Every time a new car seat arrives for review, we meet the box with excitement. Often, we share pictures with our team and start chatting about how easy or hard it is to install, what the covers are like, how our kids fit in the seat, and a whole lot more.
The Monterey XT is a great booster for any booster-ready child, especially those with larger builds. It is easy to install and use. The lower anchor connectors, cup holders, and adjustable width are all very nice features that make this seat uniquely customizable. While it is bulky and won’t work well in a three-across situation, the Diono Monterey XT is definitely a great seat for bigger littles.
Graco already has an impressive lineup of long-lasting convertible car seats. The 4Ever Extend2Fit is a combination of two other popular seats: the Extend2Fit and the 4Ever.
The 4Ever Extend2Fit combines the 4Ever’s four modes of use: rear facing, forward facing, high back, and backless booster with the Extend2Fit’s 50 pound rear facing weight limit and extendable foot tray.
Nuna staked their claim in the car seat market with the Pipa rear facing only car seat and has expanded their easy-to-use offerings to include the RAVA convertible car seat and AACE booster seat. Their latest addition to their lineup took the popular Pipa rear facing only car seat, removed a staggering 2 pounds of weight, and created the ridiculously lightweight Pipa Lite.
The Idan is a very stylish addition to the gb lineup. Unfortunately, it has too many flaws for us to be able to recommend it. Here’s a quick summary: the headrest positions the baby with the chin against the chest, the straps are virtually impossible to tighten, the manual gives unclear instructions about the infant insert, and the straps twist almost every time you use them.
It’s kind of a rare day when a car seat that’s exclusive to Canada comes along. So we were more than excited to meet the new, Canada-exclusive, backless booster from bily, an acronym which stands for baby I love you. This seat is distributed by Elfe Juvenile products and has a lot of potential for three across scenarios, carpooling, and travel!
The design team at Graco is a master at creating booster seats that are easy to use, well-priced, long-lasting, and provide an excellent belt fit. The Affix is a cousin of the much loved TurboBooster, but adds lower anchors to an already popular seat. AND! It’s now available in Canada so we’re updating this review so reflect the key differences between the United States and Canadian versions of the seat.
The Kiddy CruiserUSA took an old favorite — the Kiddy CruiserFix Pro high back booster seat — and updated it in some very nice ways. This well-fitting high back booster seat offers a number of great ease of use and comfort features. It was on the market for mere weeks before Kiddy stopped selling seats
Harmony makes just a few car seats — the Defender 360 combination seat, the Youth Booster, and the Big Boost Deluxe. We’re fans of the Defender and the Youth Booster so we were eager to spend some quality time with the lowest priced backless booster that includes LATCH on the market!
Combination car seats fill an important gap in the car seat market — forward facing only seats that allow children to remain in a harnessed car seat until they’re truly ready to move to a booster seat. We’d like to introduce the Cosco Finale, which comes in at the staggeringly low suggested retail price of $49 for the base model and $59 for the more plush cover.
