Joie - I-Spin 360

The car seat I got was the Joie iSpin 360. Used it since birth and she's been amazing in it. I've driven over 1000 miles with her and she rarely fusses. The best advice I got was to really think of you need to have the car seat for pram option. You might have thought it through which is why you are asking but just throwing it out there. My LO is 10 months now, and when I was pregnant I realised that the only use of the car is either to Tesco, hikes or long drives (200+ miles). At all destinations I would use the baby carrier or have the pram in the car. Honestly I rarely used the pram (I got a hand down from family), maybe one a week at most when she was a newborn and would be in the bassinet option. The seat is meant to last to 4, but I expect I'll hopefully have my second child before then who can use this seat and I'll upgrade to an older seat option.

Thanks it’s the joie 360 I-spin. You can’t take it out of the car but I think it should fit newborn. Yes the carrycot is a bassinet pram attachment (the joie ramble XL which attaches to the joie finiti). The pram already lies flat but baby would need to wear a harness. So bonus of carrycot is it could be carried into house and baby stay sleeping without a time limit (I think) - but we already have a Moses basket and a next to me crib which collapses for travel … I was trying not to overbuy stuff but seems we are possibly heading that way 😅

Okay thanks - I got the joie ispin 360 given the good which? review it got (5/5 stars rearward facing isize) There are different options for the bundles, but I think we would go for the joie I-level - though this is actually worse safety score than the ispin. I was originally thinking britax romer baby safe core as it is compatible, the belted set up scores highly but with the base its safety isn’t as high. Not sure how annoying it would be belting each time though so will look at some of the others you mention for compatibility with joie finiti

We decided not to use a car seat that attaches to the push chair and instead went for a joie i-spin 360 that stays attached in the car. We have a carry cot/bassinet attachment for the push chair instead.

I dunno about everyone else, but we really didn't do much driving in the newborn stage. It might literally have just been home from the hospital in the first month or two. Definitely wouldn't bother with a seat that you can lift out - bulky for no real benefit, and compromising on safety for convenience when baby can't even stay asleep in it for long. We got the joie ispin 360, liked it enough to get another for baby 2.

Yeah no secondhand car seats especially if bought from FB. For example I gave my close friend our old car seat (still within expiry date etc and had just been used for 9 ish months when my son sized up) as she knows that I would never pass on a seat that had even been in a minor bump. We got a joie ispin (0-4 but our tall baby sized out at almost 3) as I’m not a fan of the in/out car seats. We had a bassinet pram that was sleep safe so he could sleep in it for hours.

We got Egg 3 pram/buggy and used the car seat attachment absolutely loads when baby was small. It was really handy if taking a quick trip in car to shop etc, just lift baby out and go. Our car seat also rotated out to face us so very handy. We got a BeSafe GoBeyond which fit the Egg adapters. It extended out to allow baby to be a bit flatter when in it. If you aren’t going to be in and out of the car much, then you won’t have much need for it. We’ve just upgraded to Joie 360spin car seat which is also great and goes up to 4y.

We use the Joie 360 for the car, never used the one for the pram as it just looked so uncomfortable. Plus the 360 has been great for my back. We used it til age 4 for oldest and now baby is using it.

I barely used our car seat in the pram. It's safest for baby to be flat so I decided that I didn't want to get into bad habits. I had the Joie360, but used the car seat that came with the pram for the early days. I found the spin really useful as I had a small 3 door and had experience of trying to get a car seat in the back, it wasn't that easy. But the spin meant I could have the seat facing me ready for baby then swivel her to rear face when she was strapped in.

We picked the Joie car seat and travel system mainly because it ticks all the boxes - 360 swivel isofix base - affordable - nice looking/colours - light weight car seat None of the others seemed to meet all that criteria. I haven't read into the safety of all of them, but trust that these brand have to meet a minimum requirement. That will do me, otherwise I feel you will get pressured into spending lots of money, but then struggle to lift the damn thing in and out of the car haha. 😭

We love our cloud T!! I’d say I use the car seat attachment at least once or twice a week still, and use the lay flat function most of the time when we’re napping on the go! Our little one is nearly 5m and still has the newborn inserts in so I think we’ll get at least 18m out of it before we need to get the bigger seat! I’d also say that my partner has one of the fixed car seats (it’s the Joie 360) and she only just fits into it safely now! She was far too small and it didn’t feel safe for us until she could hold her head up!

