Cosco Summit High Back Booster: Quite Promising, But Fails to Reach the Summit
Written: Jun 29 '02 (Updated Jun 29 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: No re-threading of harness, open belt-positioners, adjustable arm rests
Cons: Overly complicated latch system, expensive
The Bottom Line: I have mixed feelings about recommending this car seat. Though it has several appealing features, it also has some major detractors. Keep your expectations realistic.
Dr_Steph's Full Review: Cosco Juvenile Summit 22260 Booster Car Seat - Tra...
Here I am again, the queen of car seat returns. Yes, if you want me to cut to the chase, I'll admit right out that I returned this car seat, as I have with most of the one's I've purchased. If that's all you wanted to know, then you might as well stop here. However, I suggest that you keep reading. The Cosco Summit High Back Booster has a lot of features to recommend it. It just wasn't the right car seat for me…
On my recent trip to Wal-Mart, I had no intention of shopping for a car seat. However, there it was, in a center display, looking oh so alluring. Hey, am I the only person that gets weak in the knees at the sight of a cool new car seat? Didn't think so.
The first thing I noticed was the price - $99. Are you kidding? At Wal-Mart? That's downright steep! Then I noticed the Cosco brand and was even more incredulous. My previous experience with Cosco car seats has been unanimously negative. But I couldn't walk by. There were just too many intriguing aspects to this seat. My daughter looked at me quizzically.
Her: "Are you going to buy that car seat?"
Me: "Uh, I'm thinking about it."
Her: "You won't keep it, will you?"
Me: "Why do you ask that?"
Her: "'Cause you sell everything on eBay."
I tried to explain that I don't sell EVERYTHING on eBay but she was unconvinced. Still, she was right about me not keeping it. My kid knows me too well.
The Basic Facts About the Cosco Summit High Back Booster
The Cosco Summit High Back Booster is a combination harnessed car seat (for 22-40 lbs. and over 1 year of age) and belt-positioning booster (for 30 to 100 lbs.). It comes with the standard features of a 5-point harness and a rear tether strap.
Attractive Features of this Car Seat
In addition to the 5-point harness and tether, which I believe are essential on all car seats, the Cosco Summit High Back Booster has some very appealing features:
~ Adjustable Harness: The Cosco Summit High Back Booster has the exact same harness adjustment system as the Cosco Alpha Omega. This harness can be adjusted for various heights without having to re-thread it. Re-threading a harness is, at the least, a mild annoyance. In some cases, it's a huge hassle or even dangerous if people re-thread them incorrectly. Rather than having to rethread the harness straps through higher slots when your child grows taller, this seat allows you to automatically adjust the height to one of four positions. This seat has a whole harness insert panel that slides up and down as you reposition a metal bar in the back of the seat into one of four slots. The seat belt is looped over this metal bar so it moves up and down with the harness insert. It's really a pretty clever and convenient design.
~ Fold Down Arm Rests: I've always had mixed feeling about arm rests on car seats. They seem like a good idea but I've seen many that are unusable or too uncomfortable for kids and just get in the way. The arm rests on the Cosco Summit High Back Booster fold up out of the way when not needed and fold down when desired. There's a large red button behind each arm rest that can be pushed to adjust the arm rest. The button is easy for an adult to push but a bit tricky for the child in the seat. The arm rests aren't particularly well-padded and also tend to get a little sweaty when hot little arms are on them for long periods of time. Still, I like the fact that kids can have a choice about whether they want the arm rests down or not.
~ Improved Shoulder Belt-Positioners: The belt positioners on the booster are open so that the seatbelt slides easily back and forth without catching and developing dangerous slack. The belt-positioners also easily adjust up or down with a red lever. This feature is actually one of the most attractive safety feature of the Cosco Summit High Back Booster.
~ Mid-Chest Harness Retainer: All car seats have a mid-chest harness retainer, but some are too easy for young children to undo. This one was perfect for us. My youngest, somewhat oppositional child can't open it but my older and more compliant child can.
~ Three Positions for Buckle : The crotch strap and buckle can be easily re-threaded into one of three slots to accommodate growing children.
~ Adjustable Cup Holder: I thought I had seen it all with cup holders and car seats but this is a new design (at least for me). The cup holder is made of hard durable plastic and slides to one of two positions - right next to the left side of the seat or a few inches out from the side. It's sturdier than most cup holders I've seen but not terribly deep so tall water bottles don't stay in well when you turn corners. It only can be used on the left side of the seat (unlike most cup holders that can be attached to either side). This limits to positioning of the seat in the car. In addition to the cup holder, the base has several recessed compartments on both sides for holding treats and little treasures.
