Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We bought this carseat to use as a secondary seat for my two year old in my husbands car. However, after installing it and taking it on a few road trips, I am highly tempted to swap this one out for the Graco Milestone I currently have in my car. Some of the high points; -Comfort. This is a very cushy, super plush seat. When we went to the store to look at car seats, I was shocked at how lacking in padding some of them were (looking at you Britax Radian!). While I understand their main function is to protect the child, there is something to be said for comfort. If I would not like to be strapped to a seat that felt like a board, how much more so would a squirmy, fidgety toddler? I take road trips fairly frequently and if we are going to be in the car for 10+ hours, I want my kids to be protected AND comfortable. This seat is the best of both! -Fabric. 5 stars. I couldn't tell from the Amazon images, but the main body fabric has a neat, honeycomb design that adds just a touch of classiness to the overall seat without being garish or cartoonish. The headrest and infant insert are a grey microsuede, which is pretty easy to spot clean if need be, on top of being very nice to the touch. The accent fabric has almost a 'leatherette' feel to it, which I haven't noticed on any of the other carseats we have owned, which is a nice change. I have washed the seat cover a handful of times (by itself, delicate cycle, cold water, and a little Tide...hang dry ((preferably INSIDE, the sun can bleach fabric if left out too long))) and so far it has held up very well. -Installation. 5+++ stars . This seat was a breeze to install. The top anchor is the stereotypical metal clip you find on most carseats...super easy to attach. And I LOVE the sureLatch clips... you literally just press and click and its done. I never want to go back to fishing and digging around in my seat crevices for the bottom anchor with the metal hooks again! I have never gotten a carseat put in that quickly! The seat reclining mechanism is very smooth; not choppy or sluggish at all like my Graco tends to be. When I came back inside after putting the seat in my husband's car, he looked up and said, 'You're done already? That was fast!' -Sizing. 5 stars. The infant insert (we did not use this as my daughter is 2) was easy to take off/put on and seems to sit securely in the seat. The fact alone that you do not have to disassemble this seat into two dozen pieces to resize the straps is enough reason for me to give this seat 5 stars. To raise or lower the straps you simply have to pull them up or down...which is the simplest and quickest I have yet encountered. What I really like though is that the straps and the headrest can be moved independently of one another. To adjust the headrest you simply squeeze the red handle at the top of the seat to raise or lower it to fit your child. With my Graco Milestone, you raise/lower the headrest the same way, however the straps are attached to the headrest in such a way that it can be difficult to get both the headrest and straps an even and comfortable distance apart. An interesting feature that this seat has that none of my previous ones have had is that when you pull the bottom strap to tighten the seat belts, the belts tighten from the bottom instead of the top. -Features. 4.5 stars. I like that this seat has TWO cupholders instead of one. It is also neat that the cupholders are part elastic, which lends itself to holding a large range of different cup sizes. It also works awesome for cups with handles that tend to sit crooked in normal cupholders. It also makes the cupholders 1000000x easier to clean out and wipe down. The elastic seems very firm and well done, my only concern is if we do end up keeping this seat until my daughter is 110 pounds (she's 26lb currently), that the elastic might stretch out and relax over time and would render the cupholders almost useless. Another neat feature is the seat belt straps have little positioning notes on them to help ensure proper carseat safety. This is especially helpful if my mom or a babysitter takes my kids somewhere...if you are not used to making sure the belts are correctly positioned you tend to forget. Its a nice reminder. AND. Probably the most unique feature of all is the buckle storage. This is something I have not seen on other seats, and I gotta say, its small but its awesome. Especially if you have a supremely wiggly, hates the car in general, toddler. THere are little slits on each side of the seat that allow you to tuck the bottom seat clips into them, which hold the straps out of the way for when you place the child back in the seat. This may seem like a small, insignificant thing, but if you think that, your child has obviously not perfected the alligator death roll to get out of the seat before you can fish the straps out from under them and get them buckled. All told, I LOVE this seat...like I said, I'm so happy with it that I just might make this our primary seat and let my husband have the Graco. I will be honest, I've always kinda viewed Evenflo as a sort of 'cheap brand' that made not super great quality products, but the seat has made a convert out of me. I love it.