Went to see the Nautilus and Frontier

They are both nice seats!!! I liked them both. The salesperson pointed out a "hole" in the side of the Nautilus and said in a crash if metal came into the car it could poke them through the hole....... which was an interesting point, but she had an interest to sell the higher price seat. And our van has side impact airbags.

I think either seat would be very nice... so I'm going to watch for sales for the Nautilus and or Frontier over the next couple months.

Alek didn't seem to like either seat, he was interested in the Sunshine Kids seats because -- they looked like big kid seats.

Anyway, I'm leaning toward getting a Nautilus on sale somewhere. The Nautilus and the Frontier looked about the same size while the Regent is a lot bigger.

What hole in the Nautilus? Down by the hip?

The Frontier has no sides down low whatsoever Just those wacko armrests.

up by the shoulders, in the back. The Frontier has a solid back, but the nautilus back behind the shoulder doesn't have hard plastic, it's open to the padding / lining.

I wouldn't worry about that "hole." If there is metal debris floating around in the passenger cabin during an accident, I think there is much more risk and much more to worry about than that "hole."

Patriot201 said:

I wouldn't worry about that "hole." If there is metal debris floating around in the passenger cabin during an accident, I think there is much more risk and much more to worry about than that "hole."

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ITA! I'm not at all concerned about it.

Yeah, I thought it was a total sales pitch, she made a good effort.

I'm still going to debate between the Nautilus, Frontier and the Regent. It seems any of them would work fine for our needs.

My issues are:
-- want something that fits OK in our Acura TL back seat

-- concerned about intsall into either 2nd or 3rd row of 2007 Odyssey

-- want a seat that has enough growing room for DS#1 (he's 3.75 years, 39#, 42" -- I think that's an average weight, but I don't know if he's running heavy or tall... I suspect he may be a little heavy but I don't know.

-- comfort for my son -- he didn't want to sit in the seats at all in the store and I've read a little about the seats being too small for some kids, but realistically he will probably fit in any of them just fine.

-- I'm thinking about extended harnessing and so the Britax seats seem better for that, although I'm not sure if my DS will actually need that with whatever his weight turns out to be.

Anyway, they all seem like very nice seats. I'm also not sure if I want to order online or go back to the stores and futz with them into our car or just assume whatever we get will work.

I think I will be persuaded if the Graco Nautilus has a good sale. But I did read about it being less comfy for sleeping..... but while my DS#1 still sleeps, he's getting older and I don't expect him to nap forever.

KBecks said:

-- I'm thinking about extended harnessing and so the Britax seats seem better for that, although I'm not sure if my DS will actually need that with whatever his weight turns out to be.

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Yeah, I seriously doubt very many kids will make it to 80 pounds harnessed in the Frontier. The top slots are too low for most 80-pound children.

I think the Frontier does make a better booster than the Nautilus, but as a harnessed seat, I prefer the Nautilus because of the harness tension adjustment, which is like a hot knife through butter.

They are both very, very nice seats. They both have pros and cons.

Pros of Frontier
~ High booster adjustment
~ Wide as a booster
~ Flip-up armrests for getting child in and out on his own.
~ Loads of shoulder room

Cons of Frontier
~ Can be difficult to install in some vehicles
~ Lower harness slots than Nautilus
~ Price


Pros of Nautilus
~ Higher harness slots than Frontier
~ Easy harness tension adjustment
~ Easy to install in most vehicles
~ Price

Cons of Nautilus
~ Can be narrow in the shoulders for some kids
~ Lower booster adjustment than Frontier
~ Armrests can get in the way





So, as you can see, they both have pros and cons. It is a tough decision, isn't it?

One more Con of the frontier is the twisty staps IMO. I do not want to have to deal with that issue on a daily basis.

The twisty straps become a non issue after a week or two 'cause you learn how to prevent them.

I much preferred the Frontier. I've heard one issue with boys is that the Nauti only has two crotch strap adjustments, & it can become too short for some kids (esp. boys with more "stuff" down there..LOL!).

Any would be a good option. It's just a matter of what you prefer.

Twisty straps? We haven't had any problem with that on our nauti? And it's not like i'm doing anything to prevent it..dd buclkes herself in 90% of the time...we haven't had any twists at all. If a 3 year old can buckle it daily without twists.....??....I think it can't be that big a problem?

EDIT heehee..sorry, brain fart....

They said twisty straps on the Frontier.

OK.... I may need more help figuring this out because.... I'm reading and reading and reading about car seats and not sure what we need to do.

We will have 3 kids soon.

DS#1 in MA FF
DS#2 in MA FF
DS#3 - coming soon, will ride in a Graco Snugride until about 3 months or so.

I got 2 clearance Marathons at Target, one for $135 and one for $189 and think I will definitely keep one for the baby and I can't decide if I should keep the 2nd or if I should take that $200 and use it for a bigger seat...

We'll need to add a seat to my DH's car for preschool commuting in September, so the 2nd clearance Marathon could be that seat, or I could go to a higher height/weight harnessed seat.

I have been looking at the growth charts and all that and it seems my oldest, 39#, 42", and he has a couple inches until his shoulders will be too big for the MA.... he may make it to 5 in a Marathon. His growth is going to start to slow down and who knows if he'll go past 5 in it.

But what comes after the Marathon? If I would let the kids outgrow the Marathons only to go to Regents, I may as well get a Regent now. Our big car is an 07 Ody so a huge seat like the Regent will fit fine. And it seems a Regent is the most advantageous of the big harnessed seats since it has the highest strap positions.

But I'm also sitting here reading about boosters, thinking at age 5 and they'll be pretty tall and heavy -- 50 to 75% percentiles, maybe my sons would go straight from MAs into some form of high back booster. It seems a lot of people here have Regents though.

Except that they should stay harnessed as long as possible, which means Regents.

Like maybe I should skip these combo seats altogether... MAs are great, easy seats.

And maybe if I use these MAs and wait, then in 1-2 years there will be even better options and new seat models.

So I'm trying to read about when it's really OK to go to a booster. Even if we do Regents in our big Ody van, we may want easy boosters for our 2nd car.

Rambling.... thanks!