Best All in One Convertible Car Seat 2016

1. Baby & Kid
2. Baby

The Best Convertible Car Seats

By

Rebecca Gale

Published March 16, 2018

Photo: Rozette Rago

After 20 hours of research, including testing nine popular convertible car seats at home and crash-testing six finalists in a top lab to measure their side-impact performance, we think the Britax Marathon ClickTight is the best one for most families. It is by far the easiest convertible car seat to install and has excellent safety ratings, including the best scores in the independent lab tests we commissioned specifically for this guide. And no matter what convertible car seat you choose, we have some tips on how best to install and use it.

Our pick

The Britax Marathon ClickTight performed better than any other seat in our side-impact crash-testing, earns excellent safety scores in government front-impact tests, and is significantly less frustrating to install than any other convertible car seat we've ever used. Britax's innovative ClickTight installation system relies on a car's seat belt instead of a car's built-in LATCH system, meaning there's no fishing between seat cushions to locate sometimes hard-to-find hardware, and little muscle—or sweat—required to get a quick and secure install. It also has easy-to-adjust straps, and, like most seats of this type, can be used in the rear-facing installation up to 40 pounds, which is well past 2 years old for the vast majority of kids. It doesn't have a built-in cupholder, though.

Runner-up

The Graco Extend2Fit performed second to the Britax in our crash-testing. It's not nearly as easy to install as the Britax ClickTight system, but our testers were able to achieve a sufficiently tight installation without too much difficulty. At 22 pounds, the Graco seat is lighter than the Britax's 28.4 pounds, which means the Graco is slightly easier to move around. It also has a much higher rear-facing weight limit than the Britax Marathon ClickTight—50 pounds versus 40—meaning you can keep an older kid in a rear-facing position for considerably longer in this seat if that's what you choose. And, unlike the Britax, the Graco seat has not just one but two built-in cupholders.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

Runner-up

Why you should trust us

I interviewed 16 industry experts, safety authorities, and physicians while researching this guide, asking them to detail the most important safety and usability considerations for convertible car seats. Among them were certified Child Passenger Safety technicians such as Lani Harrison, a seasoned tech in Los Angeles who installs more than 300 car seats each year; car seat safety advocates such as Dr. Benjamin Hoffman, who spearheaded Oregon's "rear-facing until 2" rule, which became law in May 2017 (Hoffman is also an unpaid consultant for car seat maker Chicco); and leaders of organizations that have argued both for and against a proposed federal side-impact standard. I talked to Bill Horn, head sled testing engineer at Calspan, one of the country's top crash-testing facilities, as well as Miriam Mannary, who supervises sled impact evaluation of child restraints at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute, one of the top transportation research organizations in the country.

During the course of working on this story, I became a certified Child Passenger Safety technician myself, participating in a 40-hour training program through the Safe Kids Worldwide organization in Carroll County, Maryland. During the class, I spoke at length with the CPS technicians who run the certification courses about car seat safety and best practices, and I personally installed more than 15 different seats.

I also interviewed representatives from six leading car seat manufacturers, including CEOs, product managers, engineers, and safety technicians from Britax, Chicco, Graco, and Diono. I talked to dozens of parents about their car seat experiences, scanned hundreds of Amazon reviews, and read articles from reputable sites such as Consumer Reports, BabyGearLab, and Car Seats for the Littles before recruiting five Maryland families (in addition to my own) to try a variety of convertible car seats over a period of several months.

Once we had identified the seats that performed best during real-world commutes, tantrums, and potty training accidents, we commissioned Calspan, a Buffalo, New York, laboratory that runs much of the car seat crash-testing in the country, to run tests specifically for this story. We'd examined available government crash test data, but since that is limited to front-impact crash tests we decided to focus on side-impact testing, subjecting six convertible car seats—and a 3-year-old dummy—to side-impact crash tests with both forward-facing and rear-facing installs.

After working for almost a decade on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Commerce, I'm intimately familiar with government rules and regulations of the type that affect car seat safety. My reporting on policy and parenting has appeared in outlets including Slate, The Washington Post, Health Affairs, and Marie Claire. My older son, now 4½, just started riding forward-facing in his convertible car seat.

Who should get this

Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

All parents with young kids need to have them buckled into a car seat every time they are on the road. Most families will start with a dedicated infant seat (which we recommend) and move on to a convertible model sometime between 9 months and 2 years, depending on the size of the child and the type of seat(s) used. Most states require a kid up to 40 pounds or 4 years old to be in a car seat with a five-point harness, meaning that most families will get at least two to three years of use out of a convertible car seat before moving on to a booster seat, which uses just the car's seat belt as a constraint.

The name convertible refers to the fact that the seat can be installed rear-facing or forward-facing, whereas infant seats are meant to be installed only facing to the rear. Most states require children under a year old to ride rear-facing, and increasingly state law requires rear-facing for kids up to 2.

