Convertible Carseats

[alpies]

My little peanut is still pretty comfortable in his bucket seat (Chicco Keyfit 22), but I'm starting to look towards buying a convertible seat in the next couple months. I know a few of you are using one already. Which ones are you all using? What do you like about yours? What do you dislike?

Value is important to us because we'll have to buy 2, since I drop off at day care and DH picks up.

[swim]

I have the Safety 1st Guide 65 for both DS and DD.
I like how comfortable it looks. It was fairly inexpensive ($139-$165 depending on if it was on sale). And it was easy to install.

Only thing I don't like is how big and bulky it is. The box says "fits 3 comfortably across back seat in most cars" LOL doubt it. I felt like my back seat was very spacious but guess not lol. Luckily we are done having kids

[dreadpiratebuttercup]

DD2 is still in the bucket, but DD1 is in a Diono Rainier. We like that it's narrow abs will last her a while. It converts to a highback booster, and has a high height limit for convertible. I have tall kids, so that high height limit is a must.

[trtlcrzy]

S is still in the infant seat but I want to get her a convertible pretty soon. We will be getting her a britax marathon clicktight for my car and something less expensive for DH's vehicle since he doesn't drive them around in it as much.

H is in a britax marathon clicktight in my car and a Chicco nextfit in DH's vehicle. I prefer the britax because it's super easy to install and the sides of the seat aren't as high as the chicco.

[chocolate]

I'm a Britax fan myself. You could always get a "nice" seat (whatever you love) for one car and a less expensive one for whatever vehicle would be used less. I would encourage keeping an eye out for sales. Diapers.com has sales often and Amazon would then mimic their price.

[chocolate]

We haven't bought a 2nd convertible for DD yet. She's in the convertible in my vehicle. If H needs to pick up the kids for me, he sticks the infant seat in. It doesn't happen too often so it hasn't been too inconvenient for us yet.

[followthesun]

I bought a Britax Boulevard Clicktight after doing a ton of research. I haven't used it yet but it definitely seems sturdy and has great ratings

[musicalsilver]

We have a diono rxt for DS and one waiting for DD. I like its extended rear facing limits. DS is still rear facing at three and a quarter.

We're also getting some backup seats for MH's car. He drives them less than once in a blue moon, so we're going for the super inexpensive cosco scenera next seats. Which have surprisingly good rear facing limits too. The ILs have one for their car as well.

[chocolate]

Oct 6, 2016 22:01:48 GMT -5 musicalsilver said:

We have a diono rxt for DS and one waiting for DD. I like its extended rear facing limits. DS is still rear facing at three and a quarter.

We're also getting some backup seats for MH's car. He drives them less than once in a blue moon, so we're going for the super inexpensive cosco scenera next seats. Which have surprisingly good rear facing limits too. The ILs have one for their car as well.

At 3.5ish I finally turned DS forward facing, and had a really hard time doing so. I still kind of want to go back and turn him around. It seems so weird and he still seems so little 😔I would've kept him till 4 but decided to give his seat to DD and got him a high back harnest booster, and it'll grow with him and be his last seat.

[tkford216]

We have a Britax Boulevard click tight. I love it. It's heavy and bulky to carry but easy to install and use. He seems comfortable. I got it on amazon prime day so it was much cheaper (we couldn't have afforded it otherwise). Regardless of what you decide to get, if you can hold out until black Friday you might be able to get a good deal.

[alpies]

Good thinking, tkford216. I think I will probably do that. Thanks for the input, ladies.

[piperhalliwell]

I don't have one yet, but I'm definitely holding out for Black Friday. There were some good deals last year on pretty much everything recommended here.

[musicalsilver]

Oct 6, 2016 22:08:41 GMT -5 chocolate said:

Oct 6, 2016 22:01:48 GMT -5 musicalsilver said:

We have a diono rxt for DS and one waiting for DD. I like its extended rear facing limits. DS is still rear facing at three and a quarter.

We're also getting some backup seats for MH's car. He drives them less than once in a blue moon, so we're going for the super inexpensive cosco scenera next seats. Which have surprisingly good rear facing limits too. The ILs have one for their car as well.

At 3.5ish I finally turned DS forward facing, and had a really hard time doing so. I still kind of want to go back and turn him around. It seems so weird and he still seems so little 😔I would've kept him till 4 but decided to give his seat to DD and got him a high back harnest booster, and it'll grow with him and be his last seat.

Which high back booster did you go with? I'm going to have to transition at some point! I am aiming for 4. I was telling DS that he'd be forward facing next 4th of July (he's a June baby). And then I got all anxious about how big he's getting!

