A comfortable, functional booster seat that is a great value.

Last year when our 3 year old reached 35 lbs and 3 ft we started to look for a booster seat. After some research we picked the Combi Dakota. It was available at BJ’s for $25 so we bought one for ourselves and one for my parents.

The booster seat is placed on the seat and is not attached to the seat except for the seat belt positioner. The seat belt positioner is tethered to the back of the booster and consists of a nylon strap with a red, plastic clip near the end. The shoulder strap passes through the clip and the position of the clip is adjusted so that the shoulder strap passes across the child's chest and not across their neck.  Adjusting the position of the clip is not easy but once it is in place it stays firmly in position. The positioner does not need to be adjusted often so ease of adjustment is a minor issue.

The fact that the booster is not attached to the seat makes installing and uninstalling the booster very easy and the whole process takes less than a minute. The only downside to it not being attached to the seat is that it can move around excessively on bench type seats.

When used in the captain’s seats of our 2006 Honda Odyssey, the Dakota does not move at all when my son gets in and out of it. However, in our 2004 Honda CRV which has a bench seat, the Dakota moves around and occasionally covers up the buckle part of the seat belt that you click into. When that happens I have to nudge the Dakota (with my son in it) over until the seat belt buckle is uncovered. He also prefers to buckle himself in now and also gets annoyed when the Dakota is covering the buckle.  It does not happen all the time but it is annoying when it does happen.

The outer cover, cup holder and foam pad of the Dakota are very easy to remove and are machine washable. After a year the Dakota still looks like new after it has been washed - no pilling, no stains, no fading.

One other thing to note is that the base is completely recyclable since it is made out of HDPE.

My son loves his “big boy” seat and we have used it on several 8 hour road trips with no complaints from him. My parents have also had positive experiences with the Dakota in their limited usage.