Which Car Seat to Get?

I have used a variety of seats from Britax, Recaro, and a few others. My favorite is the Sunshine Kids - I have three of the Radian 80 for my boys aged 2.5 and 4. (Two in one car and one along with a Recaro in the second. I would have 4 but we had already bought the Recaro.) They are terrific, easy to install, slim, so I can fit them next to each other and easy for them to climb into. They feel like it is a real seat and is very comfortable. They are expensive, but really, you will use it for years so it is pretty cheap per use. They also have remained nice looking and I have used a two of them for two+ years. The other bonus is that my 4 year old is still sitting in a 5 point harness instead of a booster.

I love my Britax Marathon. My daughter is so comfortable, and it can go up to 65 lbs. So the next seat i will meed to buy is a booster. They are a little price, but come with great safety features, and are really well made. As far as baby gear goes, i think car seats are the one item that is important to buy the best you can.

Hi C L

I'm on the same situation for my 10 month old boy...actually he still fit on his infant seat ( Maxi Cosi) but we will travel soon with him ( when he will be about 14 months) so we want to purchase a car seat that is also allowed in the airplane.
Anyways....that's another story
Here is a site with the testing rates of many brands.
Maybe it can help you
http://www.nhtsa.gov/portal/nhtsa_eou/info.jsp?type=all

Good Luck

Britax and Graco are supposed to be the safest so that is what I have always used. I have the Britax Roundabout for my 2 1/2 year old and I love it. I am going to buy another one when my 4 month old outgrows her carrier

Is the alpha omega made by Cosco? I have that manufacturer linked to it in my mind - I don't think their safety ratings were as high as other brands (check a publication like baby bargains). My sister-in-law has the Recaro and loves it. We have the Sunshine Kids Radian 80 (x2) for our 10 month old and 2.9 year old. Love them! We also have 2 Britax roundabouts in the other car. The advantage of the Sunshine Kids is their slim profile (you can fit an adult easily between the two seats, the child sits lower in the car (we use them in our sedan) and you can keep your kid in a 5 point harness to 80lbs! Happy shopping.

We have 4 alpha omega elites and love them all! We bought two originally for both family vehicles with our first, and then did the same with the second child. The car seat is easy to install, very comfortable for our daughters, and I love the recline feature when they fall asleep. I wouldn't purchase a car seat that does not have the recline feature.
By the way, we purchased 3 out of 4 of our seats at "Big Lots" store and received a great discount. We had to search a few stores, but it was worth the $80 savings. We paid full price ($160) for the first, before we discovered that some Big Lots stored carried the same car seat for $80-$99. Good luck!

W.

We love our Recaro seat although it is not the convertible one, just forward facing and then a booster seat, In our research Reccaro had the the best safety rating and is holding up well with our 2 year old

The Alpha Omega generally isn't the best seat for the money because it's often outgrown by height before the child is ready to use it as a booster...and it doesn't make a very good booster any way. The Signo would most likely last your child longer before being outgrown, the down sides I've heard is that the shoulder area is a bit narrow for some kids and it sits pretty high up on its base so that might affect how well you can see out your back window.

Other good seats with high height and weight limits that will last most kids until they're ready for a booster seat are the Evenflo Triumph Advance (about $130 and up), Graco MyRide 65 (about $170), First Years TrueFit (about $170 and up), Sunshine Kids Radian (about $200 and up), and Britax Marathon/Decathlon/Boulevard (about $279 and up, but Marathons in discontinued fabric patterns can be found online for as little as $179 http://www.albeebaby.com/britax-marathon-convertible-car-... ). Many people will say that Britax seats are the safest/best - they ARE excellent seats and have many nice convenience features that make them easy to use properly, but not inherently 'safer' than other seats that are properly installed and adjusted to fit your child.
This site has a nice summary of commonly available convertible seats: http://community.babycenter.com/post/a13106735/faq_-_reco...