We need to chose a car seat for Billy for my folks' car but given it won't be used a lot at all there's no point saving up and forking out for another ERF seat.
We do want to chose a decent seat though without paying a fortune. Are there any that stand out? Or are they all much of a muchness?

Thanks

The ones with impact shields are meant to be very good - the M&P Cybex Pallas 2-in-1 is on sale at the moment for £129 (not sure what your budget is, but I know that's cheaper than an ERF seat!). http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product...419300/type-i/ The seat will then go on to do him as a booster till he's about 12, so it's a good investment.

In terms of harnessed seats, one of my friends has the Maxi Cosi um... I think it's the Priori XP, which seems like a really good, solid, comfy seat. It's on offer quite a lot too

Other than that, I really don't know

Would a combination seat not be an idea? You can the britax first class plus for around £99 and it rear faces untill 29lb.

I think there are no FF seats that are safer than others

Except the ones with impact shields such as the Cybex Pallas 2-in-1 or the Kiddy range (like the Guardian Pro etc). Haven't really mentioned the Kiddy range as they are the same kind of price as an ERF seat anyway.

it all depends hun, everyone raves about britax car seats yet put it in my car and its so much movement that its unsafe....

i would take their car to mothercare or such and try different seats. I do like maxi cosi thou always have good reviews and are solid seats if the fit is right

i have the opal combi seat and that can be picked up for about 160 or so

I life my britax first class pluss and britax eclipse! I would never use any other carseats britax are fab x

The safest seat is the one that fits in the car correctly, I've used maxi cosi xp at work and it was brilliant in one car, the grandparents wanted one and halfords (who I wouldn't normally recommend) tried it and ended up selling them a different (cheaper) seat as it was better in that car. I haven't heard of impact shields so off to google that for future ref.

I have a Maxi Cosi and it feels solid as a rock but I second what LBugs said. The safest carseat is different for every car. Go somewhere like Mothercare or Halfords and try them out x

I have the cybex pallas (mamas & papas) and really rate it, although it has not been crash-tested by me personally!

I don't know if your son is big for his age or not, but my son is and had grown out (weight wise) of this rear- facing seat by age 2. The cybex pallas has a higher weight limit than most car seats, then after the weight limit it can be used as a high-back booster seat. Which, although not a real selling point for me, does save the £25- 50 or so you would spend on a booster. I haven't found the impact cushion to be too hot and sweaty. My boys use it like a table for playing with wee cars on. The seats are also quite slim, ie I can squeeze in the middle of the back seat (in an Astra) in between two of these seats whereas I couldn't with two normal seats. The only bad thing is that the seat doesn't recline that much. I got the isofix version, although if I was buying them again I probably wouldn't spend the extra as you need the seatbelt with them anyway, and they are designed witha bit of "wobble" in them even in the isofix version.