I've been thinking about buying another car seat as I get sick of swapping the car seat between mine and my husband's car. We currently have one of those convertible ones that go from birth to 18kg (I think). Lily still fits it fine. She is 20 months and about 12-ish kg. I have no idea what kind of car seat I should look at buying next. Obviously I would like one that will last us the longest (ie, don't want to have to buy another age/size range in 6 months time)

Can someone point clueless me in the right direction please

I'd go for something like the SNS M@xirider - we got one as a second car seat for Amelie around the same age for the same reasons as you

She's still in it now with lots of room to spare.

Obviously we are a long way off needing another carseat, but when the time comes we will get something along the lines of a Maxi-Rider. We currently have a capsule which she will stay in until 9kg (or length requirements are met) and then she will go into the convertible seat that we already have. If we needed another seat then I would get a MaxiRider, as I think they go up to 7 years of age?

Another vote for the SnS Maxirider. I can't comment on any other brands because we have only had SnS. We have the Meridian, Maxirider, Hi-liner and Pegasus. Have been very happy with all of them.

Keira was in the Maxi-rider up until a few weeks back (she is 4.5yrs) We got a new car and I thought since I was having to take the seats out and reinstall that I may as well move Liam into the Maxi and we got the Hi-liner for Keira which we just use the seatbelt with. She was probably getting a little bit tall for the Maxi to use the inbuilt harness so we would of had to get one of those other harness things or use the seatbelt anyway.

I'd look at the latest restraints testing results - which are here:

http://www.crep.com.au/crep-results.php

At 20 months you could put her into a type B/E which is a convertible booster seat (does from 8-18 kilos with inbuilt 5 point harness, then 18-26 kilos with seatbelt (H harness's are not recommended for most kids).

However, the one thing you need to watch with the convertible boosters seats is they tend to recline less and be less supportive of their heads if they are still tending to fall asleep in the car.

The highest rating seats for her age are the Babylove ezycombo (a convertible) and the Meridian tilt and adjust (a 0-18kg seat).

Then there are quite a number of 3 star seats as well.


FWIW - we have both boys in a hipod senator because they are 3 star rated AND fit well in our car. We have it reclined for ANgus (21 months) and he is quite comfy - however, in my old smaller car there wasn't enough room to recline it so we didn't use it in that car.

Things to consider are the width of the seats - we wanted to fit an adult in the same row as two car seats so preferred narrower seats (the Babylove ezycombo is really wide). We ended up choosing the hipod senator based on price vs the maxirider (both got same rating) and width.

ETA - I've heard that the convertible boosters aren't as easy to use in booster mode so I wasn't so bothered that the Senator scored less in that mode as I suspect by the time Will needs it in booster mode we will get him a dedicated booster and put the Senator in my parents car etc. If you want to use it in booster mode though - make sure you check the rating for 6 month - 4 years and for the next category up.

thanks heaps girls In my searches to find out how much the maxirider and the senator are I found that the senator is on sale in the target toy sale for $200 which is much cheaper compared to the maxirider. So much to my dismay, it looks like I might have to get to Target early when the sale starts to snavel one of the car seats.

Can I add a question to this thread?

Aidan is currently in his baby seat 0-18kg front facing. He is 15.5kg, so no worries about weight, but an issue with height. He is 100cm or just over, so having the issue of shoulder strap height & head starting to poke out the top. The carseat in my car is the S&S AHR which has a adjustable headheight, so might be able to get some more use out of it. But the carseat in Hubby's car is an S&S Compaq deluxe with not adjustable headheight...

so what carseat to buy? Hubby's car is a VW golf, so quite small. What is a slimmer seat? I quite like the idea of the Babylove Ezycombo, but it is very wide.

Any suggestions?

You would want a seat with higher strap positions than the Safe and SOund seats - I think the Marathon Cargo (from BIg W) is fairly narrow and has higher strap heights than the Maxirider etc.

SNS are bringing out a new Maxirider which seems to have much more cushioning around the body and head (like the tilt and adjust). I would think that could work very nicely. Emme fits really well in Josh's MaxiRider AHR and we haven't had any issues using it as a boosterseat with the seatbelt. We bought the Hi-Liner for Josh just recently as I wanted to put that in our car and use the Maxirider for Emme in the other car. Unfortunately, Josh falls out one side (the wings aren't nearly as deep and the seat is much narrower) in my car but he doesn't in our other car.

Oh on a side note, Emme had a really good long sleep in the Maxirider and seemed just as comfy as she does in her Meridian AHR. If the new one has more padding for the younger ones, I can only imagine it would be even nicer.

ETA - Chantelle - Josh is currently 112cm and a bit over 22kg. He still has plenty of room in the Maxirider AHR in the inbuilt harness (if he was still within the weight limit) although the new seats should have the shoulder markers insted of the weight limits to use from now on.

If you can wait at all before buying seats then definitely wait! SNS are bringing out new/modified seats towards the end of the year, as are BabyLove.

Thanks Megs ! We are in the market for new seats, so i will wait

I'm hoping Ollie won't outgrow the capsule before they come out! From what I've seen they look really good, much deeper side wings.

When are they looking at changing the laws for seats again, ie instead of age by weight/height?
Or who knows what the guidelines will most likely be?

On a side note, how hard is it to put the shoulder straps up?? That used to be the husbands job, now I no longer have one, I need to do it on my own.. I don't wanna stuff the seat up cause I NEED IT!! any help??

I don't think they're changing the laws again? I know the new seats Britax (SNS and BabyLove) are coming out with have height markers on the seat rather than weight guides.

ETA i have the AHR Maxi Rider

Emma - Our seats are easy to change the height on. But you have to take the seat out of the car to do it. Then the straps slide off a metal plate thing, take them out and feed them through the next slot then back onto the plate.

This sounds great to me as we have the very tall lanky child

Had a look today and the Maxirider looks good. Thinking that we might move his Merdian AHR babyseat to hubby's car and then put a booster into mine for now. Then when he outgrows the Meridian put a booster into Hubby's car.

All this car seat stuff does my head in!!!