If you're looking to buy one of the best baby car seats, we're here to help - and we've tested the Joie Steadi R129 car seat to find out how well it performs. Read on to find out everything you need to know.
This smart Joie car seat is designed for babies and toddlers from birth to about four years - or 105cm tall - so it adapts with your little one's size and shape, to keep them safe for years. We're all about money-saving here at M&B so we're a big fan of this car seat lasting for so long.
It's designed to stay rear-facing for longer - up to 18kg.
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Overview of the Joie Steadi R129 car seat
Pros
• Comfy and sturdy
• Lasts up to four years
• Easy to adjust
• Front or rear facing
Cons
• Nothing
Joie Steadi R129 key features
R129 certified car seat, proven by the most up-to-date safety tests around
Suitable rearward facing 40-105 cm - roughly birth to 4 years
Suitable forward facing 76-105 cm - 15 months to about 4 years
Four recline positions: one rear facing and three forward facing
Large belt path opening at back of seat for ease of install
Side Impact Security offers protection for the head, body and hips
Tri-Protect headrest featuring Intelli-Fit memory foam that’s designed for optimal security
Grow Together multi-height headrest and harness system adjust simultaneously and require no re-threading of harness
Padded infant head and body support cradle the tiniest riders
Removable, washable fabrics for convenient cleaning
Testing the Joie Steadi R129
Mum-of-two Sophie Knight tested this Joie Steadi R129 car seat on her daughter, Matilda, who is 16 months old.
How was the test carried out?
Matilda is at just the right age and height to test out this car seat in the rear-facing format, but also into the forward-facing too. We tested it in our Seat Exeo estate car, behind the passenger seat.
She often falls asleep in the car, so it is important that the seat is comfy and safe while she's sleeping.
Fitting the Joie Steadi R129 into the car
Getting the Steadi R129 set up in the car was pretty straightforward. It's not ISOFIX, which is good for us as we can move the seat between our normal, everyday estate car and my husband's Ford Ranger truck - which doesn't fit ISOFIX seats because of the shape of the back seats. Although ISOFIX generally makes things easier, for us we need the flexibility of being able to move the seat around and fit it using a seatbelt.
The fitting was quick and easy; the instructions were very clear. Sometimes a car seat can be tricky due to finding the right position for the seatbelt to slot, but on this seat there are green sections for the belt that make it really clear.
Using the joie Steadi R129
The R129 is a very sturdy, snug car seat for my daughter. She's on the petite side, so it was relatively easy to get her in and out of the seat - it might have been a bit harder with my son, when he was little, as he was chunkier. While the seat was in the rear-facing position she did look a little bunched-up, but that's the case with all rear-facing seats once their legs start to get long. But I knew she was super safe.
Changing the position of the car seat to forward-facing, when she was big enough, was easy and straight-forward to do. Matilda now loves sitting this way round, looking out of the window and watching us in the front seats.
It's easy to adjust the position of the seat, which has three settings in the forward-facing set-up, so it's great that I can alter this for longer journeys or if I know she's likely to fall asleep.
Tightening and loosening the straps is smooth - I have found with other car seats that this can be really tricky, but it was easy and didn't require weight-training for the strength to pull the tension tight. This was my favourite feature of this car seat; as I had a C-section with both of our children, I know the struggle is real with some seats that need a good yank to get them tight. I didn't have this issue and it was much easier to know they were safely strapped in.
The safety clip has a small but useful added touch - it clicks to green when it's safely connected - giving me extra peace of mind that she's secure.
Would you recommend this car seat?
I would definitely recommend this car seat to parents who don't want ISOFIX, or if ISOFIX doesn't suit their car. It might not have the functionality of some car seats - for instance, it doesn't swivel - but this is a great sturdy, safe car seat. We loved that it'll last for years to come as our daughter grows, and having changeable positions is great too.
The only downside I really found was the lack of colour options; I would prefer a bright, colourful pattern, whereas this is only available in black and grey.
Full product spec
Rear-facing
Birth to 18kg
From 40-105cm
Forward-facing
From 9-18kg
From 76-105cm
Full side impact protection
Tri-Protect memory foam
Four recline positions - one rear-facing and three forward-facing
Removable, washable fabrics