In fact, in the past year alone six states have adopted new rear-facing laws (nine states now have laws requiring it). The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recommends that children stay rear-facing as long as possible (and not move to a booster seat until they have outgrown the weight and height requirements on their forward-facing convertible car seat). Since 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended waiting to consider turning a child around until age 2, and the British Medical Journal concluded in 2009 that a child is safer riding rear-facing until 4 years old. That's because when a child is facing to the rear, the impact of a frontal crash is absorbed primarily by their back, which is cocooned against the seat. If they're facing forward, a frontal crash is going to propel their body forward from the seat, with the strain absorbed by the head, neck, and spine. In Sweden, a country with a notably low car fatality and injury rate, kids typically sit rear-facing until 4 years old.

All the research we've conducted for this guide and for our guide to infant car seats leads us to the conclusion that best practice is to move a child from an infant car seat to a rear-facing convertible, and stay with a rear-facing seat until the child reaches the seat's height or weight limit for rear-facing installation (which is generally different and lower than the limits for the same seat while front-facing). We recognize that this is not always easy to do and some parents are eager to move their child to a front-facing seat—either because it's easier to see the child or hand them things from the front seat this way, because they believe it reduces the risk of car sickness, and/or because their child simply prefers it. Still, we think it's worth some inconvenience for the added safety of keeping your child rear-facing to a minimum of 2 years old—and ideally longer—even if you don't live in a state that currently requires it.

Once you turn a convertible car seat around, your child can stay in it until they outgrow the weight or height limit, or until they're 5, when they can generally sit upright in a booster seat without slouching. "At age 5, the skeleton has matured enough that it can withstand the force from the three points of the seat belt rather than the five points of the harness. Also, age 5 is the beginning of when they might have the maturity to be able to sit still," said Child Passenger Safety technician Lani Harrison. A booster seat uses the regular lap-and-shoulder seat belt rather than a five-point harness, and requires the belt to lay flat to work effectively, which is why it's not a good choice for a wriggly kid who can't yet stay still and calm in the car.

A final consideration: Many convertible seats come with infant inserts and offer low weight limits, such as 5 pounds, indicating that they are suitable for newborns or young babies. Though some convertible seats are advertised as appropriate for newborns, they often are not, either because the seat is too upright at its most reclined or because the straps do not reach low enough for a small baby, CSP technician Harrison told us. We recommend starting with an infant car seat, which also offers click-in, click-out convenience and stroller compatibility that can be helpful when you have a newborn. If you do want a single seat to use from newborn through kindergarten age, Harrison has a few suggestions. Since we think a dedicated infant seat makes more sense for most families, we didn't focus on finding an all-in-one seat for this guide.

How we picked

Photo: Rebecca Gale

We began by examining online customer reviews and existing media coverage, including by Consumer Reports (subscription required), BabyGearLab, Car Seats for the Littles, and The Car Seat Lady. That left us with a list of 30 convertible car seats to consider. We spoke with experts on car seat safety, policy, and installation, and looked closely at the results of government testing conducted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA), the federal agency charged with road safety, as well as at the findings of Consumer Reports and BabyGearLab, the two other media outlets that have conducted independent laboratory crash-testing of car seats.

We found that several seats on our list had newly updated models available. Whenever possible we chose to test models that had been available for at least a year, to establish a more solid history of user reviews. But when a model was retiring, we went with the replacement, even when some of the old seats were still available for sale.

Our 15 total hours of background research plus 40 hours of CPST class time led us to conclude that the ideal convertible car seat should be:

Among the safest seats available. We relied on the frontal crash-testing data from NHTSA, and also took into account crash-test results from Consumer Reports and BabyGearLab, to help narrow down our initial list of 30 seats. All car seats sold in the US are self-certified by their manufacturers to pass strict NHTSA standards (PDF) for safety testing. The agency doesn't independently test seats before they are first sold, but instead conducts what it terms "safety compliance testing" of multiple seats each year and makes its database of results available, though finding and interpreting results for individual seats takes some digging. BabyGearLab tested to NHTSA standards for front impact; Consumer Reports modified the NHTSA standards (PDF) to conduct crash tests at a slightly higher speed. Since car seats are not required to be certified before sale, several of the seats included in our at-home testing did not yet have government crash-test data, which limited our ability to compare results systematically. We conducted our own side-impact crash tests to help determine the relative safety of our finalist seats.

Simple to install. Most parents will tell you that the most frustrating thing about dealing with car seats is the installation, and the experts we interviewed said that proper installation is the most common barrier to car seat safety. We decided that an intuitive installation system trumps a well-crafted set of directions—as any parent rushing to install a car seat into an unfamiliar rental car can attest—and that a good car seat must be easy to install correctly, both with and without a LATCH system, so that a diligent adult following directions can manage a correct installation within a few minutes without expert assistance. (LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, a system that allows you to install a car seat with metal clips that attach to hooks built into the car, forgoing the lap belt. All cars and car seats manufactured after Sept 1, 2002, include the LATCH option.) Unlike an infant seat that can rely exclusively on LATCH if you choose, most convertibles will require a seat belt installation when a child hits 40 pounds, as the LATCH system is not designed to hold a child in past that weight.

