Leaning towards to buy an exec as the next car seat for our almost 40 lbs baby....

Moms/Dads, any negative experience or do you feel you will still buy it gain if necessary?

Thank you all!

My in-laws have (very generously!) offered to buy our one-month old a transitional car seat for Christmas. We have the Nuna Pipa and love it, and would prefer to stick with the brand. Knowing she won’t need it for a while, I’m torn between the Rava or Exec — I’ve looked at the comparisons for both but was hoping to hear from folks who are actually using them. Any endorsements or critiques?

We have predominantly used Nuna products for our daughter since the day she was born. from the Pipa lite, Sena Aire, Rava for our sedan, and the Exec in our SUV.

For anyone thinking about dropping the dough for something marketed as the all in one 10 year solution, hopefully this review can give you some insight as to whether the features are truly worth the premium price.

Installation

The first time I installed the Exec into our SUV it took me about 10 minutes just due to the nature of double checking everything. I can safely say that I can securely install the seat now within a minute.

Cleaning and breakdown

It's tedious to say the least, velcro, buttons, snapping points, flimsy plastic you have to be careful with. The first time your kid pukes in your car seat, is also the first time you'll realize that underneath the fancy branding and the 'premium' look of the car seat....it's all plastic and foam just like any other carseat.

This was harder to break down than a 150 USD graco, and seems to be designed for people who want a fancy car seat to go along with their luxury car and NOT parents that actually haul their kids around.

Underneath the washable padding you'll find an almost full plastic frame with an insane amount of nooks and crannies that a normal portable vacuum will have a hard time getting into.

The harness cannot be removed unless you're willing to take apart the entire seat because whoever designed this apparently couldn't imagine a child vomiting or having an accident. This means wiping it over and over and hoping you get everything off the nylon.

If any sort of bodily fluids leak through into the plastic cavities below, you're never going to be able to clean it out.

Comfort

My daughter loves this seat. She's never fidgeted and often sleeps during long road trips.

Materials

They don't hide the materials used, not much to say about it other than the leg rest already fraying from the friction caused by swinging legs. Unfortunately isn't a replaceable part as you'd have to replace the entire main padding to replace that portion.

Nothing premium to note of considering I can get an all leather Steelcase leap v2 for around this price.

Seems to have been designed without the idea of a child that moves their legs around.

This was a product built to look good, and be comfortable for a child sized adult with perfect bowel control that also won't drop liquids or food in it.