Unlike the Extend2Fit Convertible, the Extend2Fit 3-in-1 converts to a high-back booster seat. In order to switch over to booster mode, your child must be at least 40 pounds and 43 inches tall, and have the emotional maturity to maintain correct posture while in the seat. To turn the Extend2Fit 3-in-1 from a five-point harness seat into a booster seat, you remove the bottom crotch buckle strap, move the harness straps behind the padding, and stow away the buckles in a compartment behind the padding. Removing that lower buckle is harder than it sounds; it can take several minutes of maneuvering to guide it out of its tight slot. This is not a flaw that’s particular to this seat—we’ve found readjusting crotch buckles to be a nuisance on plenty of other car seats—and you’re unlikely to be changing from convertible to booster mode all that often. With any car seat, it’s important to follow the height and weight restrictions for that particular model.
But it likely won’t make you shudder when you see it in the back of your car. It comes in several color combinations—mostly subdued variations on gray, black, and white, but turquoise and pink make an appearance, too. The seat padding doesn’t feel quite as cushiony to the touch as padding on our other, more expensive picks (which add more foam between your child’s tush and the hard seat). The Extend2Fit Convertible’s harness is easy to tighten around your child—you just pull on the strap located at the front end of the seat, so a snug fit can be achieved without a struggle.
Thankfully, the entire seat cover can be removed (video), machine-washed, and drip-dried. (Depending on which fabric option you choose, some of the Clek and Britax fabrics require hand-washing only.) Machine-washing the Extend2Fit Convertible’s cover improved the appearance of the peanut butter stain but didn’t erase it completely. The light gray color of our test model didn’t do much to help hide the stain, either; for this seat, solid black is probably a better bet. The fabric on the Extend2Fit Convertible is not the smoothest or the softest—we prefer the material on our runner-up Britax Boulevard ClickTight and our also-great Clek Foonf picks. The Extend2Fit Convertible’s fabric feels a bit like that of a wetsuit, slightly nubby and rough.
Even though the fabric isn’t as stain resistant as we’d like (consider going with a dark color), the cover is machine washable. As the name implies, a convertible car seat is designed to evolve as your child grows. Once you transition to the convertible seat, you’ll start out with a baby or toddler sitting in it rear-facing and eventually end up with a much bigger kid riding in it forward-facing. Whatever seat you choose, we’ve also included plenty of helpful tips on how to navigate the road ahead. The term convertible refers to the fact that this type of car seat can be installed either rear-facing or forward-facing, whereas infant seats are meant to be installed facing the rear only. Although the laws vary, many states require that a kid remain in a car seat with a five-point harness—which all infant seats and convertible seats have—until they’re at least 40 pounds or 4 years old.
The chest clip pinch release is on the left shoulder strap and is easy to use; while not in the usual location, it didn’t hinder the process. From a value standpoint, it can be hard to justify spending over $500 on a car seat when there are great alternatives that cost about half as much—including our top pick, the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible. And it’s irritating that if you do decide to shell out half a grand on a Foonf, you’d still have to buy a cupholder. Even though the ClickTight system is easy to use—and we have yet to hear anyone say otherwise—it’s not perfect. When the seat bottom is open, it doesn’t always stay fully propped open on its own; one mom with a large SUV complained that the seat lid kept falling on her head as she was trying to do the install. And getting the lid of the seat to close completely can take a few hard pushes—although when it does close, it gives a substantial click, so there’s no question as to whether the task has been completed.
There are a few third-party websites that claim to offer objective crash test data that compares car seats. But we at Safe in the Seat ignore that data for a few big reasons. First of all, third-party car seat crash tests don’t actually give us meaningful data! Car seat manufacturers crash-test their products hundreds, even upwards of a thousand times. They crash test the finished product in every single installation configuration using every applicable-sized crash test dummy, not to mention a whole lot of testing at each stage of the development process too.
The Boulevard can be used in the rear-facing position for kids up to 40 pounds (the size of a typical 4-year-old, and an average rear-facing weight limit for a convertible car seat). But we think it could be difficult, in practice, to actually keep a kid rear-facing in the Boulevard for that long. Unlike with our other convertible picks, with the Boulevard the design of the seat itself doesn’t really accommodate graco turbobooster larger kids in the rear-facing position. Our top pick, the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible, has a pull-out extension panel to create extra legroom. Our also-great pick, the Clek Foonf, reclines in the rear-facing position to create more space, and it has narrow, upright sides that help accommodate a larger rear-facing child. But the Boulevard’s flared, thick sides seem to provide less room for a child’s legs.
And unlike our main picks, which have a forward-facing weight limit of 65 pounds, the Scenera Next’s weight limit is 40 pounds in both forward- and rear-facing mode, which means you can’t use it for nearly as long. Installing the Foonf in the rear-facing position can be a bit intimidating for a first-timer. Unlike most other convertible car seats, the Foonf comes with a rear-facing base; it’s a wedge-shaped graco convertible car seat piece that must be attached to the bottom of the seat to create a proper angle for installing the seat in rear-facing mode. It also has an anti-rebound bar, an added safety feature for use in rear-facing mode (only) that—in the case of a frontal crash—can help minimize the amount the seat rebounds after the initial impact. The anti-rebound bar is a separate metal piece that hooks into the foot of the seat.
Since the panel can increase the Extend2Fit’s footprint quite a bit, Graco allows 20% front to back overhang. Rather than make caregivers guess about what 20% of the base may be, they’ve kindly included graco turbobooster 2 labels on the side of the Extend2Fit’s base — one for forward facing and one for rear facing. The inserts that came with the seat are thick and easy to use at the head and under the bum.