Designed for extended rear-facing use. Both NHTSA and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that a child ride rear-facing until they reach the height and weight limit of the seat. We ideally wanted a seat with relatively high height and weight limits for a rear install, so that parents have the option of keeping kids in a safer position longer, and also took into account design features that would make the ride more comfortable for older kids.

Easy to use. Are the straps simple to adjust to get a snug but comfortable fit in the five-point harness? Are the buckles easy for parents to clip and unclip but difficult to impossible for toddlers to mess with? Is it easy enough to get a child in and out of the seat quickly? We considered the experience of both parents and kids in using the seats, as well as how easy each seat was to clean.

Using the above criteria, we narrowed our original list of 30 down to nine top convertible car seats:

• Chicco NextFit iX (and Zip)
• Britax Marathon ClickTight
• Graco Extend2Fit
• Evenflo Stratos
• Evenflo Tribute LX
• Clek Foonf
• Clek Fllo
• Cosco Scenera Next
• Diono Radian RXT

A note: Though the size of a seat can be important to some families, especially for those who have smaller cars, who move their car seats in and out of different vehicles often and don't want something too burdensome, or who are trying to fit three across in a back row, we didn't consider smaller or lighter seats to be inherently better. If having a very lightweight seat is important to you you may want to consider the Cosco Scenera Next, which is particularly good for travel. If you are looking to fit three across in a back seat, the Diono Radian or Clek Fllo may be your best choice. The Car Seat lady offers some tips for fitting three across, as does Car Seats for the Littles.

How we tested

Photo: Kevin Purdy

Like most parents, we began with installation. I found that seats that provide a seat belt lockoff (a manual locking mechanism on the car seat designed to hold the seat belt tightly in place) are much easier to install than those that don't. For LATCH installation, push-button latches are slightly easier to install than hook latches; though both are easy to clip in, hook latches are slightly harder to unclip. I found that the heaviest seats are hard to maneuver and thus difficult to install. Unlike an infant seat, where the base and seat can be separated for install, convertible seats are a single piece, and typically weigh 20 to 30 pounds, though the heaviest seat we tested was a back-breaking 38 pounds.

We had five families, including my own, try out two to six seats. Each family was interviewed about ease of installation, how difficult it was to get a child in and out of each seat—unlike smaller, usually more-compliant infants, toddlers can be challenging to manipulate into car seats—and how easy it was to adjust the straps and find the right fit. We also gathered feedback on fabric, ease of cleaning, comfort, height, and the ability to fit with other car seats. Rather than creating our own messes, we were able to witness firsthand how easy it was to clean up after toddlers eating snacks in the car, or suffering potty-training accidents.

After subjecting the nine seats to the installation evaluations and user testing, we narrowed our list to the six seats that were the easiest to use and install and provided the most positive riding experience for our persnickety companions:

• Chicco NextFit iX
• Britax Marathon ClickTight
• Graco Extend2Fit
• Evenflo Stratos
• Cosco Scenera Next
• Diono Radian RXT

We decided that commissioning our own crash-testing, in addition to examining the available crash-test data, would help us make a confident recommendation. We knew that there was not NHTSA data available for several of the seats we tested. Of our finalist seats, NHTSA has only made crash data available for the Britax Marathon ClickTight and Diono Radian RXT. Data is also available for the Chicco NextFit, not the newer iX we tested, though a rep from Chicco told us that the seats are nearly structurally identical. The Graco Extend2Fit is a relatively new seat, with no NHTSA data yet available. NHTSA data does exist for the Cosco Scenera, but not the Cosco Scenera Next, and a spokesperson for the company told us that the two seats have different basic structures.

NHTSA data for car seat crash-testing is for front-impact crashes only. Federal authorities have been considering adding a side-impact test to their existing standards, and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which includes details of how such a test would be run, is awaiting action with NHTSA, though in the current anti-regulatory political environment the effort is not moving forward. NHTSA still does not have an administrator, and a source close to the agency that we interviewed for our guide to infant car seats told us the side-impact standard most likely won't be approved anytime soon.

The proposed US standards exist for side-impact crash-testing, though, and similar regulations have been in place in Europe and Australia for years. There is good reason to focus on side-impact safety standards. A 2003 study showed that side-impact crashes accounted for 40 percent of car-crash fatalities for children younger than 5. And there's reason to believe side-impact crashes will account for a greater share of serious crashes in the future. "We have a mix of more and less sophisticated systems sharing the road," said Miriam Manary, who supervises car-seat crash-testing at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. "The newer vehicles may be able to avoid crashing into other objects but will not always be able to escape being struck by older, less technologically advanced vehicles." According to Manary, the leading crash avoidance technologies will primarily help reduce frontal impact. "As the number of frontal crashes decreases, the percentage of crash events that are side impact will rise."

