I just spent a couple of days reading about and shopping for a convertible car seat. I never knew it would be so difficult!
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br /I happened upon this car seat first and wasn't too crazy about the print, it was tan/brown, so I kept looking. (I wish that this color had been available at Babies R Us, as it would match my car.) Well, after looking at a lot of car seats at several stores (and sitting my son in many different car seats), I realized that more $$$ doesn't necessarily mean safer. Sure Britax has cute prints, but I'm not willing to part with an extra $200.00 to make a company richer! I went back to the first Babies R Us (another store was sold out) and purchased it.
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br /I installed it after reading the instructions (of course) and it was very easy to install. The straps are easy to adjust and the buckle is wonderful! Mine is not the puzzle type buckle. After installing it, I took my son for a ride and he was very happy. It was his first ride while sitting in a forward-facing position and he made himself comfortable with his arms on the amrrests. Since his first ride, I haven't had any trouble getting him into and out of the car seat.
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br /So far, I am very pleased with the workmanship of this carseat as I inspected it all over at the store and again once at home. The only thing I wish was that the cup holder was higher and that the color was not tan/brown. I think that's a small price to pay for a great car seat. I paid $89 for a safe, user friendly piece of equipment!

We bought this seat to go in my husband's car 3 yrs ago (the former tan/brown color scheme). My daughter was just over 2yrs and we were tired of moving her Evenflo Titan between our two cars - and this was in the top 3 of Consumer Reports ratings for "convertible" seats. She immediately felt like such a "big girl" (and told us repeatedly how much she loved her seat in Daddy's car). She finally outgrew the Titan a yr ago and I bought another one of these for MY car! The "high back" appealed to me not because she's tall - I want to keep her in the 5-pt harness as long as possible! She's a petite 5-yr-old now and we still have one more height adj to go - then it's on to the fantastic adjustable seatbelt guides! And this seat goes to 100 pounds - not that we'd be able to keep her in it that long! She'll be in high school before she's 100 pounds! We have friends with "taller" children and they love this seat too!

My kid thinks this seat is comfortable, but I can't stand it. I have such a hard time tightening the straps of the harness. I live in Michigan where we go from wearing heavy jacket and snow pants one day, to light jacket the next and I find that I certainly need to tighten and loosen the straps based on what she is wearing. And these straps are difficult to tighten. Even installing the car seat I had a hard time tighening it down into my car. It wiggles/slides in the seat far more than the Evenflow Triumph we had before. That seat I could get in very tightly into my car - it barely moved at all. Also, on that model there was a knob you cranked to get the harness straps tighter on your child - that was wonderfully easy. Far easier than pulling the straps tighter on this one and kind of trying to brace the seat at the same time. I find it very annoying and far preferred the Evenflow due to the ease of tightening the straps and installing the seat into the car.

I was hoping that this product would be safe AND at the same time be easy enough for my 4 year old to get in and out of himself... He does not weigh enough to be in a 'regular' booster, so I needed one with additional safety features.
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br /While the seat is v nice, he is not able to get himself in and out of it while the 5-point harness is being used.