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. This is one of a series of reviews I’ll write on what I consider to be the best car seats currently available in the United States.

You know the basics of best practices in car seat safety: rear-face as long as possible (ideally until 4!), and then forward-face as long as possible (ideally until 8!), and then booster until a regular belt fits your child (which typically happens between 10 and 12).

However, not everyone has the money for a rear-facing beast like the Rainier or Foonf, or the current forward-facing leaders, the Frontier 90 and the Pinnacle 90. So what’s a parent invested in car safety but on a smaller budget to do?

This is what this post is designed to answer. In my opinion, the best choice under $200 currently on the market for ERF is the Graco Size4Me 65, while the best choice under $200 currently on the market for forward-facing and boostering is the Britax Pioneer 70. These two seats show that keeping your children safe doesn’t need to break the family piggy bank.

Why do I like the Size4Me 65 so much? Well, you can read the full review of it here. But in a nutshell, it allows rear-facing from 5-40 pounds and includes a shell height of around 27.5.” This means that virtually every child in the seat will be able to reach 40 pounds before outgrowing it.

This is a seat that will allow your child to rear-face as long as a child in a country with the best rear-facing policies in the world (Sweden), and for less than $40 a year over the course of its useful rear-facing life! To me, that’s nothing short of amazing.

As a bonus, the Size4Me can then be used as a forward-facing seat until a child reaches 65 pounds or 52″ in height. This is as long as one of the highest quality car seats currently available, the Foonf, can be used in forward-facing mode by weight, and even longer than the Foonf by height!

There are drawbacks to the Size4Me, of course. For example, children who are much higher on the weight percentiles will outgrow it as a rear-facing seat before turning 5. For such children, seats like the Rainier or Foonf, with their 50 pound rear-facing weight limits would be better choices. But for typical weight children of parents on a budget, this is currently the best seat on the market, in my opinion, for extended rear-facing.

I recommend the Graco Size4Me 65 wholeheartedly. You can buy the Graco Size4Me 65 in a range of colors here.

Of course, there’s more to car seat safety than rear-facing. Eventually, your child will need to forward-face, and the Size4Me 65 tops out at 65 pounds. There are a number of expensive seats that will allow you to forward-face in a harness for a long time, but what if you’re on a budget?

The Best and Safest Combination Car Seat for Forward-Facing and Boostering for under $200

Why do I like the Pioneer 70 so much? Well, you can read the full review of it here. But in a nutshell, it allows forward-facing in a harness from 25-70 pounds and includes a top harness height of 19.5.” This means that most children will actually be able to reach 70 pounds before outgrowing it.

I recommend the Britax Pioneer 70 wholeheartedly. You can buy the Britax Pioneer 70 in a range of colors here.

—

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.

The Diono Rainier is one of the four seats with the highest rear-facing limits currently available in the United States. The other three are the Diono Pacifica, the Clek Foonf, and my personal favorite convertible car seat, the Clek Fllo.

The Rainier is essentially the direct descendant of and update to the Diono Radian RXT. On the outside, both seats look almost identical, with the exception of the flaring sides present on the Rainier.

Both seats are great, as I’ve discussed in my reviews of the RXT and the Rainier here, but if you’re a new parent, or a parent newly introduced to the wonderful idea of Extended Rear-Facing, you might have a hard time telling the difference between the two seats, and why the Rainier is worth around $100 more than the RXT, depending on which color you’re looking at. Here are my thoughts on the matter, based on my knowledge of both seats and experience with extended rear-facing.

Is the Rainier Worth It Over the RXT?

In short, I do think the extra for the Rainier is worth the difference under certain conditions, but not all. Looking at the seats on paper, you can RF to 50 pounds in the Rainier while to 45 pounds in the RXT. You can FF to 90 pounds in the Rainier and to 80 pounds in the RXT. The height limits are the same on both seats throughout the RF, FF, and booster ranges. The Rainier offers 2 more years of product life as a booster than the RXT at 12 vs. 10 years, but the harnessed lives remain the same. The Rainier is significantly wider to add to side impact protection. Those are the main differences.

With that said, I honestly think the RXT is as good as or perhaps a better value than the Rainier right now, given the price differential between the two seats. The 5 pound RF advantage of the Rainier is most relevant if you’ve got a heavier child; ditto with the 10 pound FF advantage. Since the top heights of both seats are the same, a child who would outgrow the RXT by height by 45 pounds wouldn’t get any more time RF in the Rainier. On the other hand, a heavier child could benefit from the increased weight limits, as the weight of a child doesn’t impact his or her safety when it comes to RF vs. FF; the position of the seat and the age of the child make far more of a difference. As noted here, the benefits of RF are visible in differential death rates for children at least up to 4 years of age, regardless of what the children weigh.

So should I buy the Rainier or the RXT?

I would recommend the Rainier over the RXT under the following conditions. Note that most of these points also apply to the Pacifica, which is essentially the same seat as the Rainier without the head wings.

