The Graco Size4Me 65 is perhaps my favorite budget convertible car seat of all time, simply due to the amazing value it offers families interested in an affordable entry to extended rear-facing. This is a review of the Size4Me 65, which you can buy at Amazon, and why it should either be the first car seat you ever buy for your children or the first seat you buy after they outgrow their infant seat. It’s easily one of the best car seats currently available in the United States; let’s take a closer look at how and why that’s the case.

Graco Size4Me 65 – What’s the big deal?

The Graco Size4Me 65 sounds a bit like a Fisher Price toy, but functionality is what’s important, and in terms of functionality, this is one of the most impressive budget-minded seats on the market from one of the most established names in the field. It’s a convertible car seat, which means it can be used in several configurations, including as a rear-facing infant seat, a forward-facing seat, and of course, as a booster. It has a number of aliases (the Fit4Me, the My Size 65, and the Headwise 65 and Headwise 70), each of which are almost identical, and is designed to enable parents to rear-face their children longer on a smaller budget. Is it worth it? Read on to find out!

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Graco Size4Me 65 Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5-40 pounds. Your child’s head should not reach past 1″ below the top of the headrest. There is no given height limit for the child besides the 1″ rule. The shell height is around 27.5″ tall, which means there’s a lot of room for growth before children will outgrow it by height.

Forward-facing: 20-65 pounds, and under 52″ in height. The tips of your child’s ears need to be below the top end of the head rest. Your child should be at least 1, and it’s recommended that s/he is at least 2. Of course, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible.

Keep in mind that the Graco Size4Me 70 and Headwise70 are essentially the same seat but give you 5 extra pounds of forward-facing goodness.

Dimensions of the Graco Size4Me 65

The seat is 18.5″ wide at its widest point and 23.5″ high. It is around 22″ long. The bottom harness height is 8″ and slightly less when the infant insert is present, while the top harness height is at 17.5″. It has a 7-year product life.

Using the Graco Size4Me 65

Something I like about the Graco Size4Me 65 is that it’s incredibly easy to adjust harness height. There are a number of seats that make this process ridiculous, usually by having you rethread harness straps like a tailor or uninstall the seat over and over again. The Size4Me does away with that nonsense with a Simply Safe Adjust system of harness adjustment that lets you simply squeeze a lever to move the harness up and down. This alone is worth the price of admission (which, as you’ll see below, is among the most reasonable on the ERF market). You can even adjust it from the front of the seat! It ranges from 7″ to close to 17″ in terms of the torso height when a child is sitting in the seat.

Something I’ve become more impressed about over the years are car seats that do well with smaller infants, as the best car seat is useless if your children can’t sit safely in it. The Size4Me is rated down to 4 pounds. I can verify that it works well with 7 pound newborns, but it might be a bit tricky with preemies; it’ll depend on the child. Keep in mind that a number of convertible car seats don’t work well with newborns, so this is something to be lauded in the Size4Me.

There’s also a lever in the front designed to make it easy for you to set the recline of the seat. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s a nice comfort. There’s one rear-facing setting and two forward-facing settings. If you need to make the adjustment, double check your installation afterward. I also like the inclusion of a ball level indicator to help you make sure you’re reclining the seat properly when rear-facing.

In general, the installation of the seat is pretty straightforward, and I didn’t have any trouble achieving a good fit. Keep in mind that it’s not the smallest convertible out there, but that’s part of the price you pay for having one that has such great height limits. It’s still shorter than a Diono, and not much wider than one, either.

Buy the Graco Size4Me 65 on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon.

Why Buy the Graco Size4Me 65?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. The Graco Size4Me 65 is one of several seats in the United States that allow you to rear-face a child for up to 40 pounds. This isn’t as good as it gets anymore, but it’s still decent. Every pound is precious, as the longer you rear-face, the safer your child is. In the US, parents tend to turn their children around into the line of fire at 1. In Sweden, this typically isn’t done until 4. Children in Sweden are far less likely to die in car crashes than children in the US. It makes that much of a difference. This alone is reason enough to buy the Size4Me 65.

Besides that, the real show stopper for the Size4Me 65 is that it has an amazing, amazing height limit. I measure it as even higher than those in the Foonf and Diono seats! Most children outgrow their seats by height instead of by weight, which sends parents scrambling to find alternative solutions as they nervously watch their children’s heads approaching the tops of their head rests. However, with the Size4Me, you’re almost guaranteed to run out of weight first, which means that you’re almost guaranteed to get 4 years of rear-facing goodness from this seat.

