So the most effective strategy for keeping your kids safe on the road is to choose a car seat that works well for your family—and to use it correctly. “The best car seat is the one that fits your kid, fits your car, and is used properly on every trip,” Maltese said. For the first version of this guide, published in 2018, we elected to perform independent crash testing on the convertible car seats we considered to be our top contenders. We commissioned Calspan, an independent lab in Buffalo, New York, to conduct the tests. But for the purposes of this guide, we didn’t intentionally seek out lightweight seats.
If you need a very lightweight convertible car seat for travel, we recommend the no-frills, 6.8-pound Cosco Scenera Next, the top convertible-seat pick in our guide to the best travel car seats. My favorite features are the extension panel, the no re-thread harness, and the high rear-facing weight limit. I also think it’s amazing that you can use this car seat from birth until your child needs a booster and you can’t beat the price graco car seat for the quality and the amount of time you’ll be using it. I used the InRight LATCH System when installing the Extend2Fit 3-in-1 Car Seat and it was very simple. It was so easy to get the latch clips attached and removed with their seatbelt-like button feature. Tightening the latch belt took a little muscle but I was able to secure it so that the seat didn’t move more than one inch in any direction from the connection points.
“For some kids who get queasy, sitting in a C-shaped seat isn’t great because it puts pressure on the stomach,” said CPST Lani Harrison. However, we found the Radian 3QXT more difficult to install than other seats we tested; it requires a lot of physical effort to get a snug install. And unlike any other seat we tested, the 3QXT is so top-heavy that it can’t sit upright on its own. So if you need to uninstall it to change the SafeStop or to remove the seat cover, you have to prop it up against something.
Once the lid of the seat is off, you can position the Foonf on the vehicle seat at the correct angle—there’s a diagram on the side of the seat to guide you, based on your child’s age and weight. After careful consideration and consultation with experts, we reached the decision that field testing alone, without crash testing, should dictate our picks within this guide. If anything, our research has confirmed that caregivers can take comfort in knowing that most car seats do their jobs very well. “Five-point harness child restraint seats are highly effective in reducing the chances of injury and death,” Maltese explained.
But given the ease of the LATCH install—and the seat’s unusually high LATCH weight limits—for the majority of people, manually locking off the seat belt is a nuisance that can be avoided. Still, if you need or want to install this seat frequently using the seat belt method only, then it’s something to consider. Many states also require children under a year old to ride rear-facing in their car seat, and increasingly state laws require kids to stay rear-facing graco turbobooster up to the age of 2 (though longer is better). Both the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (PDF) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children stay rear-facing for as long as possible. That is, “until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat manufacturer,” according to the AAP. The British Medical Journal concluded in 2009 that a child is safer riding rear-facing until they’re 4 years old.
A tensioner or lock-off might have made this all easier, but it wasn’t tricky and felt stable. Safety experts generally agree that it is better to stay rear-facing longer, as is staying in a seat with a five-point harness for as long as possible before switching to a seat belt–dependent booster seat. We think the trade-offs and inconveniences of keeping your child rear-facing for as long as possible—ideally until your child reaches their seat’s rear-facing height or weight limit—are worth it for the added graco car seat safety and security. While all models allow you to remove the infant insert for washing, others let you remove and wash all fabric parts — a significant benefit if you plan to use your car seat from birth through early childhood. We love that the Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 car seat complies with all Federal Aviation Administration guidelines and can be used on an airplane in the rear or forward-facing positions with the five-point harness. The seat also has a convenient sticker outlining correct airplane use.