New Zealand users - advice on buying carseats in USA please

We are a NZ family returning after time spent living in the USA. We have a 4.5 yr old (approx 43 inchs tall, just under 40 lbs) who is FF in a radian RXT purchased in the USA. She has about an inch before her shoulders will be at the top slots. We will bring that car seat back to NZ with us. I understand it won't have the NZ standard sticker on it, but they sell them in NZ so I am ok with using that back home.

We are also expecting a new baby in late May/early June. I was planning to either hire a capsule from plunket, or put the baby in the radian if I can get it to fit rearfacing at the correct angle in whatever vehicle we get (likely a station wagon) and get a new car seat here for our oldest.

I got some advice on the forum already for types of carseats to buy but I am uncertain about using USA carseats that are not sold in NZ, and how to bring them back. The radian will probably come on the plane for my daughter to sit in, then anything else we can either bring them back as checked luggage or put in with our shipped stuff. Does anyone have any experience with bringing as checked luggage, do they check it at all through customs with regards to charging duty or checking that it has the NZ standard?

I am considering buying our oldest a Britax Frontier 85 here so she can remain harnessed for longer, and then use it as a booster. I will need a second car seat to use in my mothers car anyway, so even if the baby gets a plunket hire capsule having the second car seat would be useful. Does anyone have experience using a Britax Frontier in NZ, have they been pulled up on it in a traffic check, or how likely is this to happen?

Alternatively I could buy another Radian as I like how narrow and low profile they are, but I don't know how much more use she would get out of it.

Thank you for any help

I have a frontier in storage that I used for ds (he's been out of it for a year & I'm saving it for dd lol), I bought it off an American living in Auckland, she had brought 3 of them with her I have never been pulled over for a seat check and even if I did get pulled over I wouldn't be worried. My kids were in a non expired, well installed seats so I wasn't worried. Dd rides in a roundabout 50 as her spare seat it's awesome, I love the lock offs, as most cars here have seat belts that don't lock, it's such a pain! As for the radian not having nz stickers I would think it would only be a problem if you ever decided to sell it. Also car seats are expensive here, the radian is $550 ish so bring any seats you want with you lol

Plunket seats aren't that fantastic, they are clean but well used so you never quite know their history, I would be tempted to buy a capsule over there and bring it with you

Thank you. I will stop stressing about them not being NZ certified seats Will buy a Frontier for our oldest. I don't think we would sell the radian as once it has been used for our second child I think it will be at the end of its life span, so the sticker should not be a problem at all then.

I don't really want to buy a capsule just because I don't like them and would prefer not to use one at all, and we are not planning on having anymore kids so it would not get much use and I would not be able to resell it in NZ. Hoping to avoid the capsule at all, but not sure if we will be able to get the radian rearfacing for the baby in whatever car we get. We used a plunket hire with our oldest, she was born in NZ, so I know what they are like, but we did not drive much at that time so I did not mind. However, I will be out in the car more now that our oldest will be starting school in July. We did have an Evenflo (tribute?) that may have been better than the radian to get installed RF for the baby as it had a shorter shell but metal parts on that rusted in storage so we had to throw it out. Hmmm will have to think about options for the baby more.

Going to order the frontier today anyway and then at least I can try install it with the radian rearfacing in our current car and see if it works at newborn angle. We won't have the exact same car, but it should be similar.

You should buy a coccoro, i so wanted one but couldn't justify the shipping for such a small seat. I love the roundabout i think it will last dd until she is 3 rear facing, but would work for a newborn as well and its so easy

I loved my capsule and was a bit sad when dd outgrew it at 16 months lol it was so handy to just click it into the buggy and drop ds off to school, and it was awesome when it was raining to just be able to throw the rain cover over her in the car