OK guys I have been set the manly challenge of sourcing a good car seat for the newest edition to the family. I am however struggling to wade my way through the many different manufacturers and models that are on offer. So can you give me any advice from personal experience?

Obviously I want one that has a good safety score but I also want it to be reasonably well padded (so many I have seen in shops are fabric covered hard plastic with little or no padding).

Ideally I would like one that will grow with the little one but this isn't essential. Also I have seen some seats that rotate to allow easy access to the seat in place. Is this a tangible bonus or can you easily put you child in both rear and front facing seats in the back of the FFRR?

Cheers

Steve 06MY 4.4 V8 Autobiography Cairns Blue with Navy & Parchment Interior

For infants get the maxi cosy pebble and buy the iso fit base unit (family fix, I think its called).

Its by far the best infant seat and set up.

Once they get to c 9kgs you will need something bigger.
Britax do a good one but to be far the choices are a lot wider.

I've currently using a concord ultimax non iso fix for my 1.5 yr old but only because I wanted one to fit in the back of my old school 911.

Had loads of different seats, and to be honest settled on britax seats in the end as second stage and up, when they were smaller we used what ever was on the travel system, which just strapped in, super quick and easy, folks tend to get hung up on bases and fixings etc, we had a chicco (long while back) system and the bany carrier strapped in to the car in seconds, and we didnt have to keep swapping the bases over from car to car. After that we had a strap in rear/forward facing britax, followed by isofix britax.

One thing i would say which is seat related is to get a seat protector of some kind, there are some which will take an isofix seat, cos they can seriously dent the leather! (Kids and safety first obviously) There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

The beauty of the iso fix infant seats with the family fix base is the click into place in seconds and if the little one is sleeping its just makes life so easy to transport from
Buggy to car and visa versa.

I spent a while looking at various models and could not have been happier with the pebble.

When my son was little (up to 1year) we had two Maxi Cosi CabrioFix seats with Isofix bases in my car and the wife's BMW 320d (rear facing etc)

These were great, the Isofix system is well worth it when they are small so you can move them to/from the car whilst sleeping without disturbing them. We also used the car seat with an Uppababy Vista buggy/travel system, which works brilliantly! It was expensive but well worth the money (biased, but I think the Uppababy is better than any other child travel system, including my sisters Bugaboo)

Our son now two and we have replaced the Group 0 seats with a Maxi Cosi Priory XP in each car. These are non Isofix seats and are secured using the cars seatbelts. We went for these as they are just as safe, but much easier to swap over into grandparents cars etc. At this age, you won't be moving the seat to/from the car, so the Isofix system was less important.

Hope that helps. We read loads before buying our seats - like most things baby related, you can read 100's of articles telling you one thing, and 100's telling you the absolute opposite!

I put some folded over towels between the seat base/back and the car seats - been over a year now and we have no issues in either car, but I wouldn't install them without the towels to save the leather! 2007 Zermatt Silver TDV8 Vogue SE - now sold but was a great car!

We used the cabriofix with base for size 0, then the rotating one for size 1 up to 4 years... My wife has a bad back, so she loves this!! Soon much easier than reaching over, especially if you are lifting the child! We have now bought a second concord XT for son number 2, as these seem safe, and grow in width(shoulder space) as well as height.

We got pebbles with family fix bases. I think the ability to just clip in and out is well worth the price. The beep to tell you it's properly engaged is also great when you're in a rush (raining, babies in a rage etc).

MaxiCosi all the way , you choose which model suites best . Now my oldest girl is over five I found their booster seats a bit heavy and over bulky and now use an excellent Concord Transformer but that is further down the line .
BTW don't be fooled in to thinking lots of squishy padding is a good thing , the little don't weigh much so don't need padding like our lardy arses and good protection and shape are far more important . 2008 MY Supercharged
Rimini Red / Jet
four zone climate
remote park heater
and no ugly kid windows.
magnus satis quod turpis satis

We used nothing but Britax - the best quality out there - they might cost more but they hold their value and are easy to sell on after 2021 L405 Vogue SE 4.4 V8 DIESEL ~ #17

Yep, Britax here as well.  Si. <This is my name.

I eat rat poison.

A man ain't truly been insulted until he stands buck naked in front of a woman and she didn't even notice. Or care.

We went for the Kiddy-Pro seats as they were tested the best in the Netherlands at the time. We have had three (number one got completely destroyed by mould when someone left it in a store room without AC in Nigeria) and now two.

Our youngest really likes them and she just outgrew the big cushion thing across the abdominal area that is supposedly giving much better protection for younger kids than the straps, according to the German tests/developers. That is what sold us on the thing.

Now she is using the normal seat belt. The seat is very very comfortable, hinges back so sleeping in it is quite easy (no head bobbing forward all the time).

The construction has a lot of honeycomb and other impact limitation measures in it.

We have the Guardian Fix Pro (Isofix system). Also they are quite easy to clean in case you have a spill of some sort

No I'm not a salesman (of anything) I just want my little princess to be as safe as she can be (my driving is different when they are in the car). MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Maxi Cosi Isofix base and CabrioFix carry seat, Any of the Maxi Cosi Isofix bases are probably as good, I think ours was an Easyfix. CabrioFix also adapts to some pushchair bases like the Quinny, probably others too.
Maxi Cosi PrioriFix after that.

We had all the above for our two and now passed on for their first cousin.

Well worth the money in the long run and never had any comfort complaints. 2010 FFRR VOGUE TDV8 Stornoway Grey - Current
2008 RRS HSE TDV6 Zermatt Silver - 163k - Gone...

Thanks for all of your replies, it has helped me narrow things down a little.

One thing that has twigged my interest is that there is a new safety reg coming out called i-size. More stringent crash testing and a different ECE number. The biggest thing is that they mandate extended rear facing up to 18KG or around 4 years.

This is the seat that I am interested in:

http://www.joiebaby.com/anchor-?sitelanguage=18

Do any body own this seat already? or have an opinion on its real world use in a FFRR? Its just the rear door are a bit small compared to the fronts and I don't want to be struggling to get the little on in and out of the car, especially in the far to narrow car parking spaces that most places have now.

Cheers

Steve 06MY 4.4 V8 Autobiography Cairns Blue with Navy & Parchment Interior