1.) You want the best protection money can buy in a car seat for your children. There is no seat currently available in the US that offers a greater span of protection than the Diono Rainier, with its 50 lb rear-facing, 90 lb front-facing, and 120 lb booster range. Of course, the booster range isn’t going to be very useful for most children once they outgrow the FF range, due to the identical top harness height for the FF and booster modes, but that’s an issue common to all Diono seats, so I’m not going to hold that against the Rainier in particular.

2.) You’ve got a child who’s high in both weight percentiles and likely to surpass 45 pounds before turning 4 or 5, which is when I’d suggest forward-facing. Similarly, you’ve got a child who is not likely to outgrow the height limits of the Rainier before reaching 45 pounds; this means the child would be able to rear-face for longer in the Rainier due to the extra 5 pound window.

3.) You don’t need 3 across, or you have a large car, minivan, or SUV to do it in. By large, I mean a wide vehicle (ideally at least 75 inches wide). This is due to the sides of the Rainier; the bases of the seats are the same width, but the Rainier flares out significantly while the RXT does not. The width point is particularly important to consider, as that’s an area where the RXT is clearly superior to the newer Dionos.

I’ve compared both during installations, and there’s no question that the flaring out design of the sides of the newer Dionos makes them more difficult to puzzle with other car seats when trying to set up 3 across installations. It’s still possible to do 3 across with a new Diono, but not to the degree that it is with an older one like an RXT or a Radian. Keep this in mind if you’re driving a small class vehicle like a Prius, Civic, Corollla, or Insight. You might want to see what kinds of 3 across combinations are commonly used in your vehicle here.

4.) You want the extra side impact protection of the larger flared sidewalls of the Rainier. Diono claims they offer enhanced side protection compared to previous Diono seats and are packed with EPS foam. Given the speed with which side impacts can become severe, anything that can add an extra layer of safety and protection is certainly worth considering. Of course, keeping your child RF longer in an RXT will provide more side impact protection than FF in a Rainier, so keep the big picture in mind as well.

5.) You have a shorter child and want the assurance that s/he will be be able to make it from infancy through a boostering age. Because the Rainier offers 2 extra years of product life when used as a booster compared to the RXT, you’d have a better chance of the Rainier being the first, last, and only car seat you ever need. Of course, this will also depend on how your child grows, and keep in mind that most children aren’t ready for full seat belt use until they are between 10 and 12 years old.

6.) You have the extra $100. I generally don’t feel money should be a deciding factor when looking at ways to keep children from dying in motor vehicle collisions, but everyone’s got a budget, and this is going to be what makes the difference for some folks, and that’s okay.

If you can satisfy at least some of those conditions, then the Rainier is for you. If not, the RXT will also keep your child safe. The newer Diono seats are definitely flashier, come with longer product lives, and in the case of the Rainier and Pacifica, higher RF limits. However, none of this changes the effectiveness of the Radian RXT. If you don’t need the newer belts and whistles or are looking to save a bit of money, I’d suggest looking seriously at the RXT alongside the newer Dionos. At this level, your driving abilities will make much more of a difference than the seat. Drive the speed limit and rear-face to the limit in either seat.

You can buy the RXT here and the Rainier here. Canadians can buy the RXT here and the Rainier here.

—

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.

The Diono Rainier and Clek Foonf are two of the four seats with the highest rear-facing limits currently available in the United States (the third and fourth being the Diono  Pacifica and Clek Fllo). On the outside, both seats look quite different, even though they have similar goals. Both seats are great, as I’ve discussed in my reviews of the Foonf and the Rainier, but if you’re a new parent, or a parent newly introduced to the wonderful idea of extended rear-facing, you might have a hard time telling the practical difference between the two seats, and why the Foonf is worth around $100 more than the Rainier, depending on which color you’re looking at.Here are my thoughts on the matter, based on my knowledge of both seats and experience with extended rear-facing.

In short, I do think the extra for the Foonf is worth the difference under certain conditions, but not all. The Foonf anti-reboound bar is designed to give extra protection in side impacts, which are among the most dangerous types of impacts relative to their rate of occurrence in vehicles.

The primary reason for their severity is because cars don’t offer as much protection from the side as they do from the front, which is simply because there’s much less room for protective materials such as high strength steel and crumple zones.

Per Clek, the bar keeps the seat from rotating due to a side impact, which is supposed to help keep the child’s head from being impacted (presumably by the intruding vehicle or crumpling passenger compartment). So what does this all mean for the seats in question?

I would recommend the Foonf over the Rainier under the following conditions:

1.) You believe in Clek’s engineering for side impact protection more than you believe in Diono’s. Both claim to offer enhanced side protection, but Clek goes as far as saying that theirs reduces impact forces by keeping the seat more stable and reducing side to side rotation in the event of a side collision. They also include a crash test video that looks convincing, although it would have been even nicer if they’d included force measurements from the crash test dummy. At any rate, what matters here is whose marketing you believe in more.

2.) You’ve got size constraints in the vehicle in which you’ll be installing your car seat, but don’t want to compromise on 50 lbs of rear-facing goodness. There’s no way around it; the Rainier is a large, large seat. The Foonf, in comparison, is significantly smaller, and can fit in cars that just won’t accept the Rainier without punishing everyone sitting in the front seats.