That is beautiful–especially considering the price of this seat. It’s a very democratic car seat by this measure.

The picture isn’t quite as optimistic when forward-facing, as there your children will almost certainly outgrow it by height before weight, but with 52″ of room, it’s likely you’ll get up to 60 pounds of use out of it, which is good. Only a few seats like the Dionos will do better here.

Years later, it’s still one of the most affordable ERF seats on the market

Let’s be honest: the Graco Size4Me 65 is not going to win any awards for uber-long RF weight among its fellow convertibles. However, it’s designed to fill a niche, and in that respect, it does so well. It’s a great seat for parents interested in rear-facing who don’t have the budget for the highest weight seats. It’s also a great seat for parents of tall, skinny kids, and it also works well if you don’t have a child who’s high in the weight percentiles, yet still want him or her to rear-face until kindergarten. It’s also reasonably skinny, so you will be able to fit three across, whether with this or with other car seats, in most vehicles that are mid-sized or larger.

The biggest strike against the Graco Size4Me 65 is the fact that there are seats that allow you to RF significantly longer by weight. I also wish it had more than a 7-year product life. However, if price and height flexibility are important to you, the Graco Size4Me 65 will give you both while still helping you ERF. This is a sleeper seat that shows you don’t need to break the bank in order to keep your child rear-facing for a good amount of time. In that sense, it’s the best seat I’ve reviewed.

I recommend the Graco Size4Me 65 wholeheartedly. You can buy the Graco Size4Me 65 in a range of colors here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Send me an email at carcrashdetective [at] gmail [dot] com.

The Chicco KeyFit 30 is one of the most popular infant car seats available today in the United States, which is part of why I was eager to take a closer look at it. How easy is it to install? What kinds of features does it offer over a number of similar seats in its price range (e.g., the Britax B-Safe 35)? And of course, how good of a job does it do keeping kids safe? These are some of the questions I tried to answer in this review of the KeyFit 30.

2018 update: The KeyFit 30 continues to be one of my favorite infant seats on the market, because it’s reliable, affordable, easy to install, and narrow enough to fit 3 across in pretty much any vehicle. The weight and height limits remain the same, although fabric options have been updated slightly. Remember that the cheapest seats aren’t necessarily the best ones–the ones that make it easy to live the rest of your life while knowing your kids are safe–those are worth spending a bit more on. The KeyFit is one of those seats.

Chicco KeyFit 30 – What’s the big deal?

The Chicco KeyFit 30 isn’t the kind of seat I’d typically review, given my preference for convertibles and combination seats, but functionality is what’s important, and in terms of functionality, this is one of the most impressive seats on the market.

It’s an infant car seat, which means it can be used in one configuration: as a rear-facing infant seat. It does not forward face; for that, you’ll need a convertible.

It’s one of the newest infant seats from Chicco, and aims to improve child safety by increasing the odds parents have of correctly installing and using car seats from day one. Is it worth it? Read on to find out!

Chicco KeyFit 30 Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 4-30 pounds. Your child’s head should not reach past 1″ below the top of the main shell. There is also a 30″ height limit for the child.

Of course, as a good parent, you’re not going to stop at 30 lbs, since research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible.

Buy the Chicco KeyFit 30 on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Dimensions of the Chicco KeyFit 30

The seat is 17″ wide at its widest point and 22″ high. The seat weighs 9.6 pounds, which makes it the lightest seat I’ve reviewed so far. Of course, being an infant seat, it should be much lighter than a convertible.

Using the Chicco KeyFit 30

Chicco calls the Keyfit 30 the easiest infant car seat a parent can install, and goes as far as to call it the highest rated infant car seat throughout the United States. These are big claims to back up, but I’d say they’re pretty close to accurate. I was surprised myself until I took a look at the seat. What makes the Keyfit so awesome? It’s a seat that was clearly thought out well ahead of time, and that led to a good design and solid construction. Here’s what it’s like to use it.

