Joie Elevate Car Seat Review.

To my disbelief Baby bear finally grew out of his first car seat, he seems to be doing that growing up really fast thing again… So when we started looking for his next car sear, I knew I had some criteria for it. I knew I wanted to stick to the brand Joie, it had to last him until he no longer needed a car seat and it had to stay within our £100 budget (small I know but if i could spend under that it would be perfect).

As always when it comes to things like this, Daddy bear left me to do some research and find a car seat I liked. Which was quite easy really as I already knew what brand I wanted to use. Going from there it was pretty simple. I did a little google search for Joie car seats that were stages 1,2 and 3 and found the Joie Elevate. After looking into it a little more I decided that this was the one I wanted to go for.

Baby bear is little for his age, weight and height wise. So I expected to have trouble finding a car seat that had a low enough weight requirement for him. Surprisingly the Joie is suitable for forward facing from 9 kg, so I didn’t have to worry about him being too little. Another huge issue for us and every other parent out there is safety, (of course…derr) so we loved the fact that the car seat still had the side impact protectors that keep their head, body and hips safe during an accident.

side impact protection — Side Impact Protection.

Being a first-time mumma, I’ve always been skeptical of car seats that go from 2 years all the way to 11 years. All the reviews I saw for the Elevate were positive so we decided to give it a go. Now we have it, I can see how it works, you can adjust the headrest height 10 times. It also has their Grow Together hardrest and harness system, this automatically adjusts together without having to un-thread and re-thread the harness (as we had to one his Joie Tilt, I loved the seat but that was a pain).

Another bonus for us is the fact all the covers come off and are machine washable. As you may know, we travel back to Essex a lot to see our family, which means Baby bear eats in his car seat so it can get pretty gross so I’m constantly washing it, so the fact it is easy to remove it all and I can just throw it into the washing machine here at home. That’s a win in my books (that’s Motherhood right there, getting happy about being able to wash a car seat). But get this, it’s not only machine washable it is also a breeze to get in and out of a car. I can’t be the only parent who hates taking them out and putting them in right? (oh gosh, I need a life… it’s a car seat).

To install you simply thread the whole seat belt through the back and buckle it in pulling the seat belt tight. Then put the belt into the red Lock-Off and it’s in place. It is very secure once installed, so I know Baby bear is safe while we are traveling. We have recently taken an hour and a half journey using his new seat in which he fell asleep. Which is a good sign that he is comfortable (he is a boy of comfort, like me I guess). His head does hang forward but I think that’s out of his own choice and comfort, as he can lean it on the side of the chair but he likes to have it dangling while his sleeping (strangle sleeper like Daddy bear).

Daddy bear and Baby bear liked the fact it also has mesh sides because it looks more like a racing seat (apparently, I’m not too sure about that but what would I know…). While I’m getting excited about it being easy to clean and install, Daddy bear loved the fact there is a cup holder. Simple things I guess.

So all in all, I would completely recommend the Joie Elevate Car Seat to anyone looking for a Stage 1, 2 and 3 seat. We chose the Cherry color option but they also have the 2 tone black option. It is well worth the money and Baby bear seems to love it, I can’t believe he has got this big. Yes, he is still smiling like this for every photo, isn’t it great…