I decided to do a wee review on this car safety seat - the Brittax Eclipse. This seat performs fabulously well in my opinion so read on and find out just why I have so much faith in Brittax and the Eclipse in particular............

This seat is one huge beast as far as its dimensions go !! its around 80 cm high and around 40 wide. It doesnt sound too bad on paper so to speak but trust me when you get it into your car its big !!
The seat itself must have been on the red bull as it certainly has a whopping pair of wings on either side of it. Ideal for when your child falls asleep. In other seats we have had, manal has fallen asleep in such awkward positions and we havent been able to move her due to the fact were driving so its good to know that her head and neck are sufficiently supported in this car seat.
The seat does come in a variety of colour chemes but the basic pattern is the same no matter what colour you go for. Its a fine check detail on the main body and the wings are solid in coluring. We went for the black, gray and tan check with black wing areas.
The material is cotton and is full washable. Its very easy to remove the covering and it does go into a normal wash which is very handy for us parents.
Manal also commented that the seat was very comfortable and on closer inspection it does have adequate padding in the actual seating area. Nones the wonder she falls asleep within minutes of being in there !!!
The seat itself is positioned on a plastic base which is very thick and is very sturdy if fitted properly.
There are 2 ways of fitting this seat depending on the make of car its intended for so this makes it compatible with a bigger range of cars.
When the seat is in position it is quite high and I now have to sort of throw Manal in the right direction and hope she lands in the right place !
Thankfully she usually does - its months of practice you see !!
This is because the base is quite high to enable you to have a view of your child from your mirror when driving amongst other reasons I should imagine.

This seat, as big and hefty looking it is - happens to be relatively easy to fit once you have been shown how.
As we bought ours from Halfords, they fitted it for us free of charge as they have specially trained fitters in all of their stores.
They also do something that I dont know of any other stores doing............. they put the parents to the test !
The fitter will install the seat for you but no sooner have they completed the installation, they whip it right back out again.
Then without warning they ask you to go ahead and fit it there and then in front of them.
I recoiled in horror at this as I just assumed theyd fit the seat for me and off Id go - knowing the seat wouldnt ever be taken out I didnt think I needed to listen !
I think they expect people not to listen though anyway as most would like me put their complete faith in the fitter to do their job properly and the guy we had doing ours didnt have a problem with showing me again and again until I felt positive I had got it right. The fitter explained to mwe that it is policy to make sure that the parents know how to fit the seats properly in the event of having to move it from car to car.
Once I had been shown properly, I found the seat very easy to fit. The only tough part is getting the tension of the seatbelt spot on as you rely on this to keep the seat in tight once the belt is clipped into the sides of the chair.
But theres only four steps to getting the perfect fit.

4. Clip the belt into the red clip on the left hand side of the car safety seat. You do not need to use the other clip if the seat is positioned in the back of the car, only if it is in the front.

In July my daughter, her father and I were involved in a bad crash on the A19 dual carriageway.
It involved both our cars and was a little unusual to say the least.
Sirf was driving his car - a Rover 220 Turbo Coupe and I was in my trusty Citroen AX Cascade witrh Manal safely strapped in the back in her then car seat which was the Brittax Eclipse.
I had broken down on the way to visit a pal in Durham and Sirf came to my rescue. Then as he was in the middle of his rescue mission he made a near fatal mistake. He decided that he was going to tow us home ! How we wish he had neve come to this decision - anything else but that.
So my pal Barry brought us a tow rope and off we went. We got quite a way and I was ever so chuffed with myself for handling my car like I did - its not easy to be towed as you have to keep the rope taught otherwise theres trouble to be had as we consequently found out..........
Suddenly out of nowhere there was a massive tug on the rope and my car swung out to the inner lane and then the rope snapped !
This propelled Sirf off the road, down a bank, through a fence backwards and into a field full of crops !
It wasnt so easy for me and Manal though as we were catapulted into the metal barrier on the central reservation head on. All I remember is seeing the metal coming at me and my final thought was ' ok I didnt want to die like this but Im ready' and I went all calm like I had resigned myself to the fact that I was dead in seconds to come.
The strange thing is that I had blocked everything out around me and this included the fact that Manal was in the car.
Well.........the car hit the

Pictures of Britax Eclipse

The check design

This seat is suitable for children of birth right to four as it does come with a fitment to attach reducing it in size to accomodate babies. This too is entirely machine washable and on ours it came in a cream colour.