I've got this travel system (we got an absoulte bargain) and we swapped the car seat out for a joie 360. I found car seats that come with pushchairs don't seem to be as robust as stand alone ones. We kept it though incase we need to go in someone else's car. (The 360 is an isofix with a permanent base)  The pram is really good though, we haven't had an issue and a lot of streets near us are cobbled so it gets shaken about xx

car seat i’d say go to an independent car seat shop to get advice. never buy 2nd hand and i’d buy an infant car seat first. in the 0-4 year car seats you rarely get a safe fit for a newborn. my inlaws have the joie spin and babe only got somewhat of a good fit at about 6+ months. We have a cybex cloud T which can be used without isofix and is as safe used on a seatbelt; however there’s excellent cheaper options - i heard great things about the avionaut and friends have maxicosi. Pram - i’d think about your lifestyle - ie do you go into smaller spaces, live in a building with stairs, small car etc or do you need something all terrain because you go on lots of country/off road walks etc. work your way back from an essential vs nice to have list and then check fb marketplace or similar. also check sales; sometimes you can get amazing deals!

Joie or graco are both fine. They do a lower level seat than the stages if you’re no longer rear facing. Other brands are also fine thanks to our highly regulated system. As a run-down of the rules here: New car seats are R129 compliant. Also known as I-size and are based on the height of the child. Some older style seats are still sold, but will be listed as R44. These are still completely legal and safe but the R129 moves from a weight based system to a height based system, includes more directional crash testing and longer rear-facing on models including the 0-15m age option. Child car seats in the UK are highly regulated and tested. Buying from Halfords, they won’t be selling any seats that aren’t tested and compliant so feel free to spend less than £100 if it suits the needs of your children. Children under 15 months / 74cm must rear-face. Children over that may forward face or rear-face. Children up to 105cm must use a 5point harness. Any child over that can use a seat-belt high back. Most children here tend to start forward facing somewhen between 2 and early 4 but rear facing is obviously safer etc. If you’re happy forward facing both kids, look between £60-£100 for a basic R129 seat that still meets all relevant regulation and testing.

I know I sound like a broken record with the other comments but the joie car seat isn't the best. If possible, see if you can get an infant carrier (a good budget one is the maxicosi cabriofix or a spin option is the avionaut pixel pro or cosmo) and then get a next stage seat when they're older. Also, car seats go by height/weight, not age. Joie tends to be outgrown quite early (too early for a child to then forward face safely) and they are really bulky seats. I'd definitely go for a separate infant carrier. Pram wise. I regretted my travel bundle - Egg3. If I had my time again, I'd buy a cheaper pram and stroller and buy a better car seat. We just bought the Lejoux+ stroller for holidays and it's great. I see us using that now instead of the Egg stroller. So don't be like me lol

I do believe it is this seat which is a good budget one. If you're on Facebook, I recommended joining the Bump to Booster group. The admins are experts and are so good at giving good non-judgemental advice. This is a good seat once baby fits but all isofix seats have a set weight limit, usually around 18kg for low budget seats which doesn't tend to last children long enough so then it would be recommended to buy a longer lasting seat which is double the money. I got the maxi cosi cabriofix with base with my travel system (had to ask for others as the pebble wasn't very supportive or recommended) and now I use the Avionaut Sky. We switched around 6 months and love it so I can highly recommend that. It lasts until 25kg which should see my low centile baby until she's old enough for a booster. It was pricier at £300 but it lasts 10 years so we'll get lots of use out of it when we have our next one too. It really is a minefield so don't worry. I went down a rabbit hole when I was pregnant and had a panic attack that my baby would die if I would bought the pebble. All my friends have them and they're fine seats. My baby wouldn't die if she were in it but them hormones are brutal!

I got the Joie too! I don't have my own car but my husband has a small SUV. It was nice to turn the seat to the other passenger seats and spend the time getting him all secure in the pre heated car before spinning him to the rear facing position.