3.) You have another seat already set up for the 5-13 lb range and don’t need a seat that you can use right from the hospital / birthing center (because remember, you can’t put a newborn in the Foonf unless s/he’s heavy enough to be on the nightly news). If you buy the Foonf, it’s guaranteed that it won’t be your only seat, and that it won’t be the first seat your child sits in.

Note: Using the Clek Infant-thingy infant insert reduces the rear-facing weight limit to 5 pounds and overrides the need for your infant to be able to sit upright without assistance. In other words, it completely negates this advantage of the Rainier over the Foonf / Fllo.

4.) You aren’t interested in harnessed front-facing until the cows come home, or until you hit the 90 lb limit of the Rainier, and think 65 lbs is good enough. The research suggests that properly seated and restrained children in boosters are as safe as equivalent forward-facing harnessed children, but that refers to children who are seated properly 100% of the time.

5.) You want a seat that looks as good as it’s engineered, or are interested in one of the many psychedelic patterns available on the Foonf that just aren’t in the Diono range. Aesthetics may not matter to some folks, but they do matter to others, so don’t dismiss this out of hand.

6.) You have the extra $100 or so. This is perhaps the condition that will make the most difference at first glance for many parents, but try not to make your decision entirely on it, as I honestly believe the other conditions are more important (except for perhaps #5).

7.) You have an extraordinarily long-torsoed child. The Foonf might theoretically give you a bit more time by height than the Rainier, because even though it has a slightly shorter height limit (43″ vs 44″), it has a slightly higher shell measurement when rear-facing (26.5″ vs 25″), which means that a child has slightly more room to grow in the torso when in a Foonf than in a Rainier. However, children who are more proportional might not last any longer in one than the other, so this is really a case-by-case difference.

If you can satisfy most of those seven conditions, then the Foonf is for you. Keep in mind that some of those points are non-negotiable; specifically, the lower and higher weight limits are factual differences between the seats, as is the price, while the other elements are more up for debate. If all of this sounds too complicated, then the Rainier will also keep your child safe. Remember that at this level, your driving abilities will make much more of a difference than which of these two seats you choose. You can buy the Foonf here and the Rainier here.

The Diono Rainier and Diono Pacifica are two of the four seats with the highest rear-facing limits currently available in the United States (the third and fourth being the Clek Fllo and Clek Foonf). On the outside, both seats look almost identical, with the exception of the deep headwings available on the Rainier.Both seats are great, as I’ve discussed in my reviews of the Pacifica and the Rainier here, but if you’re a new parent, or a parent newly introduced to the wonderful idea of extended rear-facing, you might have a hard time telling the difference between the two seats, and why the Rainier is worth around $40 to $50 more than the Pacifica, depending on which color you’re looking at. Here are my thoughts on the matter, based on my knowledge of both seats and experience with extended rear-facing.

In short, I do think the extra for the Rainier is worth the difference under certain conditions, but not all. The headwings are designed to give extra protection in side impacts, which are among the most dangerous types of impacts relative to their rate of occurrence in vehicles. The primary reason for their severity is because cars don’t offer as much protection from the side as they do from the front, which is simply because there’s much less room for protective materials such as high strength steel and crumple zones.

I can’t prove this, but I’d wager that having the side wings could make a difference in the event of a severe side impact collision. And from reading this blog, you’ll know it doesn’t take very much speed for side impact collisions to become severe. I’m also sure that they’d be helpful in reducing cuts and lacerations from flying glass if you’re in a vehicle that doesn’t include side curtain airbags. So what does this all mean for the seats in question?

I would recommend the Rainier over the Pacifica under the following conditions:

1.) You want the best protection money can buy in a car seat for your children. There is no seat currently available in the US that offers a greater span of protection than the Diono Rainier, with its 50 lb rear-facing, 90 lb front-facing, and 120 lb booster range. Of course, the booster range isn’t going to be very useful for most children once they outgrow the FF range, but that’s the same issue with all Diono seats, so I’m not going to hold that against the Rainier in particular.

2.) You want the extra headwings to offer that slight edge in side impact protection, either for the knowledge that you’ve done your best to protect your child or because you’re driving a vehicle that doesn’t have side curtain airbags, which are essential to keep flying shards of glass out of the passenger compartment during side impact collisions.

3.) You have the extra $40 or $50. I generally don’t feel money should be a deciding factor when looking at ways to keep children from dying in motor vehicle collisions, but everyone’s got a budget, and this is going to be what makes the difference for some folks, and that’s okay.

4.) You want the seat quickly. As of May 2014, very few people have actually picked up Pacificas because they’re back ordered from Diono, who didn’t anticipate selling that many.

If you can satisfy any of those conditions, then the Rainier is for you. If not, the Pacifica will also keep your child safe; at this level, your driving abilities will make much more of a difference. Drive the speed limit and rear-face to the limit in either seat. You can buy the Pacifica here and the Rainier here.

—

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.