The Keyfit 30 covers are machine washable (use the cold water cycle on delicate with a mild detergent, and line dry them). The seat can be detached from its base and attached to Chicco strollers, which makes it easy to transport your children while on the go. The harness adjuster is very, very smooth, which helps in tightening and loosening straps. The manual is available in English and Spanish and makes sense in both languages. You can achieve a good install with either the seat belt or with lower LATCH anchors. Don’t use both, of course. The seat may be installed with or without the base. I like the base because it makes it a snap (literally) to install and remove the seat, which is crucial for getting a newborn or young infant out of a vehicle or into one without waking him or her.

Something else I like about the Keyfit 30 is that it is preemie friendly. There are a lot of seats that require a lot of hoops such as blanket rolling to make work with premature infants, and any mother who has purchased, bought, and returned several car seats to and from the NICU in effort to find a seat that makes a good fit knows how thankless of a task that is. However, the Keyfit 30 fits preemies easily (as long as they weigh at least 4 pounds), which is a blessing.

Buy the Chicco KeyFit 30 on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Chicco KeyFit 30?

The Chico KeyFit 30 is not designed to help you rear-face a child until the cows come home. What it does well is provide parents with a convenient and nearly fool-proof method of getting their child safely from the hospital and around for the first few months of life. After that, I’d recommend replacing it with a convertible seat with the highest RF limits you can find. In other words, look for these seats. Remember, every pound is precious, as the longer you rear-face, the safer your child is. In the US, parents tend to turn their children around into the line of fire at 1. In Sweden, this typically isn’t done until 4. Children in Sweden are far less likely to die in car crashes than children in the US. It makes that much of a difference.

If ERF is what’s most important, then you might wonder why I’d suggest a seat that doesn’t come anywhere close to the best ERF limits. That’s because infant seats aren’t designed to RF forever. They’re for convenience! A class A convertible like a Foonf weighs more than 30 pounds; add the 7 pounds of a newborn and there’s no way you’re going to take that seat and child anywhere if it’s all you have as a child seat.

In contrast, with a seat like the Keyfit 30, you buy it packaged with a stroller, such as with the Keyfit 30 Travel System, and use the seat and stroller to transport your child when walking, and move the seat with your newborn about without waking up your child. Later, as your child gains in weight, you’ll naturally stop using the infant seat and start using the stroller or a good baby carrier to transport him or her, and when s/he’s in the car, you’ll use a high quality convertible car seat, and then later a combination seat. That’s the easiest way to navigate the practicalities of weight, children, car seats, and transportation. Start with the infant seat and stroller, or infant seat and carrier, and transition to the stroller or carrier and convertible seat.

I recommend the Chicco Keyfit 30 wholeheartedly. You can buy the KeyFit 30 in a range of colors here.  Canadians can buy the KeyFit 30 by itself or with a range of travel systems here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can  shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Join us in the forums!

When it comes to car safety, you can focus on driving safely and you can focus on choosing a safe car. However, if you have children, you also need to focus on choosing a safe car seat. This is one of a series of reviews I’ll write on what I consider to be the best car seats currently available in the United States. This review has to do with Peg Perego’s Primo Viaggio, the convertible counterpart to their stylish and safe 4-35 infant seat.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio – What’s the big deal?

The Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP 5-70 Convertible has a very long name, but functionality is what’s important, and in terms of functionality, this is one of the most impressive seats on the market. It’s a convertible car seat, which means it can be used in several configurations, including as a rear-facing infant seat, a forward-facing seat, and of course, as a booster. It’s the first convertible available from Peg Perego, and aims to bring a sense of style to the car seat market while enabling parents to rear-face their children longer. Is it worth it? Read on to find out!

Buy the Primo Viaggio on Sale with free shipping at Amazon.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5-45 pounds. Your child’s head should not reach past 1″ below the top of the headrest. There is no given height limit for the child besides the 1″ rule. I measure the shell height as around 24″, which is slightly shorter than my measurements for the Diono seats it competes with for ERF.

Forward-facing: 22-70 pounds, and under 49″ in height. Your child should be at least 1, and it’s recommended that s/he is at least 2. Of course, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible.

Dimensions of the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio

The seat is 18.5″ wide at its widest point, which is at the torso of the child. The seat weighs 21 pounds, which makes it the lightest seat I’ve reviewed so far that allows 45 pounds of rear-facing goodness.

