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Author Topic: Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old  (Read 5391 times)

Offline Frenzy

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Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old
« on: April 29, 2012, 01:06:01 pm »
Our son is getting too big for his maxi cosi cabrio child seat he has been using since birth. It's therefore time to get him his stage 2 seat and i was thinking about the Recaro from John Lewis: http://www.johnlewis.com/231403591/Product.aspx

The fact that it will see him through all the car seat stages until he no longer needs one is a great selling point, however it's not iso-fix. Having said that the maxi cosi we've been using wasn't iso-fix either but that has been solid as a rock using the 3-point belt. but it is rear facing with a hugely solid base.

Anyone have any experiences with the Recaro seat that they can share - good or bad. It seems to be well praised on JL but would appreciate hearing from the guys and gals on here.

Many thanks
 :happy2:

Offline PDT

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Re: Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2012, 01:10:16 pm »
Hi,

I used a similar recaro child seat, not for the name but just the sheer quality of them over their competitors options. Ours also had the ability to have the back removed to turn it into a booster seat.

Offline vRStu

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Re: Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2012, 01:19:49 pm »
We have the Recaro seats which we bought on offer from Halfrauds for around £125 each IIRC.

These are very very good seats and our little boy loves sitting in them however a word of warning regarding Halfords/Recaro customer service.

Both our seats had a problem with the buckle 'beeping' when the seat was empty.  It was a device fitted to warn you if the child had managed to open the buckle.  We spent a long time trying to get in touch with Recaro both in the UK and Germany but they failed to follow up their emails.  We then had a problem with the kidney shaped pad under the buckle coming off, again on both seats.

Halfords were worse than useless and tried to tell us that the covers were only warranted for 1 month (yeah right) and the buckles would be replaced as this was a product upgrade that we should have been made aware of.  They eventually agreed to replace one cover as a goodwill gesture but the cover and buckles failed to materialise so after more arguing they agreed that we would take both seats to the local Halfords store and they would take 1 cover and 2 buckle sets from new in stock seats.  once at the store the manager had some common sense and said he wasn't prepared to do that and exchanged both seats.  If you read the reviews on Halfords we weren't alone.

I think the issue is that Recaro UK customer service is so poor that Halfords know they won't get the support so are wary of taking on warranty issues.  I went to great lengths to explain that I didn't give a fcuk about Halfords having issues with their supplier, my contract was with them and I was prepared to  pursue them legally.

The new seats are slightly different to the previous ones and are better.  In short would I buy again??  Yes I think so, the seats are generally good but make sure you keep your receipt and I think JL would be much, much better customer service.

They are also the OEM recommended items for VW, Audi, SEAT etc.
 
Stu...

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Offline vRStu

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Re: Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2012, 01:23:23 pm »
If you look at the Black & Aquavit seat on Halfords and sort lowest first, you'll see the review I mean.

Quote
"We purchased two of these seats in Feb 2011 and Halfords have just agreed to change them due to manufacturing faults. The problem were (i) the 'tongue' that goes between the child's legs started to fray and come detached on BOTH seats - if you compare the design with Britax seats, the Britax seats are much better made, (ii) the alarms would go off at odd times when the children were not in the seats - it drove us crazy; again this affected BOTH seats. Halfords photographed the detaching 'tongue' and emailed it to Recaro, but they never received any response in three months - great customer service! At least Halfords didn't try to avoid their consumer responsibilities, so good for Halfords!"

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_499753_langId_-1_categoryId_165554#BVRRWidgetID
Stu...

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Offline vRStu

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Stu...

Quartz Grey Audi A4 3.0 TDi S-Line Quattro, 7 Speed S-Tronic, 19" Twin Spoke Alloys, Alcantara Upholstery with Silver Stitching and Heating, Sat Nav High, B & O Sound, Audi Music Interface, DAB Radio, Parking Advanced with Rear View Camera, Advanced Keyless Entry, LED Interior Light Pack, Hill Hold Assist, Heated and Electrically Folding Mirrors, Through Load.

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Offline Frenzy

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Re: Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2012, 03:46:25 pm »
thanks for your thoughts fellas, Stu i particularly appreciate the time you've put in to responding!  :laugh:  :happy2:

Offline vRStu

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Re: Stage 2 Car seat for nearly 1 year old
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2012, 03:49:43 pm »
thanks for your thoughts fellas, Stu i particularly appreciate the time you've put in to responding!  :laugh:  :happy2:

No problem, hope it helps you  :happy2:
Stu...

Quartz Grey Audi A4 3.0 TDi S-Line Quattro, 7 Speed S-Tronic, 19" Twin Spoke Alloys, Alcantara Upholstery with Silver Stitching and Heating, Sat Nav High, B & O Sound, Audi Music Interface, DAB Radio, Parking Advanced with Rear View Camera, Advanced Keyless Entry, LED Interior Light Pack, Hill Hold Assist, Heated and Electrically Folding Mirrors, Through Load.

RNS510 Video in Motion unlocking, PIN recovery & DVD Region Free available