In a laboratory "sled test" a bench-style vehicle seat with a car seat installed is pushed down a track then abruptly stopped to simulate a car crash. A specialized dummy has multiple sensors that record the forces at impact. Photo: Kevin Purdy

We decided to commission Calspan—an independent lab in Buffalo, New York, that both government agencies and car seat manufacturers work with regularly—to test our six convertible car seat finalists to NHTSA's proposed side-impact standards. Since most parents will use a convertible seat both front-facing and rear-facing over the life of the seat, we commissioned the crash-testing for both seat directions.

Several key notes: The tests we commissioned through Calspan are not part of the current federal compliance standard. NHTSA sets the legal benchmarks for what constitutes a safe car seat, and all of the seats we tested are considered safe. Calspan conducted all of our tests at its Buffalo, New York, facility. While we paid all the fees associated with the tests and an employee from Wirecutter was there to observe the trials, only professionals from Calspan participated in the seat preparation, testing, and analysis. In all cases, we used brand-new seats delivered directly to the Buffalo facility and handled exclusively by Calspan staff. As is consistent with all crash-testing protocol, technicians manually dismantled and disposed of the seats following the tests.

A Calspan technician installed each seat to the testing bench, which then accelerated to between 19.2 and 20.2 mph before braking abruptly to simulate impact. All seats were installed using the LATCH system, except for the Britax Marathon ClickTight, for which the seat belt is the preferred installation method. Each crash test took only a fraction of a second and relied on a Q3s dummy, which is a mannequin the size of a 3-year-old child and designed specifically for side-impact crash-testing. There are three head-acceleration sensors and one chest displacement sensor connected to the interior of the dummy, and each test results in two metrics. The first, Head Injury Criterion (HIC), is a measurement of force on the dummy's head. The second, Chest Displacement, measures the number of millimeters the ribs push into the body cavity.

Testing results

When we tested infant car seats to NHTSA's proposed side-impact standard, all but one clearly passed. We expected similar results with convertible seats. That didn't happen. Rather than meeting the proposed side-impact standards like most of the infant seats did, every convertible seat we tested failed at least two of four metrics, some more. While we at Wirecutter were surprised by the results, the experienced technicians at Calspan were not. Seats are not required to meet those standards and are not currently designed to. The addition of side-impact protection can mean a bulkier, wider, and heavier seat, which Jessica Jermakian, a senior research engineer with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, cautioned isn't always more effective in furthering overall safety: "In order to meet those requirements for the bigger children, child-restraint manufacturers might decide to make [car seats] bigger and bulkier, which would make them more difficult for parents to fit in cars. So you might have this unintended consequence of turning kids forward-facing sooner."

In our tests, none of the six seats met the proposed standards for head impact, though our two picks came closest. As a group, the seats did better on chest displacement, which Bill Horn, the sled testing engineer, said was consistent with what he's seen when car seat companies have performed side-impact testing at his lab. All but one of the six seats we tested (the Cosco) met the chest-displacement guidelines when forward-facing, and all but one (the Diono) met the guidelines when rear-facing.

We hoped that our crash-testing might provide some insight into how the same seat performs in a side-impact collision when installed rear-facing versus forward-facing. We knew that rear-facing children are safer in front-impact crashes, but there was no publicly available data to show how rear- versus forward-facing seats fare in side-impact collisions. In the end, we didn't find a clear trend when using the 3-year-old dummy. A couple of our seats had better overall crash test results when rear-facing (Britax and Cosco), one forward-facing (Diono), and the others (Graco, Chicco, and Evenflo) about even.

Our pick: Britax Marathon ClickTight

Photo: Rozette Rago

Our pick

The Britax Marathon ClickTight fared better than any other seat in the side-impact crash-testing we commissioned specifically for this story, and it performed as well as or better than competitor seats in front-impact crash-testing carried out by NHTSA. It is also the easiest convertible car seat to install that I have ever come across. Britax's innovative ClickTight system allows you to easily tighten the seat belt to a perfect fit, eliminating the need to use behind-the-seat-cushion latches and drastically reducing the risk of user error in installation. But while the Britax is unsurpassed in safety and ease of installation—our two top criteria—it's not as good as some other seats, including our runner-up pick, for extended rear-facing use, and it lacks a cupholder.

In our side-impact tests with six top seats, the Britax earned the top score in the chest displacement assessment with both forward- and rear-facing installation, was in the top two for rear-facing head impact, and close to the mean of the competitive set for forward-facing head impact. The seat also scored well in front-impact crash tests conducted by NHTSA—the agency tests with dummies for 1-, 3-, and 6-year-olds—with notably strong Head Injury Criterion (HIC) scores.

Once you get the hang of it, installing the Britax seat with the ClickTight system, which relies on your seat belt, is generally much faster and easier than using your car's built-in latches. While a LATCH system install often requires tugging on straps and struggling to achieve a tight fit, we found that the ClickTight system gives a snug fit every time.

