Note: This is the Recommended Car Seats Page for Canadians. If you are in the US, please use this list of US Recommended Car Seats instead, as it will direct you to Amazon.com links, which you need for shopping in the US, rather than Amazon.ca links.
Although this is primarily a car safety blog, car seat safety is also important, as our children are our most precious travelers. As a result, this is also a car seat blog, with information about car seat safety, recommended car seats, car seat reviews, and similar information.
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. In fact, choosing the right car seat and installing it properly can easily mean the difference between life and death for a child. Here are my reviews and recommendations of what I consider to be the best car seats on the market. For our stroller reviews, check out the recommended strollers page.And for a collection of reference articles on best practices in car seat safety, click here.
Click Here for Best Practices on Car Seat Selection, Installation, and Overall Car Safety.
Convertible Car Seats
Convertible car seats are my favorite kinds of car seats. You can use them in both rear-facing and forward-facing configurations, and convert them from one to the other, hence the name. Many of these seats will fit newborns, which means you can use them from the day you leave the hospital. Best practices indicates you should rear-face your seats until your child reaches the weight or height limits in the rear-facing position, and then switch to the forward-facing position. The drawbacks of convertible seats is that they tend to be heavier, larger, and more expensive than infant car seats.
Convertible Comparisons
The Diono Rainier – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Extend2Fit – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Clek Fllo – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Advocate ClickTight – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Marathon ClickTight – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Boulevard ClickTight – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Advocate G4 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Clek Foonf – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Advocate G4.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Boulevard G4.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
Infant car seats are the most commonly purchased kinds of car seats. You can use them only in rear-facing configurations, and they are designed to fit newborns, which means you can use them from the day you leave the hospital. Best practices indicates you should rear-face your seats until your child reaches the weight or height limits in the rear-facing position, and then switch to one of the long-range convertibles above to allow you to continue to rear-face! The drawbacks of infant car seats is that they aren’t practical solutions for ERF compared to convertible car seats.
The Chicco KeyFit 30 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax B-Safe – Review Here, Buy Here.
Combination car seats are the next phase in car seats after the infant/convertible stage. You can use them in forward-facing harnessed and booster configurations, as they are harnessed and booster seats combined, hence the name. Best practices indicates that after rear-facing, you should forward-face harness until children reach the weight or height limits in the forward-facing position and are mature enough to use boosters, which is ideally no earlier than 8. The drawbacks of combination seats is that they tend to be heavier, larger, and more expensive than simple harnessed or booster car seats.
The Britax Frontier 90 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Pinnacle 90 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Pioneer 70 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Evenflo Maestro – Review Here, Buy Here.
Booster car seats are the next phase in car seats after the forward-facing stage when your child outgrows a convertible or forward-facing only seat. They are essentially combination seats without the forward-facing configuration. You can only use them in booster configurations. Best practices indicates that after rear-facing, you should forward-face harness until children reach the weight or height limits in the forward-facing position and are mature enough to use boosters, which is ideally no earlier than 8. The drawbacks of booster seats is that they aren’t as versatile as combination seats.
The Clek Oobr – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Parkway SGL G1.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Maxi-Cosi RodiFix – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Jané Montecarlo R1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Highback TurboBooster – Review Here, Buy Here.
If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or 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.