I registered for the Century Smartmove Car Seat (now the Graco Smartmove Car Seat since the buyout) basically because it looked the sturdiest and it was one of the few that would rear-face over 20 pounds. Few local stores were even carrying Britax seats at the time, but seeing how large my nephew had been, I thought it would be good to have a seat with larger height and weight maximums. My daughter was almost to 20 pounds at 6 months, but LITTLE DID I KNOW!

::: The Specs :::

The Century/Graco Smartmove Car Seat is a convertible seat, with the ability to keep a little one rear-facing from 0 to 30 pounds, and forward-facing from 20 to 40 pounds. It has an adjustable five-point restraint, with three different slots to adjust shoulder height, and a front strap adjustment in the crotch area to adjust tightness. The cover is the same type of fabric as car upholstery.

The Century/Graco Smartmove Car Seat also has a recline feature, and claims to have non-twisting straps.

::: The Actuality :::

From the very beginning, we couldn't figure out how to install this seat rear-facing in our Chevy Blazer on our own, so we took it to a car seat check to have it installed by a certified installer once my daughter had outgrown her infant seat. According to the installers, the Century/Graco Smartmove Car Seat is a known problem seat in MANY cars, as I discovered online afterward in trying to remedy the situation.

Basically, the car seat was unable to be installed safely at ALL in the Saturn SL2 I was driving at the time, and while we did have it installed securely in my husband's Chevy Blazer (we had to trade cars), the recline feature which they tout so highly never worked. If you have the seat belt securely fastened, then the seat automatically pops up into the upright position (designed for forward-facing) when tightening the belt. Loosen the belt so that the seat isn't secure, and it's reclined. Keep in mind this seat was purchased before the days of LATCH and tethers, so if you coudln't get a seat installed with a seatbelt, you were out of luck.

I contacted Century/Graco about this problem and their response to me was basically "tough luck" if I couldn't receive a refund at the store where the seat was purchased. (I was offered $40 for a $120 car seat because it rang up as "last year's model" as my shower was in November and we were trying to return it in the Spring), and that "there are over 10,000 combinations," (of cars and car seats) and they didn't need to worry about their seats fitting in all cars. We were only ever able to get this seat to install securely in Chevy Blazers (we ended up giving one to my parents and one to a friend), and were never able to use the recline feature. We couldn't install it in either position in any of the three Buick models my mother has driven since Beanie was a baby either. Essentially, they didn't care that their car seats do not work as advertised in the rear-facing position unless I apparently drove the one pre-approved car they tested the seat in, and it was my problem for buying them.

I ended up replacing both seats with Britax seats, a Freeway for my daughter who was able to face forward, and a Roundabout for Bug. It bothers me to this day that we used the seat for as long as we did in an improper incline for Beanie, and I'm just thankful that nothing happened to her when we did. Over four years later, I'm that much wiser, and have never purchased another Century/Graco product.

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