The seat also distinguishes itself with its innovative installation system, which relies on the 1.5-inch-diameter so-called ClickTight Key, located on the front of the seat. You turn the key clockwise and the seat bottom lifts up. You weave both the lap and shoulder belts through the slots, then push the seat bottom closed until it secures with a satisfying click. No squeezing your hand between possibly gunky seat cushions to find a hard-to-reach latch or suffering through sweat-inducing manual tightening as is so common with other seats.

As someone who has gone through the training to become a CPS technician, I've learned that understanding proper installation is a very different skill from actually accomplishing it. Getting the right install with many seats requires a great deal of muscle and maneuvering. Not the Britax. Nearly anyone, regardless of their experience with car seats, can be quickly taught to install it properly. That said, the ClickTight system will take a few minutes to understand, as the key and seat belt lockoff may be counterintuitive to parents familiar with a LATCH system. We think this video offers an easier tutorial than the diagrams in the seat's online instructions. "Once I saw how it worked, I loved it!" one of our at-home testers, a Maryland mom of two, said. "It's by far the easiest to install, and I would even trust grandparents to install it." At my CPST class, the Britax was a favorite for installation demos, as it was easy to consistently get a snug fit.

The Britax Marathon ClickTight has a no-rethread harness that makes it easy to adjust for shoulder height without taking anything apart. Photo: Rozette Rago

The seat fits kids up to 40 pounds rear-facing, the size of a typical 4-year-old, and a typical weight limit for convertible car seats. Its minimum weight for forward-facing is 20 pounds, and it fits to 65 pounds or 49 inches forward-facing; we found that a 7-year-old could even ride in it comfortably. It reclines to seven positions. That's more positioning options than most seats offer, though we don't think there's a huge difference between seven positions or two when it comes to kid comfort.

The Britax has a no-rethread harness, meaning that the placement of the shoulder straps can be easily adjusted in seconds, even with a kid in the seat. (Seats without a no-rethread harness require that you manually thread shoulder straps through higher slots as a child grows taller, which can be a pain.) It's also easy to adjust the tightness of the Britax's straps with a child in the seat, which is similarly important for making sure every ride is a safe one. It's essential to get a car seat tightly installed, but it's equally vital to get the child properly installed within the seat.

The Britax seat performed the best of the six seats we subjected to side-impact crash-testing.

Consumer Reports included the Britax Marathon ClickTight in a 2016 roundup of its top five convertible car seats (subscription required), and other outlets, including BabyGearLab and Baby Bargains, praise the ease of the ClickTight system, though they tested different ClickTight models.

The Britax is widely available in a variety of colors and patterns, ranging from purple to bright blue to polka dots and cow prints. The material is easy to clean, and for a thorough clean the seat cover can be removed and hand-washed in cold water (though Britax doesn't recommend machine washing, a Wirecutter editor who has owned the seat for over a year has machine-washed her cover without ill effect). The Marathon ClickTight weighs 28.4 pounds, more than many similar seats, but significantly less than the heaviest seat we tested. It comes with a one-year warranty and has a service life of 10 years.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Though most 2-year-olds will be well under the Britax's 40-pound weight limit for rear-facing, some other seats do have higher rear-facing weight limits. If you know you'll want to keep your child rear-facing until they're 4, for instance, you may be better off with our runner-up pick, which has a 50-pound weight limit for rear-facing. The Britax also has relatively high sides that mean the child sits farther back in the seat, making it harder to take them in and out when in a rear-facing position than in a seat with lower sides, like our runner-up pick.

Even though all of our testers found the ClickTight system easy to use, there were some complaints. When the seat bottom is open, it doesn't always stay open on its own, and one mom with a large SUV complained that it kept falling on her head when she tried to install it. It can take a few hard pushes to close properly, though when it does close, it gives a satisfying click so there is no question as to whether or not it is properly installed.

At 28.4 pounds, the Britax is bulkier and heavier than many competitor seats—one of our testers noted that it wouldn't be great for plane travel. It also doesn't come with a cupholder, though parents who want a cupholder within a toddler's reach can buy a dishwasher-safe add-on for $15 (though users complain it pops off easily). If having an included cupholder is something you consider crucial in a car seat, you should check out our runner-up pick, which has two.

Runner-up: Graco Extend2Fit

Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Runner-up

The Graco Extend2Fit performed second to the Britax seat in our side-impact crash-testing, is reasonably easy to install and adjust—though nowhere near as easy as the Britax—and usually costs significantly less. Like the Britax, it has a no-rethread harness which makes adjusting for height quick and easy, and the straps are simple to tighten, too, so a snug fit can be achieved without struggle. With lower sides that make it easy to take a child in and out of the seat and a maximum weight limit of 50 pounds with a rear install (as opposed to the Britax's 40), the Graco seat is better than our pick for extended rear-facing use with an older child.

