Century made by Graco?!

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Really? Is that supposed to separate "economy" and "luxury" lines? Like Ford & Lincoln...

?

Century used to be made in NZ, went into receivership in like 2000 or thereabouts and AU bought out some of them and Graco bought the rest out. They then vanished from NZ all together.

It was my goal to own that factory, however they left before I was quite old enough, or rich enough to buy it. I used to drool over those seats in the Warehouse store where they were sold! The capsules went right down to $99 before they left.


01012.jpg
Graco started using the same designs and then made their own
 

An Aurora

Senior Community Member
The only Century seats I have ever seen are nasty old stained dirty ones, so I guess I don't have an appreciation for them ;) So Graco bought them out and then they stopped making seats?
 

Ashley_R

New member
Century was orginally a different company that Graco bought out like 10 years ago (yup that was valley girl speak!). I think they just kept making the orginal century seats for a while then just slowly let them fall away. Last to go was a OHS seat I had that was identical to the comfortsport but OHS.
 
The only Century seats I have ever seen are nasty old stained dirty ones, so I guess I don't have an appreciation for them ;) So Graco bought them out and then they stopped making seats?

Yep Graco bought Century products out and Graco made the Capsules and some of the 5pt and shield seats then developed their own (poorer quality) seats.
 
I wish (cries) that I could find the last mailer sent out to customers from Century in NZ. They had all the designs in there, that Graco made and would be thought of by most Americans as "Graco" seats, when infact they were "Century" seats.
 

unityco

Ambassador - CPS Technician
MY carseat, from 1974, was a GM Love Seat made by Century (sold in Canada.) I know that because my parents kept it and wanted me to use it for DS :eek: Can we say expired!? At least it had a tether and a five-point harness (even if the harness was only held together by snap fasteners!)
 

scatterbunny

New member
H's infant seat (2001) was a Century SmartFit Plus. THREE-POINT. :eek: And she came home at less than 5 pounds in that seat. :eek: With an aftermarket head support. :eek:
 
MY carseat, from 1974, was a GM Love Seat made by Century (sold in Canada.) I know that because my parents kept it and wanted me to use it for DS :eek: Can we say expired!? At least it had a tether and a five-point harness (even if the harness was only held together by snap fasteners!)

We had the same seat as children.


like:

52594756_full.jpg


or

Jan1007521.jpg



?
 

unityco

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Mine was like the first picture, except it didn't have a real buckle (the aforementioned factory installed snap fastener,) nor did it have an adjuster strap (each shoulder adjusted separately from the front,) and it was all white.

While I wouldn't let them use the seat for DS, they did use it for my youngest sister in 1985! I should have taken photos!
 
Ours was in use for most of the 80's.

It was made here in NZ I believe.

My late father bought it, and he loved it - he was not one to buy baby gear, so that was neat that he bought the capsule, the car seat and a booster (although there was only one of each (2 toddler seats) and there were more than 1 of us! Once the next needed it the other moved up and out, and well my eldest bro would not have been ready for a belt.

Parents were very young and low income so 1 seat for all - bless them!
 

Splash

New member
Yeah, Century started phasing out about 5 years ago and the last seats are probably 3-4 years old. They actually had nice seats, especially for the time frame. They were the first to make combination seats (the Breverra line), and also the first to make travel systems. Graco was relatively small before buying Century.

Evenflo also owns the old Gerry line. Talk about scary products! Anything Gerry is long since expired (I believe they began dying in the early nineties), but some Century products still have life in them. A Century Breverra was the first seat I bought, and I was quited fond of it.
 

lynsgirl

New member
Century was orginally a different company that Graco bought out like 10 years ago (yup that was valley girl speak!). I think they just kept making the orginal century seats for a while then just slowly let them fall away. Last to go was a OHS seat I had that was identical to the comfortsport but OHS.

The Century Accel was identical to the ComfortSport, both OHS and 5pt. I *think* (but could be wrong in my rememberings :p) that Graco just took the Accel design and renamed it the CS. They also had a "copy" of the Breverra called the Quest (? again w/my memory lol). I actually had the Quest for a few months for ds1, but couldn't get it to install decently no matter what I did and finally gave up and bought an EB combo :eek:, which *did* install perfectly, but which ds1 outgrew by height at 30 lbs and 4yrs old :rolleyes:.
 

mominabigtruck

New member
I do have to say that century made the prettiest infant seat covers. This was way back when everyone else was doing plain blues and brown they had cute little animals and cherries and all sorts of cute covers:love: And their combo boosters had super high slots, even if they were a pita to adjust and install.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Jenny, Bitsy came home in the same infant seat in 1999 (three point 'smart fit' (with the most awful rear adjuster...it had this metal bar you slid through slots on the harness...people would lose the bar and use pencils in it's place!).

Kar started riding in The Last Seat you need after the infant seat! at 10 months in one car... it was a nice combo seat...way, way nicer than the Breverras (and started at 20 pounds, the breverras back then started at 30!).

Oh, but my point is... I had a Graco Cherished Cargo (Platinum, but with like no padding...at least it had a front adjuster, which is why I trashed the Century...)...and it had the lamest cheesiest one piece chest clip..so I bought a Century 2 piece for it... ooooooh, mixing and matching parts...ooooooo...for shame.... Then like a week later they became the same company... I could shed my guilt... :whistle:
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Really? Is that supposed to separate "economy" and "luxury" lines? Like Ford & Lincoln...

Not really, since century was really nice,and they just promptly discontinued all their seats.

But Dorel tries to do that with Eddie Bauer and Safety 1st and Cosco... (gee... can anyone even really tell the difference in quality? or are they just suckering people for that fancy Eddie Bauer name? :rolleyes:)
 

Jewels

Senior Community Member
But Dorel tries to do that with Eddie Bauer and Safety 1st and Cosco... (gee... can anyone even really tell the difference in quality? or are they just suckering people for that fancy Eddie Bauer name? :rolleyes:)

Don't forget Maxi-Cosi and the Quinny in that list. The only one that I think looks remotely different would be the Maxi-Cosi but now with the new design on the Safety 1st infant seats they all look the same again :rolleyes:
 

Michi

Member
I actually LOVED my century seats! :eek:
We had a Century Accel (the precursor to the Comfort Sport, and I thought it was a great seat. I never had problems with twisty straps, and I though it was really easy to install.)

Actually, before my Britax seats, my all time favorite seat was a Century . The Century Next-Step. It was a combo seat and it had REALLY high top slots, a recline feature, and it converted to a BPB (although it had closed belt loops so we never used it as one.) I loved how the cover had a flap that you could lift to get at the seatbelt when you were threading it through FF.

I actually just got rid of ours last month, (because we used it as our booster seat whenever we would go to the movie theater.)
 

Mama!

New member
Yep. I laid my hands on a Century convertible the other day that was DOM 12/04.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I thought they stopped manufacturing seats YEARS ago.
 

cpsaddict

New member
I currently have in my possession a Century Breverra Ascend with a manufacture date of Sept 2002. It's pretty nice, with really tall harness slots, but it's only for 30-40lbs.
Back when I was at BRU(2002-2005) we had a Century 1000 convertible with rear adjusters. :eek: WTH? And they were $60!!!
It was finally discontinued in 2004, but not before a lot of people purchased them for $30.

Oh, and my all time fave infant seat was the Smart Fit Elite. Why? It had a cool handle. That's all. :whistle:
 

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