There really is no good reason for anyone to purchase the Grand Explorer. And there are some pretty good reasons to avoid it.

The Grand Explorer is a “shield booster” that can be used two different ways. For children who weigh 30-40 pounds, it is meant to be used with its shield, with either a lap belt or combination lap/shoulder belt. For children 40-80 pounds, it is used as a belt-positioning booster seat that lifts the child into the correct position to use a car’s combination lap/shoulder belt.

Shield boosters are only certified for use with children who weigh less than 40 pounds. Therefore, the Grand Explorer can only be used with its shield by smaller children -- those who weigh 30 to 40 pounds. However, shield boosters are simply not considered adequate protection for children of this size. Children who weigh less than 40 pounds can, and should, be in a harnessed seat instead. All safety experts agree - in fact, even Dorel/Cosco, the company who makes this seat, has admitted that children who weigh less than 39.6 lb are not adequately protected by this seat. In fact, this exact seat is sold in Canada with a warning that it should not be used by children who weigh less than 40 lb, at a risk of serious injury or death. Are American toddlers really that much sturdier than Canadians?

The shield booster has two potentially fatal design flaws. First, the seat doesn’t hold a small child securely. Second, the shield itself is a potential hazard. Some parents feel the shield protects the child from flying objects in an crash, but in fact, children have been injured (and even killed) when they hit the shield in a crash – children who might not have been injured at all if they had been secured in a 5-point harness.

Now you might be wondering how this seat can be marketed for children who weigh less than 40 pounds if it’s so unsafe. It’s because of the way seats are tested. In the United States, a child protection system is tested in only one type of crash – a frontal crash. The test only measures certain types of “trauma” a child might receive. For example, it does not indicate whether the child’s neck was subjected to forces that would snap their spinal cord. And what about other kinds of crashes? Currently, seats sold in the United States are not required to pass side-impact or rollover crashes. However, seats certified to be used on airplanes must pass a rollover test. And the Grand Explorer fails, because in a rollover the child is ejected. Seats sold in Europe must pass side-impact and rear-impact crash tests... and there are no shield boosters available in Europe. That's not a coincidence.

Race car drivers use 5-point harnesses… don’t you think they’d use some type of shield if it were safer?

So, what about larger children? If your child weighs 40 pounds or more, you must remove the shield, since the Grand Explorer is not certified to be used with the shield for children who weigh 40 pounds. It becomes a simple low-back belt-positioning booster. This is fine if you have a vehicle with high seat backs and combination lap/shoulder belts. But now you’ve got that shield to dispose of. Why not simply buy a different low-back belt-positioning booster, one that doesn’t come with a huge piece of plastic you’re going to throw away?

If your vehicle does not have high seat backs, you cannot use the Grand Explorer (or any low-back belt-positioning booster) safely – you need a high-back belt-positioning booster (see the link to a useful buying guide at the end of this review) or, even better, a harnessed seat.

If your vehicle does not have combination lap/shoulder belts, you cannot use the Grand Explorer (or any belt-positioning booster) safely... you need a different type of seat. Harnessed seats for children who weigh 40 pounds or more are rare, but available, and a few new ones are now hitting the market. The Fisher Price Futura has been discontinued but may still be available in some stores. The Britax Husky and Marathon are new harnessed seats that go up to 80 and 65 lb, respectively. A harness without a seat is available from E-Z-ON products (do not confuse this with the Cosco "portable carseat" harness available in many stores). You could also choose to retrofit your vehicle with shoulder belts, which would make it safer for children and adults.

So, in a nutshell, the only people who can safely use this seat are going to throw half of it away. Therefore, I see no reason why anyone should buy a Grand Explorer.

These websites provide some valuable information about shielded boosters:
http://www.pacenow.com/
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/shieldbooster.aspx

And these buying guides will help you find the best seat for your child:
http://pages.ivillage.com/buyingguide/home.html
http://carseatdata.org/

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 25
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years