Using the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio

Something I like about the Primo Viaggio is that it’s a good looking seat. Yes, yes, we’re interested in the best car seats because they allow you to rear-face for a long, long time, as our Swedish brethren do, but it’s also nice to have style. It’s also made in Italy, which might be important to you for political or aesthetic reasons. More practically, the Fresco Jersey fabric is designed to be easily cleaned, although I didn’t dare spill anything on it to try it out (who would willingly on a seat that looks this good?). It is also supposed to be breathable and good at absorbing moisture, which will come in handy if you use the seat in a warmer part of the country or don’t have air conditioning. Of course, given Peg Perego’s general aesthetic, they probably presume you have air conditioning and maybe even leather seats.

Besides all of that, it’s also an easy, easy, easy seat to install. You essentially position yourself behind the seat when installing it rear-facing, click the pair of latch straps into position, and then move from one side to the other while you work the straps until they’re tight. There’s a leveling line on the side that helps you get the recline angle correctly set up. The fact that the seat also only weighs 21 pounds means you won’t throw out your back during the years that you use it to ERF, although ideally, you won’t be moving it from one place to another frequently since your child will get heavier, even though the seat won’t. If you do need to move it, though, it only takes about 2 or 3 minutes to completely transition it from one vehicle to another, which helps.

Buy the Primo Viaggio on Sale with free shipping at Amazon.

Why Buy the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. The Primo Viaggio is one of a handful of seats in the United States that allows you to rear-face a child for up to 45 pounds. This isn’t as good as it gets anymore, but it’s pretty close. Every pound is precious, as the longer you rear-face, the safer your child is. In the US, parents tend to turn their children around into the line of fire at 1. In Sweden, this typically isn’t done until 4. Children in Sweden are far less likely to die in car crashes than children in the US. It makes that much of a difference. This alone is reason enough to buy the Primo Viaggio.

Besides that fact, the Primo Viaggio uses a good amount of EPS foam on the seat’s sides to protect your child from side impacts. Per Peg Perego (say that three times fast), it’s designed to protect the head, neck, and spine of the child, and the Side Impact Protection system is also adjustable. It even includes a bit of EPP foam (named SAFE, for a shock absorbing foam element) below the seat that is designed to crush during a collision, absorbing forces that would otherwise be transferred to your child’s neck and shoulders. I’m also a fan of the headrest, which is 8.5″ wide and practically guaranteed to fit even the largest heads.

Something else that’s neat about the Primo Viaggio is that it’s one of only a handful of seats in the United States that can currently be tethered while rear-facing as well as while forward-facing. It isn’t required to rear-face tether, but it does have its advantages, which I’ll discuss in a forthcoming article.

Finally, as noted above, the Primo Viaggio is also simply an easier seat to install than most, due to its narrow width of 18.5 inches. That means it’s actually possible to install 3 across in a number of midsized vehicles.

The biggest strike against the Primo Viaggio is the fact that there are seats that allow you to RF slightly longer by weight. However, if the weight of the seat itself and the style of the seat are important to you, the Primo Viaggio will give you both while still helping you ERF.

I recommend the Primo Viaggio wholeheartedly. You can buy the Primo Viaggio in a range of colors here. Canadians can buy the Primo Viaggo here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Join us in the forums!

The Diono Radian RXT is one of the best seats on the car seat market right now for extended rear-facing, even if it’s no longer one of the newest. With the ability to rear-face until 45 pounds and continue forward-facing for a while longer, the Diono Radian RXT is well worth consideration as a safe, secure car seat for newborns through elementary-aged children.

2018 update: The Radian RXT, as well as all other Diono convertibles, were recently recalled by Diono and new versions were released addressing a potential safety issue involving top tethers. Every seat manufactured from October 2017 onward has been modified to resolve the issue.

I’ve reviewed several Diono convertibles over the years and found all of them, without exception, strong choices for extended rear-facing and forward-facing, even though they’ve had different levels of practicality when used as booster seats.

Today, instead of reviewing the Diono Rainier, Radian R120, or Radian R100, I’m going to take a closer look at the Diono RXT All-In-One Convertible Car Seat. Much like the RXT in 2017 before the recall I mentioned above, the RXT is still essentially the same seat it has been since its release several years ago; weight and height limits haven’t changed, although fabrics have been tweaked slightly. It’s still one of the best seats on the market for extended rear-facing. Our full review is below, and you can buy the Diono Radian RXT here.

Diono Radian RXT – What’s the big deal?