The Extend2Fit was second to the Britax in our side-impact crash-testing, with one of the lowest head injury scores for a forward-facing, side-impact crash. Because the Extend2Fit is a relatively new seat, at publishing time NHTSA did not have forward-facing crash-testing results available.

The Graco Extend2Fit performed second to the Britax seat in the side-impact tests we commissioned for this guide.

Like most convertible car seats, the Extend2Fit can be installed using either your seat belt or your car's LATCH system (though our pick can be installed with LATCH it's specifically designed to work best with a seat belt install). The Graco seat has push-button latches, rather than hook ones. The latches aren't particularly easy to tighten, but still easy enough to use for someone familiar with LATCH. There is no seat belt lockoff, a feature that provides an easy mechanism to securely install the seat using a seat belt; parents installing with seat belts should be comfortable with manually tightening the seat belt for a proper installation.

The Graco has lower sides than the Britax, so it is slightly easier to take a child in and out of. It also is better for long-term rear-facing riding, with a 50-pound rear-facing weight limit. Like our pick, you can use it with a child up to 65 pounds when installed facing forward. The minimum weight for forward-facing use is 22 pounds. Unlike any of the other seats we considered, the Graco comes with a pull-out footrest for extra legroom when rear-facing (the panel is not intended for forward-facing use). It's perfectly safe for a child's legs to dangle over the side of a seat, though many older kids will likely appreciate this unusual feature.

Where the Graco falls short is in the details: To reposition the latch for forward- from rear-facing requires taking the cover off of the chair. If that seems overly onerous, it's because it is. Our parent testers found that the Extend2Fit's material is not as easy to wipe clean as the Britax's, though the entire cover is machine-washable, which should placate those who want to keep their seat looking pristine (Britax recommends hand-washing its seat cover).

Parents who value the ease of removing a cover can opt for the more expensive Extend2Fit with RapidRemove, which allows the fabric to be stripped off without uninstalling the seat. The Extend2Fit comes with two cupholders that click in and are easy to remove for cleaning.

Just like the Britax ClickTight, the Graco has a one-year warranty and service time of 10 years from date of manufacture. It's listed as one of The Car Seat Lady's best seats for rear-facing —"a fabulous option that won't break the bank and will keep your little one safely rear-facing until kindergarten." Baby Bargains gives the seat a grade of A-, noting that it has one of the highest rear-facing weight limits.

The competition

Britax Boulevard ClickTight and Britax Advocate ClickTight
The Boulevard ClickTight and Advocate ClickTight are newer, more expensive Britax seats that are both quite similar to our pick but offer some additional features. Even though they have the same 49-inch height limit as our pick, both the Boulevard and Advocate have shells that are about 2 inches taller than our pick, so a tall child with a long torso or head might be able to use the seat longer before outgrowing it. That feature leads CPST Lani Harrison and Car Seats for the Littles—which place a lot of value on keeping a kid in a seat with a five-point harness for as long as possible—to favor the Boulevard and the Advocate over our pick. The pricier Britax seats also offer the company's Click & Safe Snug Harness, which gives an audible click to let you know that the harness is properly tensioned, and have added layers of side-impact protection (which do add a bit of weight and bulk). BabyGearLab chose the Boulevard ClickTight and the non-ClickTight version of Britax's Marathon as their two best convertible car seats for 2018, but did not include the Marathon ClickTight in their testing.

Other Graco models
A Graco rep explained that the Extend2Fit with Safety Surround and Extend2Fit with TrueShield offer more side-impact protection than the regular Extend2Fit. They also cost more, though the TrueShield converts to a booster seat. Given the regular Extend2Fit's accolades, affordability, and wide availability, we chose to focus on it in this guide.

We chose to review the Extend2Fit over the Graco Contender 65 because that seat is less widely available, it has a lower rear-facing weight limit, it comes with hook latches instead of push-button ones, and it doesn't have the Extend2Fit's extension panel, numbered recline, or double cupholders. We also dismissed the nearly identical Size4Me 65, Fit4Me 65, MySize 65, and HeadWise 65 because they are not as well-designed for extended rear-facing as the Extend2Fit and have less widespread availability. These seats do come with two sets of latches, though, so you won't need to switch the latches from forward- to rear-facing, which is an advantage over the Extend2Fit.

The Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 is an all-in-one (or "multimode") seat that can accommodate newborns and toddlers, and then convert into both a high-back and backless booster. It is recommended by Car Seats for the Littles, Mommyhood101, and Babylist and CPST Lani Harrison says the 4Ever fits newborns better than other convertible options do. There are significant advantages to dedicated infant seats, though, like the ability to click the carrier in and out, and we didn't focus on all-in-one seats in this guide. Based on its outside accolades, we do think this seat is likely a good choice for people who want a single seat to see a child though the car seat years.

