Joie i-Anchor Advance with Isofix Base

Can I just say how much I absolutely adore this car seat.

I originally wanted to buy the Joie Stages or the Graco Milestone, but unfortunately the seatbelts in my car were not long enough to wrap around the seat and plug in, so I had to buy a seat with an isofix base to fit to the anchor points in my car.

I spent a lot of time looking at reviews but the only seat that I liked the look of was the Joie I-Anchor advance. I paid £175 for it and it came with the base free (that was around £150 on its own). So it is definitely worth shopping around for the best deals. Don't forget Toys 'R Us do a price match too, it just needs to be in stock on the website you're quoting from.

To install the base, I just had to pull the supporting leg down, then push the two buttons on the side to release the anchor points, then once I had pushed the anchor points in and it was fastened in place all of the indicators turned green, to show it is secured correctly.

The seat reclines, but I intend to use it rear facing for as long as possible - (this seat does rear facing for up to 4 years) so in the rear facing position it doesn't recline, you use it on the furthest reclined setting anyway. On fitting it for the first time, I found it almost impossible to get my 4 month old seated, she literally didn't fit into the seat between the padding. However we removed some of the newborn inserts and extra padding and she sits comfortably now.

The straps are adjustable with just one hand, and it seems very comfortable for baby as she regularly falls sound asleep in it.

The Drawbacks:

•  It doesn't recline further in rear facing mode, sometimes babies head can lean forward which used to scare me a lot more than it does now. I find that making sure she isn't sat to high up when putting her in the seat works to address this, and making sure that the straps are the right height. 
• No handle - It is impossible to carry this car seat around with baby asleep in it. Our old Group 0 seat - whenever she fell asleep we could bring her into the house asleep and settle her. With this one, when she is asleep, we have to remove the baby and carry her in.

I find these two issues a small price to pay for piece of mind. I tend to stop and check my daughter if she slumps forward to much and re position her, but I am safe in the knowledge that she is secured in place with a 5 point harness and should we have an accident it has side impact protection and she is facing rearwards.