Love This Seat!

I bought this seat for my son when he was 14 months old and have fallen in love with it! Prior to this seat he was in a Eddie Bauer Convertible Deluxe. I bought a new seat because my nanny needed a seat for him to use in her car, so I gave her the Eddie Bauer and bought the Britax for my car. After researching car seat and their safety reviews/scores, I knew that a seat made by Britax was going to be the best choice. It has many features that give it ease of use. I love the velcro that attaches the shoulder straps to the side of the seat so that they are out of the way when I am putting my son in the seat. I also love how the LATCH anchors are made. Instead of being like other seats, where you have to try and hook the LATCH to the anchor point in your can, the LATCH anchors on the Britax just snap on to the anchor points in the car and all you do is press a button to to release. The buttons could never be reached by the child in the seat, so worrying about my son releasing them is not an issue. Each LATCH anchor is attached individually to a bar, so no more trying to feed it through underneath the car seat cover and it is much easier to tighten them appropriately.

Although sting point of this car seat is that it can rear-tether, which further strengthens it's safety rating. It comes with a 'D' ring that can make a tether point from where the front seat is bolted down. This seat will also allow you to keep your child in a 5-point harness for a maximum amount of time, and since being in a 5-point harness is what's safest this is a HUGE pro for me.

My only con is that it doesn't allow for rear-facing as long as my Eddie Bauer does. The Eddie Bauer rear-faces to 35 pounds, and this Britax RF's to 33 pounds. I am a BIG advocate for extended rear-facing, my son is 16 months old 24 pounds and will be rear-facing until he hits the weight limits for his seat which shouldn't be for a long time. It's important to remember that a step up in car seats is a step down in safety!

While all car seats pass the same exact safety tests in order to be approved for market, I decided to pay the extra money for a Britax for all of the above reasons. A $35 Cosco seat, properly installed by a CPST, will make your child just as safe as a Britax. But you will not be able to rear-face your child as long, or keep them harnessed as long. And you won't get all the nice features you would get with a Britax.

I drive a Hyandai Elantra, and it is kinda tight fitting in the back seat, but it fits just fine and it is still rear-facing.