After months of research, I'm happy with this purchase.
Written: Mar 09 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
|
Pros: A lot of great features, fit securely in our car.
Cons: Sits high in the car when used with the base, handle release buttons designed poorly.
The Bottom Line: This is one of the best purchases that we've made. I would just stress to use a locking clip and recommend investing in the Mighty-Tite device for all car seats.
|
|
|
| paulsmom's Full Review: Century Avanta |
We borrowed an older Century infant car seat when my first child was born. It held infants up to 18 pounds, but my son outgrew it by the time he was 4 months old. So when I found out I was pregnant again, I did a lot of research on the car seats available now. This one was the only one that met all my requirements:
I wanted a 5-point harness. It's supposed to be safer, since the baby is secured at the shoulders, hips, and between the legs. This seat comes in 5-point and 3-point option.
I also wanted one that would hold to a higher weight. This one goes up to 22 lbs. Most other seats only go to 18 or 20.
It has 3 adjustable strap slots to fit a growing baby. My daughter was 8 lbs. 12 ozs. and 19" tall when she was born and we started on the middle slot. We moved up to the top slot at about 3 months. The buckle between the legs can also be adjusted to 2 slots, although I don't think we'll need to move it to the 2nd slot.
It can be used with or without the base. The base releases very easily. This is one feature I was very excited about because our other seat was extremely difficult to remove from its base.
It fits very snugly in our car, with and without the base. I was a bit worried about this before I bought it, so I didn't buy it over the internet. Instead, I went to the nearest ToysRUs in case I needed to return it. I use a locking clip and a Mighty-Tite device that cranks the base down extremely tight and am very happy with how secure this is in our car.
It fits onto a shopping cart and releases very easily. I was also very happy about this feature.
It has a level indicator on the seat and on the base, so it makes it easy to get the seat level, with and without the base. The base comes with a thing that flips down in front to make it easier to adjust.
The seat also has 2 recline positions when used with the base. We used the most reclined position for the first few weeks, but now my daughter likes to sit up more so I adjusted it to the more upright position.
There are only a couple negatives that come to mind right now. For one, the seat does sit pretty high when used with the base. Our passenger seat won't go back all the way due to this. When my daughter gets a little bigger, I'll stop using the base and leave the seat in the car all the time because the seat will be too heavy to carry around. That should help with moving the passenger seat back all the way.
Another negative is the design of the release buttons on the handle. You kind of have to twist your hands to an uncomfortable position to move the handle back all the way.
One more design flaw that I noticed right away is when you put the handle back but not all the way down, the weight of the handle makes the seat fall back. It doesn't do it if the baby is in the seat, but as soon as you take baby out, the seat flops back. I don't know why this wasn't fixed, but it's more of an annoyance than anything.
I would definitely recommend this seat to my friends. But I recommend buying it at a local store in case it won't fit securely in your car.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
paulsmom
|
|
Location: Indiana
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 4 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.