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Hi! My name is Dr. Emily Thomas, and I am the Manager of Auto Safety at Consumer Reports. I’m a Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST) and I serve on the Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS) Industry Advisory Board. I also oversee CR’s car seat program and rear-seat safety program at Consumer Reports. I am passionate about helping families and caregivers keep kids safe in cars.
What questions do you have about car seats?
Hello car seat experts!
Our 1yr old is just outgrowing her infant seat (Clek Liing), and she sort of hates it anyway, so we are looking for a convertible car seat. Are there any strong recommendations? Safety and comfort for the kiddo are top priorities. Ease of installation is nice to have, but I’m willing to work around a more difficult install if needed.
I’ve been looking at a bunch of options, but two that float to the top a lot are the Nuna Rava and the Britax Poplar. Thoughts on these?
Thanks in advance!!
Hi, I’m looking for a recommendation on the safest convertible car seat. Not an all-in-one, just a convertible. I am getting so overwhelmed by the options, it seems like every site I found is sponsored, so I don’t trust that.
I found the Chicco NextFit Zip as highest rated on a couple sites - but it’s discontinued!
My only concern is safety rating, with easy to clean being relevant but not super necessary (we have a handheld spray vacuum cleaner). Budget is up to $400-ish. We have mid size SUV and this is the only car seat in it, so size isn’t an issue.
We're researching now as to which convertible carseat we want to get, we don't need it now as our baby still fits in her infant seat.
Our top choices are:
Maxi-Cosi Pria
Nuna RAVA
Graco 4ever
We're open to other suggestions. We drive a Toyota RAV4 if that helps determine a good fit/size too.
Thank you!
The time has come to switch my little to convertible car seat so I have been trying to find one that gets top safety ratings as well as (ideally) swivel for easier in/out. It seems that many of the top rated models on consumer reports (i.e. Chico NextFit, Britax) for safety do not have the swivel. Am I missing something? Does the swivel feature make the seat inherently a bit less safe?
It appears that the Baby Jogger is the only swivel convertible car seat that is in the top 5 on consumer reports. It's pricy at ~$500. Worth it?
Side note--interesting to me that the Chico models are rated so highly for safety and did so well in crashes when they only allow for rear facing up to 40 lb and 43 in (instead of 50 lb & 49 in like many other models).