Chicco NextFit iX and NextFit iX Zip
Our favorite infant seat is made by Chicco, so we were eager to try the company's convertible seats, the NextFit iX and NextFit iX Zip (which is the same seat but with fabric that zips off for easy washing). We were impressed by the ease of installation. The company's SuperCinch straps allow you to tighten one latch to a reasonable tightness, then go to the second and pull the SuperCinch for a secure fit with minimal muscle required. But we found that it can be difficult to get a child in and out of the NextFit's deep, egg-shaped seat, and that since the seat is deep, the kid is inevitably sitting on the crotch buckle, even at the highest setting. Loosening the shoulder straps requires sticking a finger uncomfortably deep to reach the adjustment button, and of the six seats we crash-tested, all but one performed better overall.

Diono Radian RXT
With low sides, a deep recline, and high rear-facing limits of 45 pounds and 44 inches, the Diono Radian RXT is a favorite of people who prefer to keep a child rear-facing until they are 3 or 4 years old. The seat has an L shape, rather than a more typical C shape. "For some kids who get queasy, sitting in a C-shaped seat isn't great because it puts pressure on the stomach," said CPS technician Harrison. The Radian's narrow frame also means that three of these seats can fit across most bench-style back seats, which is key for many people with a sedan, wagon, or compact car who either have three kids or want to be able to carpool. Unlike most of the other seats we considered for this guide, the Radian is a "combination" seat that converts to a booster seat (which requires the child to be 50 pounds to use) and can be used with kids up to 120 pounds.

The dummy's head hit the door in a side-impact test.

But the seat had a notably low chest-displacement score in our side-impact testing, and the dummy made head contact with the door when the seat was installed front-facing. (One of the Calspan techs suggested that the thin Styrofoam that lines the seat's steel frame allows more force to be transferred to a kid during impact than on seats with a thicker layer of cushioning.) It was also the subject of a national recall in 2017, though that only applied to a small number of users, namely those using the seat for a kid weighing more than 65 pounds and installing it forward-facing with a lap belt but without a top-tether (the strap that anchors the top of the seat to the car).

Cosco Scenera Next
At just 6.8 pounds, the inexpensive Cosco Scenera Next weighs far less than either of our picks and most other convertible car seats, making it relatively easy to travel with and to take in and out of your car. (One tester described the lightweight seat as "like a kid's toy.") But for everyday use, the Cosco has some serious drawbacks. First, it is hard to get a tight install that hugs the seat well. It's doable, and Harrison offers some tips, but even professionals involved with our crash-testing noted that this seat is harder than others to install well. The Cosco also fared worse than the other far more expensive seats in our crash-testing, though had the best head injury score for rear-facing installation. And unlike our picks, which both have a forward-facing weight limit of 65 pounds, the Cosco weight limit is 40 pounds, forward- and rear-facing, which means you can't use it nearly as long.

Evenflo Stratos
The Evenflo Stratos is relatively easy to install, though I had trouble getting the unusual latches to click in. Instead of a push button to click out, there is a ribbon to pull back on, which makes uninstalling the seat with LATCH easier than the norm. While it's easy to get a kid in and out of the Evenflo, we found that the straps can be hard to tighten with a toddler in the seat and the crotch buckle is hard to undo, which is not ideal for older caregivers who don't have a great deal of dexterity in their hands. It scored in the middle of our competitive set in side-impact crash-testing and is made of particularly comfortable material ("like a memory foam tushy" is how one tester described it). It has removable cupholders and a sensor that audibly reminds you not to forget your kid in the back seat when you turn off the car.

Evenflo Tribute
The Evenflo Tribute weighs just 9.1 pounds, making it easy to move and travel with. But it's difficult to position snugly; our testers had trouble installing it properly without using a pool noodle or towel. It can also be hard to adjust the straps, and both a low shell height and low top-shoulder-strap slots mean the Tribute is often outgrown early, before a child is ready for a booster seat (the straps need to fall above the shoulders for forward-facing). If you're looking for a lightweight, inexpensive car seat to use as a backup or for travel, the Cosco is a better bet.

Clek Foonf and Fllo
Clek seats are the much-lauded top recommendations of The Car Seat Lady and generally considered safety stand-outs (they also stand out price-wise). The primary difference between the Foonf and Fllo is the rigid latch system, designed to minimize user error during installation. The Foonf has it, the Fllo doesn't. Clek was the first company to offer a seat that rear-faces until a child hits 50 pounds, and the company's higher seat back and L-shaped angle make it easier for kids to sit rear-facing as they get older. Alone among their peers, the company self-publishes its internal crash-testing results.

Both Cleks have a sleek design with Crypton Super Fabric, which has a moisture barrier and anti-fungal treatment on top. Even for the grossest messes the Clek is easy to clean, no seat cover-removal or hand-washing needed. It also has easily adjustable straps that emerge from the buckle tongue in a way that prevents twisting more effectively than any other car seat we've used.

