Graco Nautilus

I have never posted on a site before but was compelled to do so after my frustration with my Graco Nautilus carseat.
My 3 year old son outgrew the 5 point harness for his Cosco Alpha Omega Elite carseat and is big enought for a booster (40 lbs). I spoke with my local carseat installers and reviewed 5 point harnesses for larger children and found this is the safest way to go. Carseats recommended by the carseat installers were the Britax Frontier 85, Graco Nautilus, and Evenflo Maestro. I looked at all 3 and was impressed with the Nautilus and satisfied with the price. We purchased the Nautilus for my car and the Maestro for our second car (it was about half the price of the Nautilus).
The Nautilus was fancy looking, I was impressed! The Maestro was a little boring looking but my son actually looked more comfortable in this seat and his head didn't flop forward as much as in the Nautilus.
After owning both seats for about 2-3 months, the Nautilus crotch buckle became completely stuck! It was sticking one day and I was able to open it to get my son out but before putting him back in I buckled it and low and behold, totally stuck. Good thing he wasn't in it! I literally would have had to cut the straps to get him out!
I researched the buckle on this seat and there were many other moms that had this same issue.
I emailed Graco (no live people on the weekend) and received a reply from "Newell Rubbermaid" (apparently they are owned or partnered with Graco). After confirming that I had registered my seat, they promptly offered me a return address shipping label to return my seat so that I was "free to go and purchace another car seat of your choosing so you have a working safe product for your child." I was hoping they would just send me replacement parts so that I could at least try to salvage the now useless carseat one more time before returning it. Their response was that the replacement parts needed were on backorder for at least 3 weeks! That tells me that this is a common problem!
I hope Graco gets it together and fixes this buckle problem so that others won't have to go throught the frustration we did. We went out and bought a second Evenflo Maestro for my car yesterday and will return the Graco Nautilus...in the Evenflo box!!

Yea the buckle issues have been somewhat common lately, did you report it to nhtsa? They are currently investigating the issue to determine if a recall should be made so you definitely want to report the problem to them, sometimes they ask for your seat to be turned over to them for the investigation instead of returning the product to Graco. Not everyone is having the problem but it is definitely not unheard of lately.

:yeahthat:
Please keep the Nautilus in case the NHTSA wants it. Here is the online form to file a complaint and their phone number https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm

I assembled a Nauti and taught a grandparent how to install and use it today. We were going to go find someone at Wal-Mart to pull a Harmony Defender out of the back...or at least check for one...when they changed their minds and decided that the GN was doable. Price was an issue for them. When I got it in the car and we went to put their granddaughter in, I was reminded of why I didn't want to deal w/the Nauti. I hope it's going to work out okay for them. I was really upset that the buckle was so stiff and even the chest clip was really hard. I'm hoping it will all loosen up. My son was getting antsy and so I was hurrying up to get done, since this was just me helping out a desperate stranger at Wallie World.

I'm not real pleased w/Graco...or Evenflo...right now. The buckles are awful.

The Harmony had really nice easy buckles. I'll be looking into that when I get another combo seat.

The Evenflo company unfortunately uses the same buckles as Graco. It seems pretty hit or miss if it gets stuck or not though.

Thanks for the replies! I didn't even think to report it to NHTSA but I followed the online link and filled out the form. A couple of weeks later, I received a call that they wanted my car seat and will buy it off of me! Luckily I hadn't returned it to Graco yet. I shudder to think of having to get my 40lb son out of that seat in an emergency, I don't know if I would have been able to do it!
I'm so glad the NHTSA will be inspecting my car seat, I hope Graco fixes this major problem! My new Evenflo has been fine, but yes, I notice the buckle is very similar to the Graco. I hope it won't be an issue.

Thanks for following up and checking back in. I'm so sorry you've had to deal with this, but at least if there're enough complaints, maybe they will get things fixed faster. (I've had a few Nautiluses returned at the BRU where I work that literally won't come unbuckled, I was amazed the parents had the presence of mind to loosen the harness all the way to let their kid worm out of it instead of cutting it, I think I'd be a lot more freaked out )