Solid choice to keep little ones safe
October 17, 2018
This seat arrived battered. Box was pretty much destroyed and I was sure the seat would be at least cracked. Upon opening and inspection the seat was surprisingly intact. I suppose these are built to take some abuse. Had this been my primary seat, I would have had more concern, but this was for my grandma to use occasionally, so no big deal. My local delivery services typically deliver battered packages, so I don't suspect it left the seller damaged.
I have the ClickTight version for our main car seat, so I'll comment on the trade offs. ClickTight is much easier to install and switch vehicles, so if you need to move it around I would recommend upgrading. This model is a bit clumsy finding the hidden lever to release the restraints, whereas ClickTight has a clearly marked recessed button. ClickTight also has a fully adjustable recline setting to match the child's needs as they grow (ie not letting their head slump forward as they sleep). This model only has 3 recline positions, so if your seats are buckets or abnormally flat, they may not be an ideal angle and you'd have to space it by stuffing a rolled up towel under it. I've only installed the seats in cars with built-in baby seat anchors, but threading a seatbelt through this model looked fairly confusing in the instructions, which were not written for someone to be able to understand while watching an infant. If using anchors, only install on the passenger or driver side. There are only a few cars on the market designed to anchor a seat in the middle seat.
I'd also recommend their infant seat. It was fairly expensive for the few months our 11 pound beast of a baby fit in it, but being able to quickly click a seat in and out was great. Never had to disturb her when going into restaurants so she could stay asleep, or grabbing her quickly to run inside in the rain. Using this seat in that stage would have been a pain.
Pros
- Britax is a great mid-point where spending more doesn't increase safety, yet this won't alienate less fortunate families.
Best Uses
- Since this is more difficult to install, it would be best used as a spare or for a family that plans to only use one car and one set of guardians. If you want grandparents to watch a child while seeing a movie or attending a wedding, keep in mind you'll have to leave time to swap the seat over to the grandparent's car, or trade cars with them. I tended to just risk it until I found a deal on this seat. I do not trust my mom to drive my Audi Q5 hybrid with her aloof driving record, lol.
Cons
- It seems they sacrificed some features compared to ClickTight. Seems like they increased manufacturing costs the increase the markup gap, which is just annoying and petty.
