Recarro ProRide vs. Gracco Size 4 Me vs. Other

PBear93

I'm looking at buying a convertable seat soon and am thinking about getting either the Recarro ProRide or the Gracco Size 4 Me.  Anyone have any opinions or experience with either?  Anyone prefer something else in that price range (under $300, pref under $250)?

TIA 

penguingrrl

Out of those two I would absolutely take the graco size4me over the recaro. The recaro has very little rear facing room so your child will need/want to turn forward facing earlier than they should. Same with all the current models of britax convertible seats (and the britax seats are doubly bad because they have incredibly short shells so they're outgrown sooner). Diono radians are on sale at albeebaby.com for $175 so that would be another I would very strongly recommend looking at (they're my personal favorite seat, a few quirks but very tall shell and narrow so they don't take as much space as others). I believe the  size4me has the tallest shell of any convertible on the market, so in many ways it wins hands down with me since kids generally outgrow seats for height light years before reaching weight limits and the height of the shell is usually the determining factor for when a seat is outgrown rear facing.

PBear93

Do you think that if we splurged for the Clerk Foonf, we wouldn't need another car seat until we needed a booster?

penguingrrl

You most definitely wouldn't need another seat before a booster with a foonf! The same can be said with a radian and a size4me. You would almost definitely need another with a britax unless your child is incredibly short torsoed.

SewSewBlessed

I love our Recaro and from wht I can tell, so does DS!

CaniacMom

We love our Recarro ProRides (DH & I both have them in our cars).  DS will be 2 in 3 days and we still have no problem with him about getting in the car rear-facing.  I love the wings around the head - if I could fit in it I would sit in it for long car trips.  It looks comfortable.

Angela814

PBear93:

Do you think that if we splurged for the Clerk Foonf, we wouldn't need another car seat until we needed a booster?

According to the measurements on Clek's website, DD1 would have been able to rear face to 5 years and then go straight to a HBB. She is 99th percentile for height and 75th for weight. At 5 years she was almost 46" and 44 lbs.

With the Graco Size4Me, she would have made it to 4 years rfing only because there is a 40 lb rfing weight limit. She would have been able to ff harnessed to booster age.

They both sound like great seats. I'm planning to buy the Graco to keep DD2 rfing longer, probably to 4 years. The Foonf would be awesome, but we can't justify the cost.

cambria7707

I just posted in another thread but we recently returned the Graco size 4 me because I could not get it tight on DS without really hurting my wrist. Since the tightening strap is right up against the seat, you have to pull it straight up. Pulling it straight up like locks the mechanism. The only way to do it is to pull it out and up but it is really, really hard to get it tight enough. I loved everything else about the seat though.