Everyone today is talking about the Diono Rainier, Pacifica, and Olympia. However, before they came out, Diono had already been establishing a tradition of narrow, high-weight car seats that are still worth considering even if they aren’t the newest seats on the market anymore. The Diono Radian RXT is an all-in-one convertible car seat, which means it can be used in several configurations, including as a rear-facing infant seat, a forward-facing seat, and of course, as a booster.

Despite its age, the Radian RXT is a car seat that should be on every parent’s shopping list. The seat has received some unwarranted criticism by a number of fly-by-night reviewers interested in marketing more expensive seats (e.g., the Nuna Rava or Clek Fllo), but in the end, what matters most is whether a seat is easy to use and has the weight and height limits to keep your kids in safer positions longer, and the Radian RXT checks those boxes handily.

Buy the Diono Radian RXT on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon. Canadians can buy it here.

Diono Radian RXT Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5-45 pounds, and up to 44″ in height. Your child’s head should not reach past 1.5″ below the top of the headrest. Its low starting weight limit, infant insert, and adjustable harness mean you’ll be safe transporting typical newborns home in one from the hospital; you don’t need an infant seat unless you want one.

While you can technically begin forward-facing from the day your baby turns a year old in most states, best practices (e.g., what’s done in Sweden) suggests rear-facing as long as possible with 4 being a good minimum age to aim for.

Forward-facing: 20-80 pounds, and up to 57″ in height. Diono notes in the manual that children may forward face from 1 onward but recommend waiting until 2. That said, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible. Norway has joined Sweden as one of the two countries with the lowest rates of child auto fatalities on Earth, and like Sweden, they attribute a large part of the world-leading progress they’ve made to extended rear-facing until 4.

Booster mode: 50-120 pounds, and up to 57″ in height. As with the latest Diono seats, the shoulders of the child must at least reach the 4th pair of harness slots.

Remember that children should remain in booster seats until their seat belts fit them over the shoulder, across the chest, and flat on the upper thighs; this is known as the 5-step test for seat belt readiness, and it’s the most accurate way we have of knowing when kids are ready to transition to using adult seat belts.

More broadly, remember that there’s nothing wrong with a middle schooler or pre-teen in a booster seat if she doesn’t pass the 5-step test, no matter how often she rolls her eyes at you.

Dimensions of the Diono Radian RXT

The seat is 17″ wide at its widest point, which is at the shoulders. The seat weighs 26.5 pounds.

Inside, it is around 14″ wide at the widest upper portion at the shoulders and slightly larger at the thighs. Its narrow dimensions makes it one of the absolute best choices for 3 across installations in small cars; it can mix and match with other seats to make installations possible with seat belts that wouldn’t be possible in most vehicles.

Using the Diono Radian RXT

The seat arrives folded nicely in a box that seems well designed for it. The seat arrives in a collapsed mode, so you can hook straps up to it and tote it around as a backpack, which works really nicely if you’re planning on taking it on an airplane or with taxis, which do require car seats for safety. It’s also airplane compliant, which is great for travelers. All of the LATCH straps are held in the back, including seat belt clips that may be needed for older cars.The engineering of the seat is solid, and you can see where the newer generations of Dionos came from when you look at the Radian RXT.

You might need to adjust the straps out of the box, but the learning curve is gentle. Keep in mind that you cannot install it in the center of your vehicle with a LATCH set up unless you have dedicated LATCH hookups there; this is common to almost every car seat on the market today in the United States. This means you’ll need to use a seat belt installation along with a locking clip for a middle seat install, and this might be a bit troublesome.

There are 5 shoulder harness positions that range from 9″ on the low end to 17.5″ on the high end. The recline base must be used when the seat is in a rear-facing position. Because there are 5 different slots for harness height, most children are going to find a position that fits them comfortably for as long as they use the seat. You adjust the harness height from behind the seat by removing straps from the splitting plate and rethreading them into the desired slot. If your child is rear-facing, the slots need to be at or below the shoulders, while they need to be above for forward-facing. Diono is unique in that they do allow you to have forward-facing children with shoulders above the top shoulder harness slots as long as these children stay within the forward-facing weight limit and have the tops of their ears below the top of the car seat.

There is an angle adjuster that is frequently sold alongside the Diono line, as it helps cut down on the extremely large amount of space that the seat can take up when used in the rear-facing configuration. Depending on the size of your vehicle and the amount of space you need in the front seats, you may want to consider purchasing this. This is likely to be the case if you set the seat up directly behind the passenger or driver seats in the first row.

