A "non geek" Parents Perspective

Yesterday I took my friends to BRU to trade in for their coupon and to help pick out a new convertible. They are foster parents and takes babies ages newborn to 2 so the convertible will be used rear facing almost all the time (yes, they do ERF). They have keyfits for any newborns so that wasn't a factor in choosing their seat. Based on the fact that they will be using the seat until expiration, here are their comments about the seats we tried. Oh, and they are upgrading from an almost expired Scenera so they are used to the bare bones seat...they don't love it, but the price was right when they started fostering.

Complete air
Pros: liked the LATCH connectors, the adjust ability of the harness height, the padding, the orange color
Cons: Couldn't take off the cover completely for washing, concern about the levers for adjusting the headrest/harness height might be a point of wear because of the constant use and switching between kids, the headwings might be a bit confining for some of their olders with drug exposure, sensory issues, etc. Not a big fan of the Dorel fastener

My Ride
Pros: Large base seemed very stable, liked the fasteners, can remove the cover for washing, cup holders for the 2 year olds, dark colors, don't have to move the latch connectors from front to back for FF or RF
Cons: Latch connectors (prefer the other style), doesn't feel as cushy without the infant padding, sides are deep for lifting a heavy 2 year old in and out of the van

Evenflo Triumph Advance
Pros: Cushy seat, infinite harness adjuster, removeable cover
Cons: Knob adjuster, red tabs on harness

They ended up picking the My Ride. :thumbsup:

wish you could have showed them and gotten opinions on the Britax ones (even though I'm assuming that wasn't one of the seats considered), the Truefit, and the Radians.... ah well.

I think they made a great choice.

Good choice. And good point about the headrest adjusters on the Complete Air...our floor model ones fall off and I just chuck the whole seat on the 'return to vendor' pile since we can't sell it with missing parts

Scoutingbear, thanks for the perspective. It's always good to hear what "normal" parents think.

Jools, they sell the floor models???????

Yeah, they sell floor models. None of those fancy labels sewn to the covers that say 'Floor model, not for resale' on them, like at Target and Walmart . I look for any excuse to say they are broken or dirty and can't be sold, at least. Some just spend a few weeks on an endcap with all the paperwork still attached to the harness, those aren't too bad. (We stopped the automatic 10% discount on floor model items, though, which makes it awfully hard to sell them now, we end up with them all over the place...the test bench, the sitting bench, the, ahem, floor.... sigh).

Are they at least clearly marked as being floor models?

Kat_Momof3 said:

wish you could have showed them and gotten opinions on the Britax ones (even though I'm assuming that wasn't one of the seats considered), the Truefit, and the Radians.... ah well.

I think they made a great choice.

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We did talk about some of the other seats and they have tried mine in the past, so, addressing the above mentioned seats:

Britax (I tried to sell them my MA after they used it last summer )
Pros: Cute covers, LATCH that they like, easy to tighten, tether in RF, cushions
Cons: lack of legroom for bigger ERF's, PRICE, found the release button on harness harder to press in at times

True Fit
None at BRU so we couldn't play with it, although they wanted to after seeing it on-line

Radians Again, they have borrowed mine in the past (R65)
Pros: Folds away when they have longer stretches between older kids, narrow for the rare occasions they need to put it in the backseat, accommodates larger children (like mine!), rear facing tether
Cons: hard to adjust in rear facing, reclines a lot when RF, no sides (they like the sides on other seats),

It won't be from the same people of course, but I can give a "non-geek" parent's review of the True Fit!
I just lent my TF to a friend to used as spare seat for her RFing 18 mo DS. She installed it, and used it a couple times before giving me this regiew:
Pros: She loved the Harness height adjuster. DS's head didn't flop at all when sleeping (their normal seat is the BLVD which has significant head slump issues). Lock-offs were hard to close, but she liked them over all anyway. Loved the easy to identify the belt paths. Easier to load DS (and more RFing leg room than the BLVD). Liked the idea of the removable head rest (though DS is too big for that now). Liked the easy to flip RF/FF recline bar.
Cons: Hated the burried harness adjuster. Hated the continuous harness until I explained it (the she liked it a lot, and didn't mind the burried adjuster as much). Didn't like that it couldn't be tethered RFing (again, used to the BLVD). Didn't like how wide it is (exterior width for fitting her 3 yo DD next to him), and wondered if DS could still use the infant insert (interior width).

Pixels said:

Are they at least clearly marked as being floor models?

Click to expand...

Well, they don't come with a box