~ Recline Options: This seat can be adjusted to recline, semi-recline, or upright by pulling on a red plastic lever on the front of the seat. The recline position is really nice for kids who fall asleep in the car. This seat can be reclined when used as either a harnessed car seat or a belt-positioning booster. The recline feature is easy to use but it may not work well with automobile seats that are very shallow or contoured.
~ Nicely Padded, Attractive Fabric:
This car seat is comfortably padded throughout. When I installed it next to my Graco Cherished CarGo, I started to feel very guilty about making my daughter ride around in such a minimally cushioned seat (the Graco). Though she's never complained of the seat being hard, I imagine that she would find the Cosco Summit High Back Booster more comfortable for long car trips. The washable fabric cover is also very attractive and tasteful in a neutral blend of brown and tan checks.
Features That I Found Unappealing
~ Latch Plates: I don't know how to tell you how much I detest the latch plates for the harness system. Instead of the traditional 5-point harness fastener of two separate prongs that snap into a buckle, the Cosco Summit High Back Booster has an overly complicated latch system where the plate from one side has to fit precisely over the plate from the other before they are attached to the buckle. I had a heck of a time getting these to work for me, though I eventually got fairly good at it. What I don't understand is why Cosco made the buckle this way. They claim that it's more difficult for children to undo but that wasn't true for us. Instead, we found the difficulty in fastening it. How can that possibly be an advantage? My daughter prides herself in being able to buckle herself into her car seat. I'm used to listening for the two clicks and then looking back to make sure straps aren't twisted and it doesn't open when she tugs on it. However, she was never able to fasten this buckle, though she WAS able to make it snap in on only one side which isn't safe or secure at all. Maybe this latch system would be OK for very patient parents of younger children who always do the buckling themselves but it was just a source of frustration for us. This is the main reason we returned this seat.
~ Twisting Straps: I know that all car seats are prone to straps twisting from time to time. However, these straps twisted from the very first use and continued to do so even after I straightened them out. The strap covers didn't serve any obvious purpose except making it more difficult to straighten out the straps.
~ Price: Maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but $99 seemed like too much to pay for a car seat/booster, especially when there are so many perfectly adequate ones on the market for $20 to $40 less.
~ Installation: I had no trouble installing this car seat in my Subaru Legacy wagon but I could not get installed properly in my Dodge Grand Caravan, no matter how hard I tried. The base is too big and just doesn't fit well in shallow seats.
~ Minimal Instructions: With so many unique features to the car seat, I expected more coverage and explanation of the features in the instructions. No such luck. In fact, I missed the one place where they said not to use the highest seat position with the harness and couldn't figure out why it was so hard to move it to this level. I finally figured it out only after rereading Ali's review of this car seat.
~ Heavy: This is one of the heavier car seats/boosters I've tried. Because of that, I know we would hesitate to move it between cars and we would never take it on a airplane.
Other Observations/Questions
Aside from the points I mentioned above, a couple questions and observations came to mind.
~ Can You Really Use This Seat from 22 to 100 lbs.? This is the same sort of concern I had about the Cosco Alpha Omega which claims it can be used from birth to 80 lbs. Let's assume you start using this car seat when your child turns 1 years old and is 22 lbs. Like all car seats made today, this one "expires" in six years and is not to be used after that date. Is your 7-year-old child going to anywhere near the 100 lb. weight limit? I doubt it. My 6 1/2 year old is a pretty big kid and only weighs 56 lbs. So even though the higher weight limit is an attractive feature because it's so unusual for car seats, it doesn't mean you are going to be able to use it for all of your child's car seat and booster needs throughout their childhood. Like the Alpha Omega, the Summit tries to do too much, in my opinion.
~ How Well Does It Accommodate Taller Kids? I assumed that the higher weight limit would be accompanied by a higher height limit since heavier kids tend to be taller as well, right? Well, I measured the Cosco Summit High Back Booster at it's highest seat position (booster only) and it measured 26 1/2" from the seat to the top of the head rest. I then measured our Graco Cherished CarGo and found that it was 26" in the back. The Summit "looks" higher because the entire seat is higher since it sits on a base. However, it doesn't accommodate longer torsos, at least not to a significant degree.
Dr_Steph's Recommendation
I'm ambivalent about whether to recommend this seat or not. I personally did not like it because of the limitations listed above. However, for other people, these may not be issues. There certainly are a lot of nice features to this car seat, the open belt-positioners being one of the most important. Therefore, I give the Cosco Summit High Back Booster a weak thumbs up. Just make sure you don't expect more from it than it can deliver.
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