Buy the Diono Radian RXT on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon. Canadians can buy it here.

Why Buy the Diono Radian RXT?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. The Radian RXT is one of a handful of seats in the United States that allows you to rear-face a child for up to 45 pounds. It’s not as good as it gets anymore, but it’s pretty close. Every pound is precious, as the longer you rear-face, the safer your child is. In the US, parents tend to turn their children around into the line of fire at 1. In Sweden, this typically isn’t done until 4. Children in Sweden are far less likely to die in car crashes than children in the US. It makes that much of a difference. This alone is reason enough to buy the Radian RXT.

Besides that fact, the Radian RXT also includes a steel frame and an aluminum reinforced headrest for reinforced head support, in addition to EPS foam around the child’s head and body to increase levels of side impact protection. The sidewalls are also deeper than in similar Diono models, including its R120 and R100 siblings, to increase side protection. All of these are good things.

Something else that’s neat about the RXT is that it’s one of only a handful of seats in the United States that can currently be tethered while rear-facing as well as while forward-facing. It isn’t required to rear-face tether, but rear-facing tethering does have its advantages, which I’ll discuss in a forthcoming article.

Finally, the Radian RXT is also simply an easier seat to install than most, due to its narrow width of 17 inches. That means it’s actually possible to install 3 across in a number of smaller vehicles. I also like the fact that it has a 10-year usable life when used as a booster and an 8 year life when used with a harness (remember, car seats do expire eventually), which is still among the longest in the industry right now, although not as long as the booster limits in the newer Dionos, which are 12 years. I also like that it is certified to use on airplanes when used with the harnesses.

What About the Newer Seats?

The newer Diono seats are definitely flashier, come with longer product lives, and in the case of the Rainier and Pacifica, higher RF limits. However, none of this changes the effectiveness of the Radian RXT. If you don’t need the newer belts and whistles or are looking to save a bit of money, I’d suggest looking seriously at the RXT alongside the newer Dionos.

The width point is particularly important to consider, as that’s an area where the RXT is clearly superior to the newer Dionos. I’ve compared both during installations, and there’s no question that the flaring out design of the sides of the newer Dionos makes them more difficult to puzzle with other car seats when trying to set up 3 across installations. It’s still possible to do 3 across with a new Diono, but not to the degree that it is with an older one like an RXT or a Radian. Keep this in mind if you’re driving a small class vehicle like a Prius, Civic, Corollla, or Insight.

The Radian RXT is an excellent car seat and, in my opinion, still one of the best currently available in the United States for children between zero and five.  You can buy the Diono Radian RXT in a range of colors here, including several versions of black, one blue, one red, and one purple print. Canadians can buy the Radian RXT here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can  shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Join us in the forums!

The Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus is everything a booster car seat should be: a seat that keeps your children safe until they don’t need a booster seat anymore. It does this by offering the highest weight and height limits available for any booster seat on the market besides its cheaper sibling, the Frontier, and it does it while offering an extensive amount of side impact protection on top of an excellent and easy to use installation system. This is a review on the Pinnacle and why it should be the only booster seat you ever buy.

2020 update: Britax updated the Pinnacle 90 and renamed it the Pinnacle G.1.1. then dropped the Pinnacle moniker entirely and renamed it, somewhat confusingly, the Grow With You ClickTight Plus. The height and weight limits (as well as the dimensions and weight) of the seat remain the same. It’s still one of the two best combination seats on the market, as well as one of the best booster seats on the market.

Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus – What’s the big deal?

The Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus  continues a tradition of versatile, high weight and height car seats that makes this one of the most impressive combination seats on the market. It’s a combination car seat, which means it can be used in two configurations: as a forward-facing seat and as a booster. Released by Britax alongside its high weight sibling the Frontier, the Pinnacle is a combination car seat that should be on every parent’s shopping list.

Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus Limits for Weight and Height

Forward-facing: 25-90 pounds, and between 30 and 58″ in height.  The seated shoulder height of the child can range between 12.5 and 20.5.” The top harness straps need to either be at or above your child’s shoulders, and the ears of the child must not extend above the headrest. Your child should be at least 2-years-old. Of course, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible. Also note that using a harness is required when using the seat in harnessed mode if the child weighs more than 65 pounds, although Britax recommends it in every installation.

