Bsidebaby

Hi

I want to know if there is any point me bringing my forward facing car seat with integral harness straps for my 3 year old?

I have done a bit of research and the harness straps look different with chest clips and tether straps/hook etc on the Canadian ones.

Is it best to buy one out there?

We are going to Ontario.

Thanks

Stu-pot

We took our two car seats with us when we went in 2004, my two were only 2 and 4 then, they fitted the vehicle we'd hired no problem.

zannahb

Hi, I asked same question a few weeks ago and people told me on the whole to get them when we are out there. However i would like to take ours with us so i know we have car seats from as soon as we get off the plane and hire a car. I have used our ones (britax hi-liners) in a couple of different cars and they have fitted in them fine so I see no problem with what ever we use in Canada. Hope this helps

Biiiiink

If you have a crash and it's discovered your seat was non-compliant, your insurance will be void.

The Canadian seats seem to rely heavily on the tether in the boot and less so on the seatbelt (no clips, levers and complex tensioning stuff on the seatbelt part as there was on my UK Britax Renaissance seat) - I'd be really wary of using one in the other country for any period of time.

Canada2006

Check your seat to see if it has been agreed by Canadian authorities. Write to Britax if necessary.

As a side note, many "nursery" product (sorry, don't know the correct word in English - puriculture) manufacturers* are owned by the Canadian company Doral, so their products may be ok in Canada. To check.

* Bebe confort, Maxi-cosi, Quinny...

sinope

Hope my daughter's maxi-cosi ff seat is ok 'cos it cost a fortune (and only nine months after spending £100 on a rear-facing one).

dingbat

Depends where you are headed. In BC, no you cannot use anything other than car seats with the Canadian Safety marks. That generally means Canadian or US made only in the West. Britax do sell car seats here that have been marked as acceptable, but imported ones do not have the mark and are therefore excluded. Car seats here are crap too, which is really annoying. I used my Britax though, as when I got here they were still using three point harnesses.

http://www.icbc.com/Road_Safety/carseat.asp

R2D2

I was stopped at a Police spot check here in AB

Officer checked the car over, looked inside and said to me.."wheres your tether strap on the car seat?"

My 'what ? ' I replied.

So apparently, my UK car seat (A Maxi Cosi Priori) wasn't compliant as it wasn't tethered to the inside of the car using the bolts provided in the vehicle. An extra safety feature that is "LAW" here.

She warned me that I should have been fined!!!! :scared: But, as I was ignorant of the fact and I played my,<new to the country> card, she let me off, but told me in no uncertain terms to get a new seat.!!!

Canada2006

Golly, we've just paid out for an ISOFix Maxi Cosi that cost a fortune and a Romer (Britax) one that was less - thinking about it, the expensive version of the Romer had a tether and our Yaris has a tether hook, but the guy in the shop said the Maxi-Cosi was safer.

Oh well - looks like it'll be another item for ebay...

BTW daughter much prefers the cheaper Romer seat!

R2D2

What you could do , if your seat didn't come with a long tether strap, is maybe contact the manufacturer in the UK, and see if they:
a) do one for your seat
b)can get one fitted to your car seat in preparation for using it here.

I didn't bother as my sons car seat was used by my elder son too, and was over 6 yrs old, so I didn't really mind replacing it.
I bought one here (an Eddie Bauer seat, which is actually good quality) that splits down to become a booster eventually, and will do him for the next 4 yrs or so.

KarenT

I have 2 year old. I would bring your seat fo the first few days, then go and find a Canadian one. I have to say that I have more confidence in the Canadian seats than the British ones. Other thing is you can use the Canadian one on a plane but not a British one.

R2D2

Not the case. I had used my sons UK seat on 2 flights with different airlines.
As long as it is a fixed frame, 5 point harness and you check with the airlines, then chances are you'll be able to use it.
Virgin didn't let us, as they have their own baby seats (which were pretty naf I have to say), but we had no issues elsewhere.