The Clek seats also have significant downsides, unfortunately. Unlike most seats, they require some assembly, including putting the headrest on, a somewhat onerous process. The harness needs to be manually adjusted using a splitter plate tucked behind a panel in the seat. They're big and heavy. The Foonf weighs a whopping 33 pounds for forward-facing and 38 pounds rear-facing with the anti-rebound bar attached, and is 28 inches high compared with 23.5 inches for our pick. (The rigid latch system in Foonf adds to its weight.) The added height makes it harder to navigate getting these seats into a car, especially a vehicle like a minivan where it might need to be maneuvered between seats to reach the back row. One at-home tester, a mother of three, said she threw her back out putting the seat in her minivan. These downsides led us to eliminate the Cleks from contention before crash-testing.

Still, either Clek may be a good pick for a parent who wants to install the seat once and rarely remove it; of the two, we'd recommend the Fllo. But for parents who want a seat they can take in and out of their car with relative ease, one of our picks is a better choice.

Care, use, and maintenance

As we wrote in our guide to infant car seats, the stringent rules surrounding car seat use are merited. NHTSA estimates (PDF) that the lives of nearly 9,000 children under the age of 5 were saved by the use of car seats or safety belts between 1975 and 2008. Once you've chosen a seat, you can maximize your kid's safety by being sure to:

Install it properly. Any seat should be installed snuggly, with minimal wiggle. Both The Car Seat Lady and Car Seats for the Littles have guides on achieving a proper install. Safe Kids Worldwide hosts free events with Child Passenger Safety technicians, who will ensure that you get your seat in right the first time and know how to do it yourself the next time.

Buckle up for safety. A good install is important, but so is making sure the straps are snug on the child. Shoulder straps should be positioned in the harness slot right below the shoulders when rear-facing, and at or above the shoulders when forward-facing. The chest clip should hit at the armpits. Know how to tighten and loosen the straps on your car seat, and take puffy coats off when buckling a child in, as they can leave the harness too loose.

Keep your child rear-facing at least until 2. State laws are changing to reflect a growing acceptance of the fact that small children are safer in a rear-facing seat. There is limited real-world evidence for the benefit of rear-facing with older children due to the fact that so few Americans keep older kids rear-facing (making meaningful data collection difficult). But safety experts generally agree that longer rear-facing is better, 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 plan to review booster seats later in 2018).

Observe your seat's size and weight limits. Like with infant seats, most kids will probably hit a convertible seat's height limit before its weight limit. Kids outgrow the rear-facing seat when their head is less than an inch from the top of the shell height. (Once the child has outgrown rear-facing, they may still likely fit in the seat forward-facing.) A child has outgrown a forward-facing seat when the tops of their ears are at or above the top of the seat's head restraint at the highest setting (it's okay for the top of their head to be above the top of the seat as long as the ears are not), or if the shoulder straps can no longer be properly positioned at or above their shoulders.

Dispose of your seat properly. Convertible car seats generally have a longer life than infant seats (10 years is typical instead of five or six). If your seat has reached its expiration date, it should be thrown away. Stores like Target sporadically hold trade-in events; bring your unwanted seat to the store, they'll dispose of it, and typically give you a discount on the booster seat you'll need next. Not sure where to dispose of an old seat? Contact your regional or local Safe Kids.

A car seat that has been involved in a moderate or serious accident should also be thrown away, though a seat can continue to be used after a minor crash if all of the following criteria are met: You are able to drive away from the crash site; airbags did not deploy; there are no injuries to passengers; there is no visible damage to the car seat; and the vehicle door nearest the car seat is left undamaged.

Sources

1. Mike Kulig, business unit director, SLED , phone interviews

2. Bill Horn, head engineer on SLED, operational manager Calspan , phone interviews

3. Miriam Manary, senior research associate, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute , phone interview , August 30, 2017

4. Lani Harrison, CPST, Car Seats for the Littles , phone interview , August 30, 2017

5. Chris Lumley, founder and CEO of Clek , phone interview , September 13, 2017

6. William Conway, engineering leader, car seats, Graco , phone interview , March 5, 2018

7. Sarah Haverstick, Evenflo safety advocate, phone interview , September 18, 2017

8. Joshua Dilts, marketing product manager, Chicco USA , phone interview , September 18, 2017

9. Dr. Benjamin Hoffman, pediatrician, uncompensated consultant to Chicco on matters of car seat safety, CSPT-I , phone interview , September 20, 2017

10. Maggie Rauser, Safe Kids/KISS county coordinator, Carroll County Health Department (Md.) , CPST Training , September 21, 2017

11. Ryan Hawker, director of car seat product management and car seat product marketing manager, Dorel Juvenile, USA , phone interview , October 3, 2017

12. Allana Pinkerton, certified Child Passenger Safety technician, Diono , phone interview , December 20, 2017

13. Kelly Thomas, Britax brand manager , phone interview , January 30, 2018

14. Joyce Kara, director of product marketing, Britax , phone interview , January 30, 2018

15. Jessica Jermakian, senior research engineer, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety , phone interview , March 1, 2018

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Best All in One Convertible Car Seat 2016

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-convertible-car-seats/

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