3rd Stage Seats

Your child can ride in a group 2/3 car seat once they achieve the weight of 15kg/33lbs.  By law they will need to ride in this seat until they reach 11 years of age or the height of 1.35m about 4 feet 5 inches.

Group 2/3 car seats cover two types of products, high back booster seats and booster seats.

When the law changed (late autumn 2006) why our government never banned booster seats remains a mystery to us because they are pretty much useless and does nothing but higher the child up so that the seat belt fits better. Please do not use these products except in an emergency situation.

High back boosters on the other hand offer much better protection especially in side impact accidents which actually account for about one in every four accidents.

The issue of “buckle crunch” (see stage 2) tends to disappear in group 2/3 seats but should not be totally ignored.  Unlike stage 1 and 2 seats this group of seats relies on your child being secured by the car seat belt itself so it is a matter of education to ensure they stay put in their car seat.   

By now many parents buy their child a car seat purely based on price which we think is a great shame.  It seems crazy to us that parents are willing to spend hundreds of pounds on equipment in the early months but when the child gets to three or four they then want to spend just fifty pounds or so on a vital piece of safety equipment which should last for seven or eight years.

Sorry, but if you are looking to our web site to provide cheap answers we are not going to because in this group of car seats money talks and more or less, you get what you pay for. 

There is no way on earth we would recommend any booster seat, ultimately high back boosters are really easy to swop from car to car and it just do not make any sense but to buy the best.

So what do you need to look for?

Well firstly of course size. This seat should last for years and your child will naturally want to be comfortable. While some seats have adjustable head rest heights it is more usefull to have one which physically "grows" as your child gets bigger.

A few can also width adjust as well and this too is very useful.

Better still is one which does not slip from side to side as of course most group 2/3 seats are not fixed to anything, they just "sit" on the seat of your car with the three point lap and diagonal seat belt holding both the child and his or her seat in place.

Very few group 2/3 high back boosters "recline" and even less come with the ability to attach to Isofix fittings (which of course stops the problem of sliding from side to side).

The other problem which parents need to be aware of is high back boosters with non adjutable head rests.

These models tend to get great crash test results because crash test dummies have no eyes and dont want to see where they are going. This type of product totaly highlights why published crash tests are not always helpful.

Because kids have eyes, and they want to see where they are going.   And,if they cant.....guess what...they lean forward in their car seat rendering the head rests (which provide "amazing" crash test results) useless.  And, if this happens of course there is no side impact protection AT ALL.  

In general most group 2/3 car seats fit reasonably well in most cars but again....... try before you buy!