Car seat choice??

DS is currently 16 months old, weighs 24 lbs and is 32 inches.

He is STILL in his Graco Snugride 32, but needs a convertible NOW!
I want to keep him RF until he is about 2, as I like the idea of him being as safe as possible.

We have a 2007 Mazda 3 as well as a 2000 Toyota Camry.

Our primary car is the Mazda 3.
Ideally the seat will be behind the passenger, as our infant seat is currently.

Can you please recommend a car seat for us?

-We LOVE our SnugRide, so I am thinking Graco MyRide 65, but it looks rather wide and I am not sure how it would fit?
-What about a Britax?
-Or the TrueFit?

Thank you sooo much for this!
ps- we live in Canada where the car seats cost waaaay more than in the US!

I really like the Radian. You can rear face in it for a long time. It has the most leg room for rear facing. My almost 3 year old grandson rf in it and he's very comfortable in it. It's nice and low profile and doesn't take up your whole car, like other seats seem to. It's nice when the kids get to toddler age, easier to get them in or let them get in by themselves. Less hitting of the head when putting them in. It does have some install issues, but if you can get a good install easier, it's my first choice for a great, long lasting seat. The only thing I dislike about it is the harness adjuster. I've slowly come to terms with that. Now I just don't adjust it. I let him get the arms in himself and buckle the chest clip and I don't even have to worry about that part!

I checked the Successful Radian Install thread and found nothing, so also checked the carseatdata data base and found a 2008 Mazda 3 ff great fit in the passenger seat not tech checked and a 2007 rf passenger great, easy install in the passenger seat, and was tech checked. Hope that helps!

Thanks for your reply!

I guess I am stuck between the Graco My Ride 65 and the Britax Marathon and the True Fit?

I really doubt the Radian will fit RF in the Mazda3!!

Is there anyway you can go down to a Toys R Us and try out each car seat in your vehicle?

I have the Graco My Ride, and have owned a Britax. I like both of them, and they fit prety good. The My Ride takes up a tad more room, than the britax. I got my chance to play with the new Britaxs a few weekends ago, and its a pretty decent seat. Honestly though, I prefer the My Ride over it though....lol

A Radian might surprise you. I put one in a Honda Fit the other day and it fit great. Sometimes smaller cars are actually better because their sloped back seats help the Radian go more upright and therefore take up less space than when they are installed on a flat mini-van seat for example.

At 24lbs at 16months I think a TrueFit should get you to at least 2 (you can double check by plotting his weight on a growth chart since I'm only going by one weight and not a trend). The TrueFit is great for cramming into small cars, is a great deal for the price and has a really tall shell and THS that will last you FF a long time.

The new Marathon and MyRide have higher RF weight limits (but shorter shells so they might be outgrown RF before getting to the 40lbs). Both will be outgrown FF earlier than the TrueFit (or Radian for that matter). I unfortunately don't have any experience with the MyRide so I can't comment on that. The old Marathons are generally very easy to install (especially with UAS) and don't take up much space front to back. I've only installed the new ones a couple times but they seem to follow the trend.

Note that for a typical 16 month old you can install the seat as upright as 30 degrees (35 for the True Fit). In most cases they take up less room than the infant bucket seats do.

You mention being worried about one being too wide - do you want to fit 3 people across the back? More than 1 car seat? That might narrow things down.

thank you so much Chay and others!
I heard something bad about the TF though: that the straps are hard to loosen/tighten. Something about it being on a single strap or something?

I love our Graco Snugride infant seat (love the strap mechanism)
Do you know anything about the TF or the Marathon or the Graco My Ride`s straps?

Also, when they are RF, is it hard to reach the strap 'release' on the bottoms?

THANKS SO MUCH!!! I feel like this is a major decision!
If we get a Marathon, it would be the old model.
So I am still stuck between the 3!!

I think this is what you're talking about - the TrueFit harness is what is called a continuous harness which means that the straps on the right side and left side are all one continuous piece. I don't think it makes them hard to loosen/tighten, just different. The potential problem is that you can end up with one side super tight but the other loose but all you have to do is pull the straps on the loose side (where the butt is) and it will pull harness from the tight side. Ok - that sounds confusing but really it isn't too bad once you know what to do. Some people hate this, others love it because you can leave the harness always tight but use that to slip the child's arms in one at a time.

The Marathon (and I believe the MyRide) has 2 separate straps for each side.

The older Marathons only RF to 30lbs. The TF and MR will last longer RF. In order to tighten the Marathon harness you have to tug, tug, tug which is a bit different. Again some people hate that, others don't care.

