Hadley hasn't quite outgrown her infant car seat yet, but we started looking at convertible car seats yesterday because I don't want to be rushed into buying anything. From what I have seen, Britax and Evenflo appear to be the best as far as brands go. We narrowed it down to 4 models, but choosing between those is difficult. Below are my pros and cons. Let me know if any of you have bought or looked at any of these models and what you think about them.
Evenflo Triumph Advance Deluxe LX: In the most recent Consumer Reports report on car seats that we can find, this one was rated the best. However, after looking at one in the store yesterday, I'm wondering about that rating. I'm not sure about the side impact protection, as the seat is very wide and it seems like there is a lot of room for sideway head movement in it. We are very concerned about this because we don't have LATCH in the middle seats on our cars so she is on the side behind the driver's seat. We tried putting her seat in the middle and fastening it with the seat belt, but it was a lot looser than on the side with LATCH so we left her on the side. I'm also concerned about the front harness adjustment on this seat, as it does not seem to lock into place. After putting her in it and tightening the harness, it seems like it would only move about a notch or two up or down and would not really affect her positioning, but I wondered what other people thought about this. Also, there is a knob on this one that you have to turn to tighten the harness. I already have tendonitis in my wrist from picking her up all the time (along with back problems, but that is a subject for another post), and having to turn that knob all the time is not going to help that problem--the knob is actually rather hard to turn too. Also, the buckle on this seat was cutting into Hadley's belly quite a bit because it was so big--bad enough that it looked like it might be really uncomfortable.
Evenflo Symphony 65: This seat is newer than the Triumph and is intended as an All-in-One seat, so it is in a different category from the Triumph. However, I like that this seat does not have the knob to tighten the harness--it is the regular pull-to-tighten kind. It also has an extra head restraint so that there is not as much space on the side of her head between her head and the side of the carseat. It still has the same harness height adjustment as the Triumph, and although the store sample had the old smaller buckle, the newer ones online appear to have the bigger buckle.
Britax Marathon: This one appears to have gone down in ratings recently, although it was #1 a few years ago. When we tried her in it, it was easy to use and seemed very comfortable, but it does not have the head restraint and I am a little concerned about the recent ratings.
Britax Boulevard: This one is similar to the Evenflo Symphony. It has the head restraint and pull-to-tighten harness. The harness height adjustment is in the back and locks into notches on the back of the car seat. This one was rated second under the Evenflo Triumph on the Consumer Reports ratings.
At this point, I think we are leaning toward the Evenflo Symphony or the Britax Boulevard. Does anyone have any comments on these? It would be particularly helpful if anyone has any comments on the head restraints or on the front harness height adjustment that the Evenflo car seats have. I would probably buy the Britax Boulevard, except that the price is just really outrageous. I find it hard to believe you can't make a safe car seat and sell it for less than $300. And the convertible car seats are so bulky that it will be hard to transfer from car to car, so we will definitely need to have two. Please let me know what you think.
P.S.--Hadley's surgery for her tubes is this week, assuming she gets over the cold she currently has. Trying not to think about it right now...
--Amanda
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We have an Evenflo (I don't remember what kind... we got it a few months ago because Laine was so long that her feet were hanging over the edge of her infant seat) and have had no problems with it. It was significantly cheaper than the Britax and had comparable, if not better, safety ratings. There are definitely no bells and whistles to it, but she seems comfortable in it and it's easy to get in the car and buckled and whatnot. It is a tough decision, but it's comforting to know that every seat has to pass safety tests to be on the market, so whatever you choose will end up being ok! Just go with what you like and seems easiest for you all as a family.
ReplyDeleteWe have the britax boulevard cs. Britax has always been a top choice, so that was where we began. We were between two different one, this one and the sunshine radian. In fact if our car would have accomodated the sunshine radian rear facing, we would have gone with it. I was like you though, I wanted somethign that would protect Andrew from a side impact, and the britax offered it. One big possitive is that you dont have to take the seat out to adjust the stappes, for intance if she is wearing a big puffy coat you dont have to mess with the straps in the back, you just roll the height up so she can sit in it. The click it things is nice for me personally, but once you get used to how tight you want the seat belt you just "know". I like that it has those teather things too so the strappes do not get twisted. Some things to think about before you buy... how long would you like to keep her rear facing? what convienecous are you giving up? For instance a lot of my friends have an evenflow (i think) because they liked the cup holder idea, well that was something i would have never thought about. But then I found out you can just buy a generic attachment so problem solved. One thing to thing about that ours is kind of a pain in the butt, is that because (I assume) of the side impact thing it make the seat a little more bucket type, so you cannot just slide into the seat like an adult would, you have to be picked up over the seat. It isn't that big of a deal right now, but when she is getting into the seat by herself that might be more chanegning. That is part of the reason I wanted a sunshine radian. I also liked the fact that you could stay in it longer and you can fit three carseats in a row if you wanted to...all that being said, I really like ours. I feel really comfortalbe with it and we have been using it since Andrew was like 8 months old. I have several friends that have the marathon and have been really happy with theirs. But like Greer said, they all pass the same tests, it just boils down to what you "want" in a car seat. hope that helps!
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