He's definitely the last rear facing kid in his class (3-6yo), and even a lot of the kids in the toddler room (1.5-3yo) are already FF. I cringe when I see parents with older babies (in the 1- 1.5yo region) FF their kids, but I'm not about to make an issue of it.

DH just wants his leg space back ... but he's lasted this long ... he can wait another 9 months!

DS doesn't care either way, and it probably helps that DD is RF back there with him. It makes me wonder if DD is going to push for being FF sooner because DS will be.

[chocolate]

Oct 7, 2016 8:49:47 GMT -5 musicalsilver said:

Oct 6, 2016 22:08:41 GMT -5 chocolate said:

At 3.5ish I finally turned DS forward facing, and had a really hard time doing so. I still kind of want to go back and turn him around. It seems so weird and he still seems so little 😔I would've kept him till 4 but decided to give his seat to DD and got him a high back harnest booster, and it'll grow with him and be his last seat.

Which high back booster did you go with? I'm going to have to transition at some point! I am aiming for 4. I was telling DS that he'd be forward facing next 4th of July (he's a June baby). And then I got all anxious about how big he's getting!

He's definitely the last rear facing kid in his class (3-6yo), and even a lot of the kids in the toddler room (1.5-3yo) are already FF. I cringe when I see parents with older babies (in the 1- 1.5yo region) FF their kids, but I'm not about to make an issue of it.

DH just wants his leg space back ... but he's lasted this long ... he can wait another 9 months!

DS doesn't care either way, and it probably helps that DD is RF back there with him. It makes me wonder if DD is going to push for being FF sooner because DS will be.

[

I first was aiming for 3 yr and then I was like, eh, DS doesn't care so we'll just keep going. So I'm aimed for 4, but when I went to order DD a convertible it seemed silly when he'd eventually need a new one so I gave in and switched him. I got the Britax Pinnacle. I think it's the highest of their high back booster (so most expensive of course) but it had the most cushion/support around them so I opted for that one. They were on sale when we got it so it was under $300.

[rivers and roads]

We bought the Graco Extend2Fit. We used the 20% coupon at BBB and got it for $170, maybe? I forget, but it was under $200. It feels sturdy and he's comfortable in it. The cup holders are square, which seems really silly to me, but that's not that important. At least not now.
It RF up to 50 lbs and I like how easy it is to adjust for height. (The back goes up and moves the straps with it). It has good reviews on CFL.

I have a small car (Chevy Cruze) and it does take up all of the space behind my seat (I'm 5'7). H looks uncomfortable when he drives my car because he can't move the seat back as much.

We bought the barebones Cosco Scenara for traveling. It's highly rated in terms of budget seat, but it SUCCCCKKSS to install. We tried both LATCH and the seatbelt. Both ways took a long time to get a secure fit. If you're going to be moving your seat a lot, I wouldn't recommend that one.

[swivelchair5]

Another vote for a Britax Clicktight. It's a little pricey, but she is going to be using it for years so I think it is worth it. We also got them at a big discount on Amazon Prime Day.

[morwen]

I wanted a narrow seat with a high RF limit for us so we got the Diono R120. DS seems to like it and it's easy to install. We got I think the evenflow sureride 65 for MIL since it's less expensive, light, but still has decent RF limit. MIL will be looking after DS when I go back to work

[karadee]

V is in a Britax Boulevard click tight in my car, still in the infant seat in DH's car until we get another seat. I think I'm going to buy another Boulevard and put it in my car since it's nicer than what G rides in now. My car is the one we drive in on the weekends and whenever we are altogether. I think DS still has some time before he hits the RF limits for the boulevard so he will be good in there for a while. He's still a little guy.

[SubtleGrandeur]

For DD1, we had the Britax Boulevard. DD2 was in that in both of our cars until Poopgate 2016. I don't even want to talk about what happened... but, we ended up getting rid of the car seat in my car. Anyway... we decided to go with the Graco 4ever (https://amzn.com/B00Y2863GQ) this time and I really like it so far. It converts to a high-back booster and a regular booster and has really good reviews. It happened to be on sale when I bought it on Amazon. So, that was a nice bonus!

[swivelchair5]

Oct 13, 2016 6:36:11 GMT -5 SubtleGrandeur said:

For DD1, we had the Britax Boulevard. DD2 was in that in both of our cars until Poopgate 2016. I don't even want to talk about what happened... but, we ended up getting rid of the car seat in my car. Anyway... we decided to go with the Graco 4ever (https://amzn.com/B00Y2863GQ) this time and I really like it so far. It converts to a high-back booster and a regular booster and has really good reviews. It happened to be on sale when I bought it on Amazon. So, that was a nice bonus!

LOL poopgate 2016. Thanks for sparing us the details.