Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did not buy this seat from Amazon but thought I should review it since there are no reviews yet and Amazon is the product review capitol of the world. I've owned this seat for a little over a month now and so far I like it. Considering your little one can rear face up to 4 years of age in this seat it is well worth the price and Chicco makes great products in my opinion. Pros: - The latch system is great, you don't need to use a ton of force to get a tight install. My husband installed this seat in 5 minutes. - The recline system is awesome. There are 9 different recline levels, and the seat has a bubble level that will tell you which reclines are appropriate for rear and forward facing. This is so much better than that stupid line on some car seats that just say "this line needs to be level with the ground". Also, you have recline options for baby's comfort. I have my 10 month old on recline 1 which seems very close to the recline of an infant bucket seat. I did this because I thought it would be easier for him to fall asleep in the car. When he seems like he wants to be more upright I will try recline 2 or 3. The different recline options also make this car seat able to fit into a variety of cars properly. I can't imagine anyone having to use a rolled up towel, or pool noodle to get a proper fit in their car with this seat. - The padding and plastic shell seem very protective. There are protective head wings, but they aren't so huge that the baby can't see out of the sides of the car seat. - The harness is no re-thread...you just need to move the headreast up and the straps will automatically adjust. Cons: - The harness is a bit difficult to tighten and I have trouble adjusting the headrest. I've been told that over time the harness gets easier to work with...it needs to be broken in so to speak. - The harness tends to twist at the crotch buckles, this is extremely annoying when you have a baby that doesn't love being strapped down into a car seat. - The material of the car seat seems like it will get hot in the summer. I live in New England so it's not hot enough yet to tell for sure. - My biggest problem with the seat...the god awful shoulder pads that can't be removed. This seat comes with enormous shoulder pads that must be used with the seat. The problems I have with these pads are: the bottoms of the pads are made with a sticky rough rubber like material which can't be that comfortable. They leave red marks on my sons neck. They sometimes catch the chest clip while I'm tightening the harness further complicating things. Also, in order to make sure your baby is secured properly you need to make sure you cannot pinch any slack in the harness at the shoulders, well guess what...giant shoulder pads cover my sons entire shoulder. The pads actually go from the chest clip (if positioned properly at arm pit level) to the back of the car seat. I find myself using the old 1 finger under the collar bone method and basically guessing if the harness seems tight enough. I belive the rubber under the pads is an anti - ejection safety feature but I think this seat would be fine without it. In summary, I think the pros outweigh the cons. The shoulder pads are the only thing I really don't care for. I ended up buying two of these seats. A lot of people claim that car seat brand A is safer than car seat brand B and so on but in reality, all seats sold in the Unites States go through the same safety tests. This 300 dollar seat is no safer than a 40 dollar convertible seat you can get at walmart. The difference in price is looks, padding, harness weight and height limits (rear facing), and ease of installation. With that said the safest car seats are the ones that are installed properly and used properly everytime. Chicco hit the nail on the head with a seat that is fool proof to use and install in a variety of vehicles.