When considering the purchase of car seats for a baby there are many factors to take into account, such as price, design, guarantee and safety ratings.
These points are often well covered by manufacturers and retailers in their literature.
However, we have included some additional factors below which many parents don't consider (until its too late!) In addition, make sure you know how to fit baby car seats correctly prior to purchase.
Ease of removal and fitting

• How heavy is the seat? many seats weigh over 25lbs, this can be difficult to manoeuvre into the car and difficult to adjust to a snug fit once inside.
  
• Can you easily remove/fit the seat without straining? Sometimes a combination of the size of the seat and narrow door openings on smaller cars, can make it really awkward to position seat correctly
• Are the headrests/backrests/tensioning systems easy to adjust? Do you constantly have to refer to the manual for every small adjustment required, or are all adjustments intuitive and straightforward?
• Is it easy to quickly get a snug fit? Is it difficult to fit seat snugly due to the shape/size of your rear seats, some cars have very narrow seats which makes it difficult to fit some baby seats without fouling seat belt buckles and fittings.
  If you have 3 children which all require baby seats - can you fit all three across your rear bench? Many cars cannot.
  

Ease of use

• Are straps easy to loosen/tighten? If you adjust straps every journey to ensure correct fit (as you must do), is this simple and straightforward to do, or frustrating, difficult and annoying?
• Is it easy to place child in seat comfortably? Some baby seats have considerable side bolster protection - which is great! However, it can be difficult - depending on car model - to manoeuvre child around these side bolsters and fit them into seat without being a contortionist!
• Are there any extra convenience features like one handed strap adjustment? The best modern car seats are full of features like these and are worth paying extra for.
  Imagine the rain is pouring down, you are laden with shopping, are late (as usual) and have to spend 5 minutes getting soaked to the skin while baby is screaming as you fumble with car seat fittings!
• Can you adjust backrest from sleeping/sitting positions smoothly (so you don't wake your child!) Good baby car seats have smooth damped adjustment mechanisms allowing you to adjust seat without disturbing baby.
  

Cleaning

• Will the fabric colour show up every grubby finger mark? We all know that the seat will get dirty - with young children this is impossible to avoid! So you want to choose a seat that does not show up every little mark and look grubby almost immediately.
  
• Can you remove the fabric and wash in washing machine? (a great feature).
  The better seats will have this option and it makes life much easier.
  
• Does the manual give clear instructions on cleaning? On many seats you are paying extra for fancy fabric designs such as Disney characters.
  You need to know exactly how to clean the seat to avoid ruining the fabric.