CA65LX vs. CA70

Which Complete Air should I keep?

  • Complete Air 65 SE

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • Complete Air 70

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • There's always an 'other'

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • Total voters
    3
  • Poll closed .

Brigala

CPST Instructor
I have two brand spanking new August 2013 unopened car seats. One needs to either go up on Craigslist or be gifted to a friend if I can't get a reasonable price out of it (enough to get her, say, a Guide or a SureRide and have some left over to make it worthwhile).

The first is a Complete Air 70 in Decatur. I got this through the Weeviews drawing.

The second is a Complete Air 65 SE (reclining base like the LX). This was a replacement for my crashed CA.

My daughter is too big to RF in either one, so for the most part the one I keep will be used forward facing, and only as an extra until she gets too big to RF in the Radian. I would very likely use it for travel as well due to being lighter than the Radian. But I also have a step-grandson who will likely use it from time to time, rear-facing, rather than move his car seat into my car every time I am watching him. And other kids, too. I really like the idea of having one no-rethread convertible in my arsenal of seats because random kids are in and out of my life on a fairly frequent basis. So, although I'm open to alternative suggestions, I think I definitely want to keep one seat or the other. The 65 SE installs both RF and FF in most of my vehicles as long as I'm not too picky about the recline angle. I haven't tried the 70.

I really really :love: the SE fabric, which is why I have that seat in the first place. But I'm not sure whether the reclining base is more trouble than it's worth.

In case it matters, the other seats I have in my collection are two Radians (our primary seats for DD in the primary cars), a FR85, a Coccoro (totally outgrown by DD but gets used occasionally for random friends' kids), and a PWSG. So I pretty much have a car seat for every occasion.

Which one would you keep and which one would you sell? And why?
 
ADS

Lenae

Active member
I'd sell the 70, because it's newer and better and upgraded! Buy buy buy! And people go for that kind of thing, especially Craigslist people. You prefer the cover on the 65 right? Keep that one. 5 lbs isn't going to make or break that seat.
 

thepote

New member
I'd sell the 70, because it's newer and better and upgraded! Buy buy buy! And people go for that kind of thing, especially Craigslist people. You prefer the cover on the 65 right? Keep that one. 5 lbs isn't going to make or break that seat.

ITA. Even if your child is on the heavier side I can't see you needing more than 65lbs for a FF seat. If you will get more visual enjoyment out of the 65, definitely go with that one. The other one is more marketable, anyway, and will probably be less effort to sell.
 

Syllieann

New member
Sell them both and get a frontier. Its going to happen anyway, may as well be now while your other seats can fetch nib price.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
I already have a FR85. I kind of want to wait until the kinks are worked out of the FR90 before I get a new one. Plus, a Frontier won't be (a) as versatile for transporting other kids in my vehicle, or (b) light weight for travel.

Believe me, I did a lot of soul searching and seriously considered a FR90 to replace the CA that was crashed, but ultimately decided to just to stick with a CA.

She is currently right at the middle slots (they're a hair above her shoulders). She has two whole harness positions left to go up in the CA. I need to measure, but I actually think the CA has higher harness slots than the database gives it credit for (she's right at the 2nd to top slots in the Radian!). I think there's some chance I might be able to go from CA to booster in the secondary car and get away with just the FR85 in the primary car anyway.

And no, the covers are not interchangeable. :/
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
By the way, my only hesitation on keeping the CA65 is that I wonder whether I'd be better off without the reclining base. It's kind of a PITA. It makes the seat a little heavier for travel (anybody know how MUCH heavier?). It's one more thing to adjust when the seat is flipped RF/FF/RF. And I have a sneaking suspicion it actually makes the seat a little harder to install.

But I've been living with the reclining base all this time and I do know how to make it work. And it does mean fewer pool noodle segments for RF. And potentially it could increase compatibility forward facing (since it has two recline positions for FF) but so far I've only used the most upright position so I dunno.

I definitely prefer the fabric on the 65SE. There's no question at all on that. And I agree that I don't think I'll need the extra 5 lbs of weight capacity. If she hits 65 lbs before outgrowing it by height, which is unlikely since that's like 25 more lbs for two more harness positions, I'm sure she'll be booster-able by then anyway. If she grows 5 lbs a year, she'll be 65 lbs when she's 8 years old!
 

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