I'm in the market to purchase a convertible car seat. There are so many brands out there. Is it worth it to pay the extra money, are they really better etc? My daughter is almost 7 months old and about 20 pounds and has pretty much grown out of the infant car seat. I considered the Safety 1st air convertible car seat which runs about $250.00 Guess no matter what it will be over $100.00. Any suggestions???
We have a Recaro and love it! It has great safety ratings. We have the Como or the Signo. I can't remember which. They're essentially the same...just cosmetic differences. It provides excellent head and neck protection and can accommodate a child from 5 lbs to 70 lbs.
I LOVE and receommend:
Britax Marathon convertible car seat
Price: Retail is $279.99
Star Rating: 4-5 Stars
My personal likes: #1 These Britax car seats are tested to stringent safety standards. #2 The chest buckle stays in place due to the rubber that rest on the straps but around this buckle. I was told this chest buckle helps keep the baby from slipping out of the straps in the case of an accident. I noticed other brands do not have this rubber feature and the plastic buckle slips down on it's own (I noticed this when we borrowed the Graco & Cosco brands while in someone elses vehicles). #3 I love their fabric patterns.
Good Luck!
I use the Cosco brand, the Graco and the Britax Roundabout for my girls (we have six car seats, 2 each in my car, my mom's car and my husband's car). I recommend the Britax by far. It is so sturdy and extremely easy to use. If I could, I'd replace the other four car seats with the Britax! I was able to find mine on sale at a couple local Targets for $100. This price is unheard of but if you shop around online, you can get a great deal on them. Try www.albeebaby.com. They are a great place to get good deals on baby gear, and they do free shipping. Good luck!
We have a Graco, an Evenflo and the Britax Marathon. By far the Britax is the best seat. It feels more secure, is easier to install and looks so much more comfortable. There are sales on it and we were able to get it for under $200. I am pregnant now and the new baby will get Britax for all our cars regardless of cost. It is worth the extra money!
we went from the infant carrier to britax roundabout.. but the roundabout only goes up to 40 pounds and 40 inches.. (which is about 4 years old..) so my tall children will grow out of them soon...
we love the britax.. it is a great seat comfortable and easy to install. the straps do not twist.. it is a great seat.
so we recently bought 1 graco nautilus... it goes up to 100 pounds and a lot of inches... (basically an 8 year old..)
The law in michigan is kids must be in a car seat until 8 or 80 pounds.. so you might want to get one seat taht will hold them until that age.
the graco nautilus is a good seat..but the crotch strap is too far back and hard to latch. that is annoying. the straps do twist a bit.
Whateve seat you buy.. you will probably need 2 car seats in this size.. one for moms car and one for dads car... so it is pretty expensive..
I bought my britax seats used on craigslist.. I will sell them when we are done with them - probably for what I paid for them.. you can usually find britax used .. it might take a few weeks to find one in your area.. but they are out there used for a lot less money.
A friend of mine just bought this seat and loves it! It can be rear facing up to 40 lbs and forward facing to 65 lbs! Graco My Ride 65 http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=353243...
I would look at Consumer Reports and see what they have to say...
http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Triumph-Advance-Convertible...
$125 with free shipping on one of the best convertible seats around. It gets great safety reviews and I can't say enough good about it. I love that it has the higher limits for rear-facing, super easy to adjust the straps, and is so comfortable too. We were so impressed after a couple of months of using ours we went out and bought another one for the other car. I would buy it again & again. It's not a cheap seat but it's not nearly as expensive as some and has wonderful safety ratings and features. You can get the same seat up over $200 depending on the fanciness of the fabric and padding. If you don't have an infant, there's no need for the padding so you don't have to worry about that. We have a fancy one that cost $180 and the one that costs $125 now (it was $145 when we bought it) and there is no difference once you take all the extra stuff off of it.
Can you tell we like it? LOL! Just read the Amazon reviews for more positive responses!
We got the Britax Marathon car seat for our son. It has the higest weight capacity around 65 lbs. for use with the 5 point harness. I did a lot of research on this and wanted to use the 5 point harness instead of the seatbelt. We got ours a couple of months ago on sale for around $250 at Target.
Britax Boulevard is the best !
