Roundabout Onyx Convertible Car Seat

When I was pregnant with my daughter, now three years old, I spent countless hours online, reading online reviews and assessments relating to every major expense my husband and I were going to incur as a result of becoming parents. I found the search for a car safety seat to be the most daunting. With our on-the-go lifestyle, I knew she'd be spending quite a bit of time in whatever seat we decided upon, so comfort was important to consider. But, my main concern was my child being safe IN the seat. Months of agonizing research later, I decided that my child was going to have a Britax car seat. Consumer Reports listed Britax as the safest seat available on the market, boasting the fact that Britax builds impact-resistant foam into their seats, making them safer than their look-alikes. That pretty much sold me, but when I read the hundreds of consumer reviews that accoladed Britax for usability and comfort, I was determined that my child was going to have that seat! So, my mother-in-law made a gift of the car seat.

We took the seat out of the box and my husband went out to the car to install it. Our car was already LATCH equipped, so it was just a matter of figuring out how that worked in our '98 Mercury Sable wagon. Apparently, installing the seat in its rear-facing position, using the LATCH is easier said than done. However, when it came to my child's safety, I figured the little bit of hassle was a small price.

LATCH, apparently, was not a well-known technology at the time where we live, because we had quite a time of finding someone qualified to inspect our installation.

We've had no problems with the seat since we've had it and our daughter loves it. It's comfortable, easy to adjust and the fact that it hooks directly into the frame of the vehicle seat makes it sturdier than anything else we could find at the time.

I haven't been sorry for one second that I asked my in-laws for such a car seat. I'd do it again in a second.