Question Car seats without design flaws

Curious question here, stupid question possibly. Are there any, is there any one single car seat on the market that has ZERO design flaws? I could list many seats that do have design flaws, many of which have poor and INTENTIONAL design flaws as a way to make more money, styles that have design flaws galore; but I won't go there because a lot of people here are aware of the design flaw issue.

I will save my rant about Graco's 3yr age minimum for booster use, some other time, when I'm typing on a computer instead of an iPad. That one, will be an essay.

Is there a perfect seat? No, but nothing is perfect. I'm not even sure I'd label certain less favorable aspects of some seats as flaws though. It's very possible to find a seat that meets nearly all your needs and wants and it's even possible to find a seat that meets your needs perfectly. For me, my Britax seats have been as close to perfect as I could ever hope for but another person may not feel that way at all about those seats. It's all individual.


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I'm not sure what the definition of a seat with a design flaw is. Are you talking about seats that are nearly impossible to install correctly? Or seats that fill a niche for some families, but are outgrown too fast for others? Or seats that would be perfect except for the fact that those darn buckle tongues end up under the kid's butt? Or seats whose covers are hard to remove and clean?

All the seats I use have fit my needs quite well, with minimum frustration. Doesn't mean they don't have flaws, just that they are minor enough not to bother me, or that they aren't flaws that are apparent when used with my kids or in my vehicles.

When I say design flaws, yes, I mean those little bothersome parts, but also referring somewhat to the bet system where a car seat is rated as a Poor Bet, Worst Bet, Fair Bet, etc based on their versatility. Or none at all. Some car seats have so many design flaws they're not worth buying, and maybe the people who do buy them forgot to do their homework first on vehicle fit compatibility and how it fits their kids, long term. And then I feel there is one car seat that should be recalled, and never sold again: Baby Trend Hybrid 3-1. Just what I've read about it on blogs, here on this forum, and thumbs-down reviews on YouTube, it seems like the BT should be first to go out of many seats. I also think that Graco should raise the forward facing age limit to 2yrs and 25 pounds, like Britax does, and that they should revise their booster mode age to 5 years, 40lbs, especially for the Nautilus and Argos. No 3 or 4 yr old should ever be in a booster, that's why the Nauti has that great long lasting harness weight/height limit, but it's like Graco could care less about contradicting themselves and putting kids at risk of lap belt/shoulder belt discomfort --let alone more pain from hard stops that backseat passengers CAN'T ANTICIPATE, aka children who don't have word articulation for "headache" or "skin hurts". Maybe I'm living in a fantasy world where boosters are for 40lbs/3'5" / 5yrs and up. Simultaneously at that too. Or maybe CSFTL.org is absolutely right, that harness seats are built with 3-6year olds in mind, thus there's no logical reason to skip the harness and booster at 3/4/5.


Sometimes I'm extremely too far obsessed with car seat safety, I frighten myself.

I personally think that design flaws are those things which lead a seat to fail testing or have a history of failure IRL usage. I can't think of a huge number of seats that are in that category.

While I personally wouldn't put a 3yo in a booster, I would put a 40lb compliant 4yo and up in one. While my tech certification was current, I put my 40lb 5yo's in boosters. With no regret whatsoever. A harnessed seat is not necessarily safER for a child who meets the weight minimums (here, 40lbs) and who can remain in position. A properly used booster IS a safe choice.

I personally think CSFTLs is too hysterical for most parents and turns people off of the main message, which is proper usage.

There are legitimately some pretty awful seats out there, I doubt there's much argument on that but MOST seats are quite good and MOST people are able to find seats that suit their needs. As for 30 lbs on boosters, my almost four year old daughter only weighs about 27 lbs fully dressed, she will be well into elementary school before reaching 40 lbs and I just do not see a point in leaving a child that's absolutely mature enough and old enough to sit a booster harnessed indefinitely.


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I often feel that if only a few good carseats could reproduce, we'd be left with a perfect one!

I have never used a seat I felt was 100% great.

In fact, one thing I'd LOVE on the market is a very narrow (3 in a row type thing) with super high stop slots, that sits very low and is low profile, and not $400 either. Defender might be close to it. But, for various reasons, I didn't like that seat enough to keep it. Oh, and no assembly required!

I do think that 99% of the seats out there are too hard to use. I can't imagine most people reading those hefty, detailed and confusing manuals or installing a seat correctly. I guess that's why they say most seats are not used correctly.

I think the Harmony Youth though, is pretty darn great for what it is. But there too, I would want latch... Always something!

Bebe said:

Maybe I'm living in a fantasy world where boosters are for 40lbs/3'5" / 5yrs and up. Simultaneously at that too.

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My 8 year, 9 month old nephew is maybe 42lbs with clothes on... soaking wet and maybe 45". Should he be harnessed?

Making blanket absolutes never makes sense when it comes to parenting and I don't think absolutes should be made for car seats either. There will always be exceptionally large kids, exceptionally small kids, exceptionally mature and immature ones. As parents we need the freedom to makes an educated choice for our kids on what is safe for our specific situation.

Got a marketing email from graco about the LATCHable SIP (Affix Safety Surround? The name escapes me) booster they have, minimum age, even for high back mode, was 4 (and 30lbs---4 and 40 for backless). I was very happily surprised, I assume it's a broad labeling thing going forward. Not ideal, but baby steps, baby steps (Cosco boosters--even backless!--- said 1 year and 30 pounds for years, it made most of us physically ill to read those labels).

I've said this in response to you before, but maybe you missed it. Hard stops are NOT, not, not not, dangerous or harmful. Kids take on similar jolts all the time in the course of their day just being kids. Sure, a hard stop can be uncomfortable for a few seconds, but we don't have scores of kids running around with perpetual headaches and skin lesions even here in traffic-land where I live. My oldest daughter was on and off in a booster starting at age 2-3 because she is old enough that there just weren't many options for harnessed seats. I often had to booster a few months waiting for a bigger seat to hit the market. She was HIGHLY verbal. She was talking in full sentences by 10 months, read fluently by 16 months, and I have a video of her at 2 years old saying "I've thought about my behavior and realized that my time-out was fair, so can I get up now?" She 100% for sure had the vocabulary to tell me she had a headache or that her skin hurt. In fact, I've never known any child over the age of 2, other than completely non-communicating children' who couldn't tell me when they get an injury. It doesn't take a lot of vocabulary to point to the part that hurts and say "owwie".

My 7 1/2 year old is 36-37 lbs and 43 inches. I'm quite comfortable with the decision to booster him in a high back Affix.


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An actual flaw is something that prevents an item from performing as it should. I can think of very few seats that have fallen into that category.

An irritating feature is just that, and if you don't like it, if it irritates you enough, choose another seat. And I can thikn of plenty of those.

We have a Diono RXT. I hate that the tightening strap is ratcheting and miss the one pull that I did with our Coccoro. But I won it, it was free, and so we'll use it. I know it's safe, I know it's installed right, and it'l last a good long time. I also hate the dumb rear facing boot and the angle adjuster and wish they'd come up with a better solution but it is what it is. The seat is still good and works as intended.

Designers don't do things on purpose to frustrate you, somewhere someone, likely more than one someone, thought it was best to do it that way so they did. Occasionally we get lucky and the manufacturers come here and ask our opinions and then make changes to reflect them.