Combi?

There are some new combi convertible seats on ebay right now ( avatar & victoria) Are these any good?

Combi has several great infant seats out but most people have shyed from using thier convertibles.

They're rather bulky. They are wide too so installing them when you have more than one seat is going to be a pain. Or if you intend to switch it between 2 cars it will be more cumbersome than some of the other seats.

They only rear faces to 30 pounds. The longer a child rear faces the safer they are so a seat with 33 or 35 pound limits is safer than a seat with 30. After the child has outgrow it rear facing it can only be used forward facing to 40 pounds so the child is likely to outgrow it before they are ready for a booster seat so you'd need to buy yet another seat.

Also, the avatar was recalled, so if you were to buy this seat you have a chance you'd get one of the recalled models.

Another thing to consider is combi is no longer making either of these seats and has no info about them on thier website so i doubt they are coming straight from the manufacturer as the ad says. The seats would expire sooner than you'd expect b/c these seats are already close to 2 years old which means you have less than 5 years of use for them before they have to be replaced. I would also be leery of the seats that had 'damaged boxes' so they are being sold at a reduced rate. I recently bough a britax from an online store and it came in a damaged box and had a small crack is it and the eps foam was broken (not dangerous but not a good sign none the less) if i hadnt known to look for small cracks i probably would have never noticed and put my child's life in danger.

There are better seats than these available from retail stores is all price ranges, i would not suggest anyone buy these.

I noticed that Wal-Mart still sells the Avatar on their website. I wonder how old their stock is???