Car seat with inbuilt harness up to 26kgs.....

[LimeSlice]

I just had a quick look. The Two-Way harnesses forward-facing to 25kgs, there are a couple of others on carseat dot se that FF with harness but only to 18kgs.

At 4 my DD1 is still only 16kg, so a harness til 25 kg will do her until she is at least 6. A 18kg limit would put her about 5.5 before she would go to a seat belt. She is super tall and went into a booster by 3 tjough as she was too tall for all the Australian seats.

[willow5]

At 4 my DD1 is still only 16kg, so a harness til 25 kg will do her until she is at least 6. A 18kg limit would put her about 5.5 before she would go to a seat belt. She is super tall and went into a booster by 3 tjough as she was too tall for all the Australian seats.

It would be illegal now to have a 3year old in a booster with adult belt as they are required to stay harnessed until 4. Australia needs to wake up and provide appropriate seats!
I think you mentioned LATCH being brought in in an earlier post. ISOFIX is being written into the standards now. It should be ready to go 2013. But this doesn't mean European(ISOFIX) or US (LATCH) seats will be legal here then. All it means is Australian manufacturers can produce them and sell them to install with ISOFIX, it doesn't mean we'll get extended rear-facing seats. There is campaigning to have type D seats (to rear-face up to 4years) manufactured for sale in Australia and also to have international ERF seats approved for use here. But it is very slow going.
Australia is very stubborn when it comes to car seats it drives me nuts. It's a lot to with protecting the Australian market my opinion of most Australian car seat manufacturers is pretty low after having contact with them about this. With the exception of Safe n Sound, they are making all the right noises so far about making a decent seat but are restricted by design and testing requirements here

Oh and the FF harnessed weight limit on the European seats was more for Ginger, she's not looking to ERF she wants to extended harness. carseat dot se is great for ERF not so good for extended harnessing. The Radians are good for both

[Ambersky]

S&S are owned by Britax.. it in their interest 'cause then they can use the same seats they sell else where.

[willow5]

S&S are owned by Britax.. it in their interest 'cause then they can use the same seats they sell else where.

A lot of the Britax seats sold in Europe are really good seats, but don't meet Australian Standards so can't be used with out being slightly altered. Some don't have a top tether or anti rebound bar which are both required here. Some do though but there can be other design issues. Getting a straight answer on what they are is another matter Some issues here are to with the weight of the dummy for testing, but I'm still waiting on what the exact issue with that is too. Some tether but not Aussie style over the top, but Swedish style, to the floor, Australia won't accept that either.

[willow5]

Britax also lost a huge mount of sales when ISOFIX was introduced in the UK as Europe had seats ready to go that were legal in the UK. So SnS know what can happen here if they're not ready to go. I doubt that will happen as they seem to have some weight in they say so of things like introducing ISOFIX and type D seats. There is a committee that votes and 'apparently' SnS may have members on there...could help it to stay at there pace. Not really my idea of providing the best safety for kids, but rather protecting their pockets. But that's a whole other story lol

[SammyRo]

In regards to using an imported seat affecting medical insurance, surely you don't have to use your cover? Just go public? I doubt that they would refuse to treat your child because they were in an illegal seat.

Tbh, I am very happy with the maxi rider and meridian for my two. I don't know much about the isofix option but we were recently in the Uk and hired two car seats with the rental car. They were not isofix and I was so unhappy with them. We could not get a tight fit with the seat belt, so they moved constantly. Plus, dd had no issues undoing the harness herself. Yep, Isofix might be the better option, but I think the top tether and seatbelt is the next best thing as opposed to just a seatbelt install.

[Astrid]

In regards to using an imported seat affecting medical insurance, surely you don't have to use your cover? Just go public? I doubt that they would refuse to treat your child because they were in an illegal seat.

Car accidents seem to be treated differently. You are pretty much forced to put in a claim. When DH had an accident, we had to put in a TAC claim. Ambulance cover in Vic does not cover trips from a car accident, so it is put on a claim or get a bill. Then of course there are all the follow on medical expenses, some of which are not Medicare covered, like physio.

[Olive]

Ginger maybe ring somewhere like kidsNcars as they have an advisory servixe