This is our first child and will be here in a few months. We are getting an infant car seat w/ base until the kid is old enough (or large enough) to meet the safety guidelines to switch to a convertible seat -- we are just shopping in advance for that 2nd seat on the registry.
I'd hold off, honestly. First, baby meets the safety guidelines to switch to a convertible at birth. If you'd like to go that route, we're happy to help. You don't need a rear facing only seat. Otherwise, since it'll be a few months before baby's bum is out, and then maybe another year before baby's bum is in the seat, the Best Seat For You may be out in the next 15 months, but you can't get it because you already have this one bought, unused, boxed up, and ticking away its lifespan. So I would wait. I know there are new seats coming.
I didn't know those two seats were large (before your post); is that a problem given the context of the Pacifica (3 row minivan)? If so, do you have any other 1-3 seats that are recommended by people here? I am interested in safety (I know all seats meet gov't standards, but some manufacturers claim to exceed that -- is that largely BS?) and ease of use, and less worried about price. E.g. if it claims to be safer and takes 10 seconds less to strap the child in each time, that is worth $150 more of cost to me. Thanks again for any further help!
They may be cramped even in a three row vehicle. I put a Symphony in a Traverse today (not a small vehicle), and with the seat appropriately reclined there wasn't much room everywhere. The UltraMax is even bigger.
All companies claim to exceed requirements. I don't know that it's BS so much as, "How?" Do they do additional testing? Do they exceed it by the smallest of margins, or by a wide margin? It can mean so much that it really means quite little. The safety requirements are very very strict. I don't worry about spending more to get more. More money doesn't equal more safety.
Now, you can get seats that are easily for ease of use. But that is 100% personal preference. I have carpal tunnel and have to have surgery in a couple of months. My current set of "perfect!" is different than it was two years ago, and is different from what it will be in another year. And I'm just one person. Yours may be 180 degrees from mine, and your wife's may be 180 from yours. So for that you need to actually play with seats. If ease of buckling is number one on your list, that's fine, but what I would do is wait for six months or so. Take your then three month old shopping with you, buckle them in, and see what you find to be the easiest for harnessing. Then come back here when you're closer to ready to buy and tell us, "our baby is X pounds and Y inches and Z months old, and I went to the store and I like seats A, B, and C quite a lot. I drive a 2017 Pacifica, which do you think would work best for my baby and my car?"
This is one of those things where jumping ahead of the game may shoot you in the foot. You may love a brand new seat that's so new to the market you can feel the warmth from the factory. Or you may find an old classic is more your style. But either way, if you wait longer, you can make the decision with all current information at your fingertips. And we'll still be here to help.
Wendy
