Product Advice Needed

Hello! First of all, thank you so much to everyone for offering your experience and expert advice. This forum is an extremely valuable resource for parents.

I have a 3.5 year old son and a daughter who is 12 months. My kids are pretty average in size. My son is 36 lbs, 42" and seat to shoulder is 17". My daughter is 19 lbs (small), but 29.5" long. My primary car is a Lexus RX350 and our secondary car is a Land Rover Discovery.

My son's primary carseat is a 2010 Recaro ProRide. His secondary seat is a 2010 Britax Marathon 70. I chose the Recaro for my main car because it seemed the head restraint was much more protective than anything else available at that time. I did not know about extended rear-facing with him and at about 15 months turned him (thankfully never an issue).

My daughter is still riding in her infant seat, but is almost at the height limit. I just purchased a Coccoro for travel as I fly alone with the kids frequently. It will be used in the second car and my son will continue to ride in one of the convertibles.

With that said, I have two questions about seats for my primary car:

1) For my son, I am looking at the combination seats and I'm struggling between the Recaro Performance Sport and the Britax Frontier 90. The Frontier 90 is very appealing with click-tight, but I feel like the lower side wings on the Recaro provide stronger side impact protection (just from me pushing on them). Could you all provide your thoughts on this?

2) For my daughter, is the Foonf so superior in protection that I should consider that instead of using the 2010 Recaro Proride we have? I will rear face her as long as possible after educating myself. It has been suggested maybe I use the Proride as long as it is comfortable rear-facing and then see what is on the market at that time. But if the Foonf provides much better protection, I would consider it now.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts. They are very appreciated.

Your daughter is long and skinny like mine. I also used a Coccoro as a travel seat/second seat - it's great for that purpose! Alas, she's just outgrown it rear-facing at 2yrs and 4 months. She's not hit the height limit yet, but she has a long torso so her head is at 1" from the top of the shell. I've just bought a Guide 65 to replace it.

I certainly wouldn't stop you from buying a Foonf if you wanted one! But if you are happy with th ProRide I don't think there would be a compelling reason to replace it just yet. My daughter's main seat is a MyRide 65, which we've been pretty happy with.

oliviacw said:

I certainly wouldn't stop you from buying a Foonf if you wanted one! But if you are happy with th ProRide I don't think there would be a compelling reason to replace it just yet.

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I agree with this. My daughter is the same size as yours, though, and we did just get a Foonf & she loves it!

Thanks so much for your feedback! I've only seen rave reviews about the Foonf.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Recaro Performance Pro versus the Britax Frontier 90? My thoughts are in my first post. I have gone to Buy Buy Baby three times and walked out not knowing what to do!

Sport vs Frontier... The US doesn't have a side impact standard, so we don't actually know. Have you tried both in your car? If you don't feel like you need the ease of the ClickTight and your son doesn't need 20" of harness height, then the Pro/Performance Sport is a fine choice. Like ProRide vs Foonf, if both fit in your car and both meet your needs, it's going to come down to personal preference.

Oh wait, your son's torso height is 17" at 3.5? In that case, I'd go with the Frontier (or Pinnacle if you want more side protection.)

karskar said:

1) For my son, I am looking at the combination seats and I'm struggling between the Recaro Performance Sport and the Britax Frontier 90. The Frontier 90 is very appealing with click-tight, but I feel like the lower side wings on the Recaro provide stronger side impact protection (just from me pushing on them). Could you all provide your thoughts on this?

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I think both are great choices. If you move the carseat from one vehicle to another frequently, the Frontier 90 may have an advantage for that because ClickTight is THAT easy. If not, it really comes down to personal preference in terms of features and ease-of-use. As for side impact protection, we really have no way at all to compare seats in terms of safety. Installed and used correctly, both should be very safe!

2) For my daughter, is the Foonf so superior in protection that I should consider that instead of using the 2010 Recaro Proride we have? I will rear face her as long as possible after educating myself. It has been suggested maybe I use the Proride as long as it is comfortable rear-facing and then see what is on the market at that time. But if the Foonf provides much better protection, I would consider it now.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts. They are very appreciated.

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You have two very good seats now and they both can offer a good amount of time rear-facing. For an average sized girl, she could easily make it to 3-years old in either model. Both models are very safe choices, too. The Foonf does offer some innovative features like rigid LATCH and an energy absorbing base, but those are designed for front-facing. For rear-facing, it's impossible to say if there is any difference in safety from what you have now and since rear-facing seats are inherently so safe, any differences would probably be minor anyway.

If you do like your current seats well enough but really like the Foonf, you could, for example, use your current models until the 2014 models appear. You might find different Foonf fashions or perhaps even some Foonf updates on features or you might see a new seat from another manufacturer that catches your eye. We often hear about next year's models at the October ABC Kids show, sometimes sooner!

Hopefully some other advocates can chime in, as I have only seen the Foonf at conferences so far and really can't speak to practical benefits from everyday use vs. the other models you have. Have you considered the Chicco NextFit? That's another new, high end convertible that may be of interest. We have a review of it coming very soon to www.carseatblog.com !

Thanks everyone! It has been enormously helpful. Understanding my son is a little on the taller side, I think we will go with the Frontier 90. I also love the fact that I can swap him easily and safely to other people's cars since I think that becomes more necessary as he gets a bit older. I'm going to hang on to my convertible seats for my daughter and just see what new models come out in the future. I didn't realize the Foonf benefits were primarily forward facing.

We need side impact testing!!!! It's too bad.

Again, thanks for all of your helpful feedback and happy 4th to all!

Karlie