$50 off at the moment.
I mentioned this in relation to to another seat. I've been researching seats and I've found this to be the best value seat with the features I want for a non-ISOFIX seat. It will allow the child to be rear facing for longer than most other seats. Most seats sold at big box stores are actually cheaper rebrands of more expensive seats sold at specialty stores like Baby Bunting.
This is the seat I am getting for my parents car (getting an ISOFIX compatible one for myself).
These are good seats - and a good price.
They also let you keep your child rear facing for a lot longer than most seats (much safer).
Ended up ordering the Kompressor II Deluxe from Baby Frugal for $350+$10 shipping. Big W have the Trident II, but they are VERY hard to find and actually they were $399 anyway so contradict my earlier statement about big box seats being cheaper rebrands - although the Kompressor II has a RRP of $450.
A rigid ISOFIX would be better but I just can't justify the cost, and also the current rigid seats don't satisfy my criteria of having baby rear facing as long as possible.
Just in case anyone comes back to read this comment, I had a terrible time getting this delivered from Baby Frugal. I don't recommend going with the lowest price in this case. Buyer beware, they also appear to trade under the name belly2baby.
+1 for extended rear facing - probably saved my 1yo from injury in a recent car accident. Car got rear ended and the 3 other adults in the car all got whiplash / seatbelt related injuries (thankfully all relatively minor). Kid in rear facing Infasecure Neon was fine after the initial fright. Pretty much all his peers are in forward facing seats already, and I'm sure he'd love to be FF too, but yeah I'll keep him RF for as long as possible thanks.
I have heard in EU kids have to be in Rear facing seat for first 24 months…Great idea….Easy to put young one in and easy to bring out without breaking your back.
Shame we can't buy isofix for older age group (4-8)
I've got the Infasecure Neon and Infasecure Meteor. The seat in this deal looks identical to the Neon. The Meteor has more padding and I think for that reason my 13 month old son prefers it over the Neon. But if you child doesn't know any better then it won't make a difference.
One other thing worth considering. Which I didn't consider when I bought these car seats for my son. If you ever plan to fly with your child then you may consider getting a seat which meets "Australian design standard AS/NZS 1754: 2013". Note the 2013. This is the "new" standard and there are very few seats which meet this standard. Which means they tend to be expensive. As far as I can tell the main difference is the seat can be secured (in the aircraft) without the top anchor strap. There were only 2 seats which I could find which met the standard but both seats were wider than the max width allowed for our flights so we didn't get those seats.
Having said that. We took the Neon on a Melbourne to Bangkok (and return) flight. This was a PITA as the seat is quite bulky and carrying it through the airport wasn't all that fun. (Next time we will buy a CARES harness and be done with it). We initially planned to hire a car in Thailand and fit the seat. But not all cars have anchor points for child seats and this is a feature only really seen in Australia. Europe and the US don't require the top anchor on their seats.
If you plan to fly with your child. Do your research. Some airlines only want to see that the seat is certified. While some airlines are more strict and require the new AS/NZS 1754: 2013 standard.
May I ask why you fly with the car seat? Is this because you don't want your baby on your lap holding them for safety reasons (free, don't need to buy them a ticket) and instead pay for a seat so it is safer? Just curious. Or do you need the car seat when you get overseas for hire cars and things so want to take it on board?
It was an 8 hour flight. We couldn't imagine our son sitting on our laps for that long… And yes it's safer.
i haven't considered travelling overseas with a seat at all, to me that's probably a whole 'nother level of criteria to consider. Car seats are already complicated enough, especially with the Aussie standards which seem to be deliberately out of step with other countries.
I guess I always thought we could hire a seat overseas if needed, although that might be easier said than done. I saw a friend lug around a seat, pram, and cot for a European holiday once. It looked ridiculously painful.
You're right: Infa Secure seem to have 2 basic "shells" they manufacture. One is the Kompressor/Trident/Neon/Ascent style, and the other is the wider Cosi/Meteor style.
This thread was very helpful in finding out about this, there is one poster there who seems to have researched car seats to the nth degree:
http://m.essentialbaby.com.au/forums/index.php?/topic/104296…
What ISOFIX one are you getting for yourself?