The TF can have the adjuster a bit buried in some cars but it really depends (some people like the TrueFit Premier better because the anti-rebound bar gives more space). I haven't heard a lot of complaints about the other 2 being hard to reach but every car is different.

The best thing to do is try them out for yourself in your car(s), play with the harnesses and see what you love/hate. Are you planning on doing one seat and moving it back and forth, or getting one for each? I'm guessing your Camry doesn't have UAS - is that right?

Hi again!
Wow! thank you so much for that!
Yes, it`s the continuous strap I have heard about...

For now, we`re only looking for the car seat to go into the Mazda. If we feel we need a 2nd seat, we would probably buy a 2nd seat.

I know we`ll be happy with any of the 3. DS is only 23-24 lbs at 16 months, so I am sure that by age 2 he won`t have hit 30 lbs.

I guess I just need to try them out. Stores here do NOT accept us to go out and try out the seats, even if you leave them your credit card.

I am not sure that I`ll like the continuous strap, although it`s just a matter of getting used to the different pulling. Or--just get the My Ride which I assume is similar to our Snugride.

Another thing is that the MyRide is 159 on sale here, the TF is 149 and the Marathon is 239 (old model).

Not sure what else I should be basing it on?

THANKS SO SO MUCH!

Junebabe, where abouts are you located? Maybe a local tech can help you find seats.

Hi!

We live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And thanks!

ps-anyone know anything about the Evenflo Triumph?

I talked my cousin into getting a Triumph (1 year ago) based on what I'd heard, but she hated it. She found it really wide and something in the back irritated her little boy. After our graco we got a Britax Marathon and our daughter loved it. Size wise she sounds like your son, so he will hit 2 before he hits the weight limit for rear-facing. We had it rear-facing in my husband's Mazda3, but in the middle seat.
good luck! (it's hard to choose, I know!!)

I believe the Triumph is the one with the knobs to tighten the harness. I played with it a bit and wasn't a fan but some people love them.

I don't think we have any techs in the Montreal area unfortunately. There's lots of us in Ottawa but that's a bit of a trek.

For the various harnesses you should be able to get a decent idea in the store. It will be slightly different in the car because of the angle and seat back but you can get an idea anyways. Stores like Zellers or Walmart are usually really generous about returns (maybe too generous) so you should be able to try the TrueFit and MyRide if you want. The Marathon might be a bit harder since specialty baby stores are usually the picky ones. I've had a TrueFit and a Marathon in a Civic so both should fit. I think the MyRide is similar.

If you decide to go with the Marathon, it's cheaper here -
http://www.snugglebugz.ca/category/car-seats/infant-child-car-seats/britaxmarathoncolours.html

and as a bonus it supports the Canadian forum sponsor.

I've had or do have all of the seats you're inquiring about and I even have one that was suggested to you LOL (yes, I know - I have a car seat addiction!)

My son is 30.5lbs, 2+yo and about 36.5" tall (so pretty average)

TrueFit - Great value for the money and easiest by far to install. I had a bit of difficulty getting to the harness adjuster when installed at a more upright angle but now that I use the "pull from the back" method, I adore this seat once again. I only wish it would RF to 40# or more because it's got the room, that's for sure. My DS has tons of growing room! I do find that if you have a taller vehicle (SUV or truck) it's more difficult to get your child INTO the seat because of the deep sides.

Graco MyRide65 - HATED, and I mean HATED this seat. I found the single crotch buckle position to be a nightmare with my petite 4 month old and harness just felt cheap and so did the latch connectors (its the hook type ones, not the premium button release kind.) There was also something confusing about different loops that you'd have to rethread the harness onto the splitter plate depending on the harness height - not very user friendly!

Radian XTSL - Love the seat, hate getting to the harness adjuster. Again the "pull from the back" method works wonders so I'm over it. I LOVE how much growing room my 2 year old has, and I love that the sides are low profile, it's so much easier to get a toddler into it. I was intimidated by all the horror install stories, but it was a breeze for me! I had more difficulty with my Britax MA (see below lol)

Britax Marathon (New Generation) - Love the cowmoo, love the harness adjustment and chestclip, hate everything else. My son has little room to grow in this seat so I'm currently using it for 9mo DD. Installation was a disaster it was always too loose, the lockoffs made it a disaster to tighten the seatbelt to have less than 1" movement at the beltpath. I probably would not buy another Britax unless it mates with a Radian

I hope to have helped!

A Marathon with UAS (LATCH) is probably my favourite seat to install, a Marathon with seat belt, not bad, a Marathon where you have to use the lock offs I'm usually cursing.

dingohate - maybe something in here will help with your Marathon install - http://carseatblog.com/7495/britax-convertible-lockoff-tips-and-guidance/