Graco and Britax Car Seat Review

I can only review the car seats that I have used because I feel that it’s not a true review if I cover things I have not used nor have experience with. That said, I will be reviewing the Graco SnugRide car seat and the Britax Advocate CS.

We used the Graco Snugride travel system from the birth of my daughter until she was about 5 months old. It worked really well during this time period, especially as my daughter was a little premature and quite small. She was still dwarfed by the seat, but with an extra head support insert my 5lb 7oz little girl was snug as a bug. It was really easy to install in our cars- a 2001 Mercury Cougar and a 2009 Ford Taurus. We had to use the seatbelt installation option in the Cougar as it did not have LATCH. The biggest downfall of this was having to constantly tighten the seatbelt as it seemed to wiggle loose. I always felt she was more secure when she was in a car that was equipped with LATCH. This seat is definitely not made to fit in a 2-door car, no one could ride in the front passenger seat because it had to be all the way forward. Another negative with this seat is how loose the back of the base is-there is no way to tether the back of the base. It’s secure in the front, but moves quite a bit in the back. I never felt super confident in the way the base was designed to be installed. I will say, though, it was convenient to just be able to snap the seat in and out of the base to get baby in and out of the car without unstrapping her. This only worked for 4 months with my daughter, though, she strained until she was red in the face against the harness because she was reclined too much. Finally, this carseat is for rear-facing infants weighing 5-22lbs and less than 29 inches. Unfortunately, this seat is not cheap and you’ll have to replace it pretty quickly. If given a rating, I would have to give this seat a 3 of 5 for convenience and ease of installation.

We purchased the Britax Advocate as soon as it was released in May of 2009. We absolutely love this carseat. It is designed for rear-facing infants 5-35lbs and can then be turned front-facing for children at least 1 year of age, 22 lbs and up to 60 lbs. It is equipped with push-button LATCH connectors for super easy installation, an easy-to-use knob for adjusting the head rest and harness height (without having to uninstall the carseat)! It also has “airbags” on the sides to help protect baby in a side-impact crash. These “airbags” displace the force outward instead of towards your child. Britax also has the Click’N’Safe feature, which lets you know you’ve tightened the tangle-free 5 point harness enough by clicking once it is safely tightened. One of my favorite features is the Versa-Tether option. The wiggly base I hated about the Graco has been fixed with this feature-you can tether the back of the carseat (which in rear facing mode is the part towards the front of the car) to the steel bars under the backseat. This seat is also much more comfortable for my daughter. We have driven from Southeast Ohio to Naples Florida in 2 days and she did not make a peep, unless she was hungry. She can sit up enough to see out the side windows and play. And finally, the two biggest downfalls of this carseat is the size (it is quite large) and the price. In defense of the price, though, it is entirely worth it for the money you will save from buying an infant seat, a forward facing infant seat and a booster seat. This seat is an investment and really, is there a price for your child’s safety? I absolutely love this seat and would recommend it 100%. I feel Kesiah is safe, secure and comfy in her Britax Advocate! I give this seat a 4.5 out of 5.