First let me say that I work with children, so I do know something about fitting car seats. We wanted to get our newborn a really nice car seat and, since I like Eddie Bauer stuff this seemed great. I also really like the idea that it can stay rear facing for so long and is the only car seat that one ever needs, or so I thought. I still really hope that it will work when he is older and can face forward.
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br /Cons (fitting in car): (1) In the rear facing position it is huge. It just fit into my Subaru if the front seats were all the way forward (good thing I am short). Even in my parent's Envoy the front seats were uncomfortably far forward. It was tempting to put it behind the passenger seat but the center is safest. So only get this as a rear facing seat if you have a huge vehicle. (2) In theory it is not hard to install but had one major design problem: In order to tighten the seat belt or LATCH belt you have to pull back the seat cover and then once the car seat is in place it takes very small, dexterous fingers to get it back on again. This also makes the cover very hard to remove for washing. (3) In order for the rear facing seat to be at the recommended angle the base required a lot of padding. The instructions recommended towels but I ended up with four folded towels which made it difficult to tighten and I still don't think that the line is quite level with the ground (our other car seat needed one small towel). I suspect that many people will end up the seat at the wrong angle because of this.
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br /Cons (fitting to baby): (1) The crotch strap is very short so the buckle is between his legs instead of in front of his pubic bone and pushes into his thighs. (2) The infant insert only has one set of holes for the shoulder straps. He actually fit it quite well when he came home from the hospital (5lb 2oz) but had out grown it by the time he was a normal newborn size even though he could still have used the support. There is no recommendation as to when to use the insert even though if you try to use it with a larger infant it makes it almost impossible to tighten the harness enough which could put children at risk. (3) The seat has a lot of padding which seems good but it is not in the right places. Imagine sitting with a big pillow behind your lower back and another behind your head but nothing behind your shoulders or upper back. I have tried every adjustment that I can find but if the shoulder straps are in the right place (level with the shoulders) and the harness tight enough (one finger fits underneath) that is how my baby looks. I even tried calling the 1-800 number for suggestions but was told that all babies are shaped differently and some just fit better in some car seats better than others (they did not have any suggestions as to what I could try that might help).
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br /Pros: I still hope that the seat will work when my child is old enough to be front facing.
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I had absolutely no problems installing this car seat and my son LOVES it! The only thing I wish different about this car seat is the center base buckle... its a little short. It makes it a little harder to buckle the baby, but still manageable!

We have a rather tall five month old (he is 28" and can sit up by himself) and this seat was meant to be a back up for his grandparents' car. After trying it for two and half weeks, i can safely say i would not buy this seat again.
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br /- It is difficult to install; without the LATCH system, the seat belt needs to be threaded under the seat cover.
br /- It's very big and takes up a disproportionate amount of space when installed rear-facing in the back seat of my inlaws' 1998 Toyota Camry. There's not much room left on either side for a full-grown adult.
br /- The straps twist extremely easily and i'm constantly smoothing them out to strap my baby in, and am never sure if i got all the kinks.
br /- The plastic latch for the five point harness feels cheap and light and has only a small, rather difficult button for release. I'm always struggling with it.
br /- Perhaps worst of all, the seat does not recline enough for the child to be comfortable and there is absolutely insufficient support for an infant's head. My baby simply cannot take a nap while we're driving without his head lolling forward at a steep angle.
br /- Other reviewers have said there is way too much padding on the seat -- that explanation makes sense to me and would also explain why my son seems so uncomfortable on extended drives. He screamed and screamed today when he wanted to sleep during a long drive -- he just couldn't figure out where to place his head.
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br /Please save your money and don't buy this seat, especially for a newborn who cannot hold its head up. Use an infant carrier for the first few months and then invest in a Britax. We will be using a Britax for our car at home -- my husband was able to install it easily and there is no way the straps can twist.
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br /Maybe this seat will work better for larger kids in a forward-facing position. But for a big name like Eddie Bauer, this seat is a real letdown.

Not a big fan of this seat. It only harnesses to 40 pounds, which many kids will hit before the age of 4 (which is the absolute minimum age recommended for a booster seat - many kids aren't mature enough for a booster until age 5 or 6). So, if your kid outgrows the harness before being ready for a booster, then you're stuck buying another seat to harness longer. It is also difficult to install. Plus, it doesn't make a very good booster either (often holds the belt too far from the child). The only good feature is that it can rear-face until 35 pounds.

Let me start this by saying my husband is a police officer and a nationally certified safety seat technician.
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br /We have a similar seat for our 2 1/2 year old, so we figured we'd just get this one and be good to go. While we noticed it had more padding, we didn't think it would be a problem. Boy were we wrong! As the other reviewer said, there is so much padding, it doesn't provide for a comfortable seating arrangment for the baby. He is pushed so far forward that he can't sit nicely. In addition, the seat had to be jacked up with pool noodles to even be at the right level...and we had to push the drivers seat so far forward to have it at the right angle. We ended up bringing this seat back and opting for the one with less padding...it works much better!

Eddie Bauer Deluxe 3 in 1 Convertible Car Seat Bryant Collection
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br /We got this car seat for our daughter when she was about 6 months old. We loved the fact that it was the only car seat she'd need.
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br /Putting it in the car rear facing was a pain, we had to take the base off and put towels up under the front of it to make it level. It took up a huge amount of space in our Ford Taurus.
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br /When she'd fall asleep her head would fall completely forward, and she didn't look very comfortable at all. She was a pretty small 6 month old, so this might have something to do with it. I don't recommend it for rear facing small children.
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br /Once she got to be a year and we turned it around to forward facing it is amazing! I love it. We have no problems installing it with the latch or the seat belt, and there is plenty of space in the car. She is very comfortable, her head doesn't fall forward when she is asleep and I love that it is high enough that she can see outside.
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br /Over all I would say this car seat is great for bigger babies, especially forward facing, but not so great for rear facing infants.

