Re: Graco Nautilus Review (LOTS of pics)
Looking at the way a company handles problems/recalls is a major deciding factor for us, too. When I read the Chicago Tribune article that gave proof that Evenflo and Dorel (maker of Eddie Bauer, Cosco and Safety First seats) were knowingly making seats that they knew were dangerous (children had documented injuries from the seats themselves and at least one child died), that made my car seat decisions even easier. If you cannot trust the ethics of a company, how can you trust their seats?
The NHTSA does not "police" testing- seat companies are required to test their seats to a certain standard, and can put them on the shelves if they pass. NHTSA randomly pulls seats off the shelves and tests some of them, but in the case of the Cosco Touriva and Evenflo On My Way, they were still on the shelves after kids had gotten hurt, and Evenflo and Dorel knew it. There were notches in the Touriva seat that caused at least one documented case of brain damage when a child's head hit the seat shell. It would have cost Dorel $.24 per seat to fix, and they didn't do it. That's why my kids will never ride in a Scenera, even as a back-up. I don't trust a company that will risk lives for 24 cents.
Britax tests their seats beyond the minimum standards and they continue testing their seats even after the initial phase. They have proven their commitment to child safety to me by letting consumers know when their continued testing of the Regent revealed better installation methods. They were not required by law to do so.
Sure all seats pass minimum standards, but if a company is still manufacturing and selling seats that they know are dangerous, well, for those particular seats, the standards don't mean anything. I don't know of any problems with Britax, Sunshine Kids, or Graco, so I'm comfortable using them. I prefer to use Britax as our main seats whenever possible, though.
The Nautilus is a nice seat, and I'm fine with my 7.5yo riding in it; she was uncomfortable in her Regent and hates the Radian. It's safer for her to be harnessed than in a booster, and I don't know how long she'll be able to be harnessed. But for my other kids, who will be harnessed for a long time and are still very young, I would not use the Nautilus as a main seat, long-term.
If we were in a serious accident and one or all of my children were injured while properly buckled into their properly installed "cheaper" seats, I would wonder every day for the rest of my life if they would have been safer in a more well-made seat with higher quality materials and more EPS foam, etc. So for us, the $100-$150 in savings just isn't worth the piece of mind we get from using a product we feel 100% confident in.