Expensive vs. Cheaper car seats

jacobsjn · July 2014

I have been researching car seats for about a month now and I feel as if I am still stuck.

I am going back and forth between the Nuna Pipa and the Uppababy Mesa..I like alot of the features these car seats offer and they seem to have been rated well on the safety standards. However, I just do not know whether it is justifiable when the Britax B-Safe is rated one of the best and is much cheaper. Do any moms have experience with the more expensive car seats, are they worth it or should I stick with a standard car seat?

Any opinions/advice is welcome.

LittleApple · July 2014

I think a standard infant seat is all you need. Anything over $150 is crazy IMO. They all pass the same safety standards and since you use the infant seat for such a short period of time, it seems like a waste.

ebp913 · July 2014

I am a car seat tech. Truly, all seats sold on the market are safe when used properly. It's up to you to decide if some of the features found in more expensive seats are worth it to you or not. The B-Safe is a great seat. My kids have all ridden in a Chicco Keyfit that I adore. I would love to try the Aton Q or Pipa but ultimately it just didn't make sense to buy something new when I have a perfectly good infant seat at home.

From a purely personal opinion, I think spending so much on an infant seat that often is used for 6-12 months is a bit silly. I'd get a more economical seat and save that money for a great convertible seat. You'll use a convertible for 3-5 years most likely so it makes more sense to me to spend more money there than on a seat with a much shorter time of use.

chicagobride_07 · July 2014

We only used the infant seat for around 4 to 5 months, and I had a preemie. IMO, I would not spend the money for the mesa even though I have an uppa baby stroller. We had the chicco key fit which is still pricey,,but definitely less expensive than the mesa.

2ndGeneration · July 2014

You also need to take into consideration what fits best in your car. I always used Graco seats with my older kids, but found the infant seats don't fit in my Jeep I have now! So I will be getting the more expensive Chicco Keyfit.

jacobsjn · July 2014

Awesome, thank you everyone! Seriously, so many things I never even though to consider.. especially the time in the car seat.. for some reason I thought they would be in an infant car seat for a lot longer then you all mentioned. Also, that is great advice about finding one to fit in my car. I think I would rather splurge on something else they could use longer.. such a stroller instead.

kmc84 · July 2014

FWIW, the b safe will get most babies to 1 year

You can always switch sooner, and some older babies just prefer the angle of a convertible rather than the more reclined infant seat.

ebp913 · July 2014

jacobsjn said:

Awesome, thank you everyone! Seriously, so many things I never even though to consider.. especially the time in the car seat.. for some reason I thought they would be in an infant car seat for a lot longer then you all mentioned. Also, that is great advice about finding one to fit in my car. I think I would rather splurge on something else they could use longer.. such a stroller instead.

Agree on the stroller! You'll use that MUCH longer than you use an infant seat. My kids all lasted in the Keyfit until 12 months or so but bigger kids may outgrow it sooner. It just depends!

KikiCohen · August 2014

emmyg65 said:

All car seats pass the same stringent safety requirements. More expensive ones might be more attractive or have more bells and whistles, but they're not safer for you baby.

This. We chose a Chicco seat over a Graco seat b/c we liked the feel of the padding better. I'm sure either one would have been fine; it was just a matter of our preference.

rh10264706 · August 2014

I have the uppababy Mesa and love it. I switched my baby to a convertible at 7.5 months even thought he wasn't anywhere near the limits. I agree with others, if you are going to splurge on one item, pick something you will use much longer.

Meether · August 2014

I spoke to a tech yesterday and she said car seats all pass a minimum requirement. Some of the more expensive seats like the clek and cybex have added features like the anti rebound bars. The cybex and orbit baby have fully foam lined seats. The cybex has these side snaps that are an added safety feature, and it along with a peg perego has extra head protection. We really liked the cybex Aton q for the extra features and feel that it's worth the extra splurge given that a car accident is so unprecedented and we would like to be prepared. We won't pay extra for a brand or how it looks, but for above minimum requirement features, we will.

Eyeage · August 2014

We registered for (and received) the graco 35 click connect. Her sister bought it for us with the stroller for $239 on amazon. We seriously love this thing. It's light enough, and in and out of the car is great. Works awesome with the stroller as well. Overall, we're quite pleased.

FmrAFBrat · August 2014

@Meether‌ several of the lesser expensive seats have fully foam lined seats and some even have extra head protection. I can think of 4 in particular & I have 1 of them. I used it with 2 kids too. Save your money for a great stroller and convertible seats in each car you use.

fsumom · August 2014

I had the B-Safe and it was fine but heavy and took up too much back to front space in our small car. When I was rear-ended, I decided to get the Cybex Aton 2 which is pricey but also the smallest infant seat when measuring front to back. It fits behind the driver's seat in my car and my seat can be pushed back all the way if needed. I love it and can definitely see why it's more than the Britax. Some infant seats have additional safety features like a load leg and linear side impact protection.

Meether · August 2014

FmrAFBrat said:

@Meether‌ several of the lesser expensive seats have fully foam lined seats and some even have extra head protection. I can think of 4 in particular & I have 1 of them. I used it with 2 kids too. Save your money for a great stroller and convertible seats in each car you use.

My dd has a clek foonf, and britax pinnacle in our cars and a britax advocate at the in laws, and an orbit baby toddler seat at my parents. We are looking at infant seats for dd2, and to keep up with things that have changed since having dd1. My friend's daughter died from brain damage in a car accident at 14 mos (no one else died/ seriously injured/ she was RF), so additional safety in car seats is something that we take seriously. We've been talking to different "experts" about the various features and extras over and over before we decide... And all have recommended getting more than the minimum (which is what all car seats meet).

dogperson11 · August 2014

Meether said:

FmrAFBrat said:

@Meether‌ several of the lesser expensive seats have fully foam lined seats and some even have extra head protection. I can think of 4 in particular & I have 1 of them. I used it with 2 kids too. Save your money for a great stroller and convertible seats in each car you use.

My dd has a clek foonf, and britax pinnacle in our cars and a britax advocate at the in laws, and an orbit baby toddler seat at my parents. We are looking at infant seats for dd2, and to keep up with things that have changed since having dd1. My friend's daughter died from brain damage in a car accident at 14 mos (no one else died/ seriously injured/ she was RF), so additional safety in car seats is something that we take seriously. We've been talking to different "experts" about the various features and extras over and over before we decide... And all have recommended getting more than the minimum (which is what all car seats meet).

----------

That's awful about your friends daughter.

Unfortunately no one knows which seats exceed the minimum safety standards better then another seat because it's not published information.

ASmallWonder · August 2014

That's so sad about that baby

Unfortunately, there's no proof that anything more is any better. The risk of injury to a child in an appropriate child restraint is less than 1%. There will be children injured despite the best efforts of the parents, sadly, but there is just no proof that what some manufacturers have added makes any difference at all. Think of it like water. Company A filters their water 100 times and it passes all the particle regulations. Company B tells you "We filter ours more than our competitor for $5 extra a bottle!" They may filter theirs 101 times and because it's completely untested, their levels may be identical to Company A.

AKB090609 · August 2014

Honestly if I could do it all over again I would skip the infant seat all together and go directly into a Diono, Chicco NextFit or Graco 4Ever. Especially for a baby born between May and August, as it is we have DD2 in the b safe we got for our first and have only taken it out of the car twice in 5 weeks.

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