Britax - BABY-SAFE PRO

We have an Oyster 3 and do use the car seat adaptors fairly often - mostly when popping to appointments or if I need to do a really quick shop. A lot of seats fit the Maxi Cosi adaptors, we have the Britax Baby Safe Pro and the 360 base, plus a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix for my husbands car (both seats fit the adaptors). I really like the Britax seat we have, it has a lie flat feature which is good for newborns and the 360 base is actually quite handy. When they grow out of the carrier stage a lot of people really like the 360 toddler seats, the only thing I’d say to be aware of with those is that if you have a high centile child they can grow out of them earlier than you expect so you have to buy another car seat and there’s a limited amount of harnessed seats to bridge the gap between a high centile child growing out of an 18kg harnessed seat and being old enough to go into a booster seat with the adult seatbelt.

Which is not a great source of info on car seats tbh, you can go look at the results of the ADAC testing (standard pan European testing that which refer to) tho you might need to use google translate. After accounting for ADAC scoring, Which tend to score seats based on things like ease of fitting and colours of fabrics, and unless somethings changed recently they don’t score the extended rear facing seats very highly even tho they pass the Swedish Plus test which is the toughest test possible. But because they’re mostly not isofix (due to the weight limit of isofix itself) they mark them down for being ‘harder to fit’. Personally I find isofix seats trickier to fit but hey ho. I really don’t want to direct you to fb groups for car seat advice because some of them are absolutely crazy but I’m in one sane one I can vouch for (Car Seat Advice UK) - they are mostly run by independent car seat retailers so some people think they’re shilling for the most expensive seats they sell but if you just join and then search past posts for recommendations you’ll see a tonne of info not only on infant carriers but the next stages too. Toddler seats are where it gets really prone to drama as people have varying levels of comfort with how early to turn their kids forward facing (and depending on if you have a taller/heavier child than average, seats like the Joie spin seats can be outgrown far earlier than you expect). The group I mentioned does heavily moderate so you shouldn’t see any comments that are too crazy but it’s very much a hot topic. For car seats that click on to the pram chassis, many of them fit the Maxi Cosi adaptors, they’re very universal. We have a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix we are reusing from our first born in my husbands car (it’s a great cheaper option) and I’ve just bought a Britax Baby Safe Pro with the spin base for my car. John Lewis had an offer on which made it about £100 cheaper than anywhere else but not sure if that’s still on. Our pram is an Oyster 3 :) it’s mid-tier so a bit pricier than your Joie option but it’s less than an iCandy, Egg, Bugaboo, Uppababy etc. The Oyster 4 has just been released which can convert to a tandem but otherwise seems to be pretty much the same as the 3. I saw lots of prams while on mat leave with my first and I don’t think I ever once thought oh I should have gotten that pram instead and we are reusing it for our second. It does everything we want it to: folds easily and compactly, not too heavy, good storage underneath, both me and 6ft4 husband can use it comfortably because the handle extends out, brake is easy to use and you can’t accidentally kick it on, bassinet worked nicely, the main seat reclines well and can be parent or world facing, it has a good weight limit of 22kg I think and it handled some fairly rough walks without issue!

Kiddies Kingdom have a Britax Baby Safe Core on clearance for £49.90+ shipping and I don’t actually think it’s possible to get a better deal than that. We’ve got the Baby Safe Pro which is the next model up and it’s a really nice seat. We’ve also got a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix which would be my other recommendation for a no frills but good & safe seat. Both the Baby Safe Core and the Cabriofix can use the seatbelt to fit into the car, you don’t *need* an isofix base though they are available. They’ll also both fit on most pushchairs using Maxi Cosi adapters (despite the name more than just Maxi Cosi brands will fit with these adapters). If you know you are expecting a smaller baby then I’d go with the Britax seat over the Maxi Cosi. There are seats that will fit a smaller baby even better it’s just probably not quite worth it in your case.

By the fact you’re saying ISOFIX I’m guessing you’re UK or European based so answering from a UK perspective. There are newborn baby carriers available that can click into a separate isofix base OR can be belted in themselves with the seatbelt, I have two (Britax Babysafe Pro, Maxi Cosi Cabriofix). Both are good seats and equally safe whether fitted with isofix or the belt, it’s just a lot quicker and more convenient with the isofix base. Baby carriers with the isofix built in like the Joie Sprint will be a niche product because the advantage of having a baby carrier car seat is that it’s portable. Adding the weight of the isofix mechanism plus a baby will make it a lot less portable! Assuming you fit the seat as per the instructions, isofix and belt are equally safe. Many people like the reassurance that isofix gives but I personally don’t think it makes it easier, that part depends more on the car you are fitting it into. Some cars have the isofix bars really easy to access and it is just a case of positioning the bars and giving it a firm push but in other cars you’re in a cramped position shoving your hands down the gap in the back of the seat to find the bars, getting one side clicked in while the other refuses to play ball and regretting your life choices.

For car seats, while basically all infant carrier are safe in crash tests because they all have the same basic concept, not all are supportive for newborns and especially tiny and premature babies. They can put babies in a chin to chest position which can restrict my their airways. And some seats have really bulky inserts which fit a newborn well but have an awkward transitional stage where they’ve outgrown the inserts but don’t fit properly in the seats. Some of the more supportive ones are Avionaut Pixel/Cosmo; BeSafe Go Beyond; Britax BabySafe; Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix; Cybex Cloud Z. You can sometimes get these seats in bundles.

We started out with the britax travel set up. Came with a jogger stroller and infant car seat that popped in the stroller. Can be placed in a car with a seat belt and no base if necessary. Its lasted us 4 kids, still looks great. I still use the jogger stroller for my 1 year old. But also I had purchased the britax double stroller since it was all compatible and I had my kids close together. And I have a decent umbrella stroller for tight spaces and easy grab and go. But, the jogger stroller is definitely the most durable, good quality and still glides quiet and smoothly after 7 years.

I bought a Venicci travel system in 2021 and I'm still using it for #2 now. I can't recommend the pram enough, and the car seat with it is also very safe - however, we went extra extra and bought a Britax infant car seat, and then adapters, and it fits on the frame of the Venicci. But I'd advise what everyone else has said on here: decide on a carseat (I highly recommend Britax, they have amazing safety ratings, built in Germany, etc etc etc etc), and then check out a pram that it can fit on to. And check out FB marketplace / Vinted etc. :)