. Off to Harris next week and he'll be in our car to link walks etc. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688896&v=e car4play688885 Fri, 15 May 2026 15:16:18 +0100 >> "Baby on board" >> >> What's the point of that, as a permanent sticker? If an accident happens people may >> risk their lives looking for a bay which doesn't happen to be traveling at that >> time. I pointed this out to a neighbour. Their reply: "you expect me to take it out whenever the kid's not in the car"? http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688885&v=e car4play688882 Fri, 15 May 2026 14:03:53 +0100 >> There’s a lot of advice online cautioning against buying a used baby seat. It’s very >> hard to assess if it’s suffered undetected damage in a shunt. >> I’d rather buy a cheap new approved one that a used “better” one online. >> >> I don't think people are pulling car seats of crash damaged to sell on fb for a few quid. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688882&v=e car4play688881 Fri, 15 May 2026 13:58:51 +0100 My ex had 3 children. And an MGB GT….husband went in front passenger seat, two eldest in the small rear seats, baby on cargo shelf. I kid you not … Now grown up, unscathed & well adjusted with children of their own. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688881&v=e car4play688880 Fri, 15 May 2026 13:54:03 +0100 There’s a lot of advice online cautioning against buying a used baby seat. It’s very hard to assess if it’s suffered undetected damage in a shunt. I’d rather buy a cheap new approved one that a used “better” one online. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688880&v=e car4play688877 Fri, 15 May 2026 12:58:20 +0100 "Baby on board" What's the point of that, as a permanent sticker? If an accident happens people may risk their lives looking for a bay which doesn't happen to be traveling at that time. Or is it just a show of how fertile the occupants are? :-) I'd have thought there was a vibrant market in used car seats, particularly lightly used ones from people in exactly your position. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688877&v=e car4play688873 Fri, 15 May 2026 12:11:13 +0100 As many contributors here are of a certain age, there's likely to be quite a few responses along similar lines. Our grandson is 15 months and recently gone up to the next stage from the baby seat which weighed a ton even before he was installed. His mum wants him to be rear facing as long as possible, his dad is a little more flexible. At the end of the day, they are the little fella's parents and they call the shots. Rear facing has to be safer in any head on collision. Babies must be different now as so much has changed in the last 30 years compared with the 'rules' when we were there. The same probably applied to our parents. Can't recall the exact model they went for but it's Maxi Cosi and goes up to 12 years. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688873&v=e car4play688869 Fri, 15 May 2026 11:09:17 +0100 Just tell them that if they are truly worried about the safety of your granddaughter they shouldn't be putting her in a car at all. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688869&v=e car4play688868 Fri, 15 May 2026 10:30:32 +0100 Hi Bobby, In exact same position with our Grandson. Currently waiting to push back on flight home from Madeira and about to go radio silent. Agree that rear facing at 7, and indeed once beyond babe in arms, is silly for exactly the same reasons as you. So does our daughter and her husband. Will reply fully when home this evening. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688868&v=e car4play688867 Fri, 15 May 2026 09:58:58 +0100 My grand daughter will be 2 in August and she is in the original car seat she has been in since birth, isofix, seat can lift in and out which we did with her in it when she was a baby but now too heavy. So she will be going up to the next stage and my daughter was telling me that its still recommended to be rear facing and some of the seats can do up to 7 years old! And I'm looking at my grand daughter just now with her legs firmly rested on the back of the seat and thinking but where would a 7 year old's legs go! Over the seat and in to the boot? And my daughter is saying to me but surely you want the safest seat for your grand daughter and I'm saying it will do her no good if she spends the next 5 years staring at the back of a seat rather than be forward facing and be able to see her parents, see out windows, communicate, observe etc etc. And then of course I said well to be really safe we could also put a helmet on her and fit a roll cage....... My kids were born in 94 and 97, they had a carry seat at baby stage that was rear facing and the seatbelt went round it (more often than not in the front seat so that the driver could see), then went into a forward facing upright seat that again was seatbelt mounted and then eventually into the booster seat that the seatbelt just went round the child. Some of the seats you see now are humungous and costa fortune. So I will wait to find out what seat my daughter allows me to get next - any recommendations for the age 2+? http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=688867&v=e