NOT the only car seat you'll ever need!
December 18, 2007
Contrary to the misleading advertising, this is NOT the only car seat you'll ever need. There are many problems with it that parents should be aware of before purchasing this, or any other, 3-in-1 convertible. First of all, car seats expire. NO child is ready to be in a seat belt alone at age 6-8 (which is generally how long a seat's good for), so you'll need another to keep your child safe once this one has expired. Second, the top slots cannot be used with the harness. This leads both to tragic misuse (a child being ejected in even a minor accident b/c the slots are not reinforced to withstand that kind of force), but also to the child outgrowing the seat very early by height (a seat is outgrown by height in forward-facing mode when the shoulders go over the top USEABLE slots--the harness must be at or above the shoulders). This seat tends to be outgrown by height, even by average-sized kids, at about 2.5-3 years old, which is WAY too young for a booster, so you end up having to buy another harnessed seat, since putting a child that young/small in the seat as a booster is simply not an option. If you're ever able to use a 3-in-1 as a booster, you're not likely to be happy there either--the belt guides tend to hold the belt too far from the child's body. Now this seat does have some nice perks--the 35 lb rear-facing weight limit and tall shell make it easier for parents to keep their kids rear-facing beyond the "1 year and 20 lbs" bare minimum, but lots of seats do that for a lot less money. You can really do a lot better than this seat, especially for the price