I purchased this car seat for my car for my granddaughter. I read the reviews, I comparison shopped and thought I had gotten a great buy. My great buy was not as great as I thought. I experienced a very difficult time installing this car seat into my 2007 Honda Civic. No matter what I did, I could not get the car seat installed securely. I used the latch system and followed the directions to the letter. My daughter had installed her Britax with no problem. I ended up making an appointment with the State Police and they installed it properly and securely. The trooper was not very happy when I told him the make of the car seat I had purchased. He told me I should have invested the extra money and purchased a Britax. My recommendation is this: If it doesn't install in your vehicle easily and properly, return it !

For a car seat that says it's the last car seat you'll ever have to buy, it's not so much. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with a child under 30lbs actually. As the family car seat installer, and I get a lot of it going on with all the many kids in the family, I've come to know car seats rather well. This one, when in the rear facing position, was exceptionally hard to install, latch or seat belt, I tried both, hoping one or the other would work better, no such luck. Eventually this particular member of my family decided to just buy an extra base for the baby 'bucket' seat that they already had one of and just use this for when the baby turned around. So I came back when the baby out grew the 'bucket', and re-installed this facing forward. Again I had many issues, trying both latch and seat belt with it. I did finally settle on the latch, (I'm a touch jealous, my car hasn't got latch) and got it in, but I think once the baby, not so much a baby now, reaches 40lbs I will recommend that they invest in another car seat, as I did when mine approached that nebulous 40lb mark, because after 40lbs they are not in a 5 point harness any more, they are in this seat with a regular seat belt around them, which studies have shown to be not as good protection for children under 60/70 lbs. So I'd say this is a fine seat for a toddler between 30 and 40lbs, facing forward only, and without all the padding they provide, that stuff is hazardous.

We have had this seat for several months already and I would not recommend buying it. It seems quite comfortable for our son (we used it only in forward-facing position), but a major problem with the seat is that it cannot be reclined when properly installed. There is a special community service in Maryland, they check whether a child seat is properly installed or not. So we went there and it turned out that when the seat is tightly secured, as it needs be, it cannot be reclined.

I have a similar model for my oldest and we love it. This seat has far too much added padding. I had to take most of it out just to get the straps adjusted properly. I do like the new latch for the shoulder buckles it is smaller and seems to be less in the way.

Well, I have mixed feelings on this product. I will tell you from the time I got this product til now. I my son was approaching the point of out growing his infant seat. I looked everywhere and found this product. I love Eddie Bauer products so I thought this would be perfect. Well... It was delivered, I opened the box and was so excited because it was such a pretty fashionable car seat. Then we went to install it. This is when all the happiness drained. This car seat was almost impossible to install. It was awful. It took forever and the instructions don't really help very much. But, we did finally get it installed and My son loved getting in it for the first time. While he is awake it is a great car seat. Since he is rear facing still he can see better and look out the windows better. I love it while he is awake. Now when he is asleep it is a different story. The seat is in the fully reclined position and his head still falls forward. I hate that part. I am driving so I can't help him. I know that can not be good for his neck. Even when I ride in the back with him I have to hold his little head up when he falls asleep. I am hoping it won't be like that when he gets to turn around and face the front. So, you can see there are pros and cons. So if you were to ask me if I would purchase this product again. I would say yes but, Only when my son was ready to face forward and hope that when he falls asleep it doesn't make his head to go forward because other than that it is a great car seat. If you do purchase this be prepared for a lot of frustration on the installation and to spend a lot of time. Also don't think about moving it from one car to another. once you get it in you will see you won't want to move it til you have to.

This is a really nice car seat and my 8 month old seems to really like it. The installations were a little vague however. We use the latch system and the way the directions said how to install it, there was no way to get the seat tightly installed. I finally figured out on my own to thread the system through the seat, under the padding, which was not easy to do, but it was the only way to get the system tightenend. Other than that, it is a nice seat!

It is a comfortable seat, very well designed, soft and functional. My baby takes her snap easily when we put her on it.
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br /As with other seats, you have to level it after installation using an object above of the front area (...) I don't know why this happens with "all" these seats.
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br /The adjustable headrest lets you change the height of the back at the same time the baby grows. It is a very convenient thing.
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br /The recline feature helps you on long trips to have the baby in a good position for sleep.
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br /We are very satisfied with the product.

The chair is great. The box came damaged but the seat was OK. Amazon was very helpful with my concern with the chair. I will be using this chair for my grandson.
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If you were born before 1970 or so, your car didn't even have seat belts, Kids just sat in their parents lap or in the back seat. Most of us survived. LOL. Now you have to spend hundreds of dollars for the correct car seat? Everything is so correct and so PC now. I have a car that has latches on the back seat to fasten car seats for babies I don't have. I can't put my back windows down all the way because they're child protected as are my car locks (again no children enter my car) and recently I can't park in some spots because they're reserved for people WITH CHILDREN??? What's up with that? It's not a disability spot. I park in those spots and dare anyone to say something to me. I shouldn't be penalized and have to park 2 blocks away just because I don't have a kid!