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A Which? survey of 3,241 parents with a child under 12 years old has found that 9% of them bought a second-hand car seat for their child.
However, by choosing to buy a second-hand car seat, particularly from someone you don't know, you could be potentially putting your child at risk in the event of a car crash.
See the best car seats that have done well in our crash tests.
Opting for a cheap car seat from eBay, Freecycle, Gumtree, Shpock or a local Facebook selling group may seem like a tempting option. However, we advise against this for the following reasons:
Our child car seat reviews show models currently available to buy.
We also highlight those we've named Don't Buy car seats.
Any car seat scoring 45% or less in our tests becomes a Don't Buy.
Car seats rated 0% will have performed so badly in parts of our crash tests we make them an automatic Don't Buy. This can be because the seat is not up to withstanding the forces of a crash in a particular setup, or because part of the seat breaks or detaches during the crash tests.
We also keep a list of any Don't Buy car seats that are no longer on sale. If you're opting for a second-hand child car seat we'd suggest you check this list and avoid any models on it when you buy.