Booster mode: 40-120 pounds, and between 45 and 62″ in height. The seated shoulder height of the child can range between 15 and 23.” The shoulders of the child need to be at or below the shoulder belt positioner. Remember that children should remain in booster seats until their seat belts fit them over the shoulder, across the chest, and flat on the upper thighs, which is also known as the 5-step rule.

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Dimensions of the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus

The seat is 22.5″ wide at its widest point, which is at the shoulders. The seat weighs 26.5 pounds. Inside, it is around 15.5″ wide at the widest upper portion at the shoulders and 12″ wide in the seat area.

Using the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus

The seat arrives in a box that’s designed very well; you don’t have to struggle to get the seat out of the box, which is nice when you consider that it has a decent amount of weight behind it. The seat essentially just slides out, which is where the fun begins.

The installation of the seat is a dream. In fact, it’s my second favorite thing about the Pinnacle after its harness height range. What I’m talking about is the ClickTight seat belt installation system. It’s designed to allow you to make a safe installation through what is essentially an automatic belt tensioner. I love this! All you need to do is lift the cover so you see the ClickTight panel, route the belt through the green path as needed, and then close the cover. It only takes a few minutes in most vehicles, and from then on, all you need to do is attach your top tether strap to the appropriate tether anchor.

Don’t worry about LATCH weight limits! Don’t worry about complex paths for routing the belt! Don’t worry about locking clips! It’s that easy in the majority of vehicles. This is a reason that, by itself, would make the Pinnacle worth considering.

Besides this, the instructions are quite clear, the 5-point harness is designed to be very difficult to tangle, and the covers are easy to take off, which makes things easier for washing, since booster-aged children inevitably have spills and messes at one point or another.

Buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. Along with the Frontier, the Pinnacle leads the car seat industry in the United States with its high top harness height setting of 20.5.” Most children outgrow their combination seats by height long before they do by weight simply because most combination seats only offer top harness heights, or upper shoulder heights for children, of 18″ or 19.” Remember that when forward-facing, with very few exceptions, a child can no longer use a seat once his or her shoulders are level with the top harness. Because of the mega-height of the Pinnacle, outgrowing it by height is a lot harder. Of course children who are in the tallest percentiles by height will still likely outgrow it by height before doing so by weight, but right now, this is as good as it gets. This alone is reason enough to buy the Pinnacle. The fact that it comes after the easy installation is just icing on the cake.

Besides that fact, the Pinnacle includes a feature that the Frontier does not: Side Impact Cushion Technology. What’s Side Impact Cushion Technology? It’s Britax’s code name for cushions designed to absorb energy that are situated on either side of the car seat. They reduce the energy of side impacts, per Britax, by funneling the forces around the child via the car seat, reducing the child’s exposure to the potentially life-threatening forces I discuss on a daily basis on this blog in side impact collisions. An added bonus is that the cushions are also designed to give a bit of extra protection to any passengers next to the Pinnacle. To me, that’s pretty amazing.

In addition to these features, the Pinnacle also includes a steel frame to keep the seat from flexing forward as much in the event of a crash. It also features EPP foam around the child’s head and body to increase levels of side impact protection and reduce stress and strain on the body during collisions. All of these are good things.

You can harness longer, although you’ll struggle to 3 across

As noted above, you are likely to be able to keep children safely harnessed while forward facing in the Pinnacle longer than in any other car seat, which is a good thing once you’re done rear-facing. Each transition in child seats signifies a decrease in safety (e.g., rear-facing is safer than forward-facing, which is safer than a booster position, which is safer than simply using a seat belt); the longer you can keep a child forward-facing in a harness, the better. Along with the Frontier, the Pinnacle now leads the field here.

Finally, the Pinnacle is wider than the Frontier by about 3 inches, which means it’s not going to be as easy to install in a 3 across position in a number of midsized vehicles. However, I like the fact that it has a 9-year usable life (remember, car seats do expire eventually), which is  great, although there are seats with longer lifespans (e.g., the newest Dionos).

The Grow With You ClickTight Plus is an excellent car seat and, in my opinion, one of the two best  combination car seats currently available in the United States for children above the age of 4.  It’s likely to be the last seat your child needs before s/he is ready for a regular adult seat belt. You can buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus in a range of colors here. Canadians can buy the Pinnacle here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.