Car Seats at Great Prices – Over $120 off on Britax, and $80 off on Safety 1st

I was shopping for a Car Seat for my niece with a price point of under $200. Obviously wanted to get the best bang for the buck.
From the reviews I read I wanted to get a Britax, or a Safety 1st seat. After researching for a couple days Albeebaby.com seemed to have the best prices for the particular products i was researching (after comparing at Amazon.com, Diapers.com, toys r us, etc) .

That said, I found narrowed it down to these two (I bought the Britax, but figured it would be helpful to post both for other people looking to get a deal):

Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat– Org Price - $299.99. Albeebaby.com’s price - $179.99 - The next cheapest website for this particular model was $209.99.

link - Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat (FYI – they only have two patterns at this price, but I liked the strawberry for my niece so it wasn’t a problem)

Safety 1st Alpha Omega Convertible Car Seat – Org Price - $169.99 (Although most places are still selling it for over $180.00?) Sale Price - $109.99 (This one is in the Titanium)

Link - Safety 1st Car Seat

Hope this helps!

PS - I posted this in the wrong place about 5 mins ago.

Just be careful about buying from this merchant, as discussed here (read the reviews): http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/941472?highlight_key=y&keyword1=albee

thanks op, these are really good prices on car seats, even cheaper than the safety 1st models at costco. also, they have a 15% off coupon code that shows on pages of products that are not on sale.

I have purchased from them before and have had a great experiance, plus they have 4.6/5 (Based on 6,280 reviews on google product search) - http://www.google.com/products/reviews?fq=britax+marathon+strawb...

javajoejava said: Just be careful about buying from this merchant, as discussed here (read the reviews): http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/941472?highlight_key=y...

Sams Club offers the Safety 1st Summit Booster Car Seat - Proton for $96.88, looks like the same structure, slightly different fabric style. I have one and like it. It doesn't say on the website that it is rear facing , but mine did on the box and instructions.
http://www.SamsClub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=434269

purchased several items n the past from Albee...always delivered on time and best pricing
the marathon seats are awesome...I have the fisher price britax made model (similar to marathon)...very easy to install and feels much sturdier than the older cosco version I had..

supadupamikey said: new parent here and have a question for the experienced ones... our son just turned 6 months old, he's around 28" long, and 19lbs, 90th percentile for length, 85th for head, and 75th for weight. we've been using a graco safeseat step1 car seat that's supposedly rated to 28lbs, but even at 19lbs it's already pretty difficult to get the carseat in and out of the car with him in it. also his legs/feet are already starting to hang out of the car seat. i really cant see him using this graco safeseat until he's 28lbs. should our next step be one of these convertible carseats? the dr emphasized that he wanted him rear-facing as long as possible. thanks!

for what its worth, my wife has a 2004 honda accord and i have a 2009 mazdaspeed3. thanks!

supadupamikey said: new parent here and have a question for the experienced ones... our son just turned 6 months old, he's around 28" long, and 19lbs, 90th percentile for length, 85th for head, and 75th for weight. we've been using a graco safeseat step1 car seat that's supposedly rated to 28lbs, but even at 19lbs it's already pretty difficult to get the carseat in and out of the car with him in it. also his legs/feet are already starting to hang out of the car seat. i really cant see him using this graco safeseat until he's 28lbs. should our next step be one of these convertible carseats? the dr emphasized that he wanted him rear-facing as long as possible. thanks!

The fact that his feet are hanging over the end doesn't matter at all. Not a single, solitary, bit. I do agree though, that after a point it just becomes very difficult lugging around an infant carrier once your child starts getting heavier. You can continue using that seat until your child either outgrows it by weight, or by height, and I'm here to tell you that most children outgrow their car seat by height, long before they outgrow it by weight... For height, it is when the child's head is 1" or less from the top of the shell when they are strapped in. As far as your child's length goes, torso height is the only important height when it comes to car seats. You measure torso height by setting your child on the floor in a seated position, and then measure from the bottom of their butt to the top of their shoulder. This is their torso height. This will let you know how long your child is going to last in a given car seat.

You've got a GREAT pediatrician btw! He is in fact correct when he is telling you to rear face as long as possible. We now have car seats that will allow you to rear face a child up to 40 lbs! That means we can keep them rear facing for up to 5 years, depending upon their torso height. Kids with long legs and short torso's last the longest in car seats. Kids with long torso's much less so. If you have a kid who is all torso, you need to be especially cognizant of how high the top slots are in any car seat that you purchase. It can mean the difference between getting years of use vs months of use...

So, why do we want to rear face our kids that long? Because they are FIVE TIMES SAFER rear facing than they are forward facing! Let me repeat that again... 5x's safer! Why? Because up till the age of around three, their neck bones haven't begun to ossify yet. They haven't started hardening. At that age, a child's bones are more like cartilage than adult bones. They can bend, flex and stretch. In fact, a child's neck bones can stretch up to 2 inches! Unfortunately their spinal column can only stretch 1/4 of an inch, and therein lies the problem. Your child's head is disproportionately larger and heavier than any other part of their body. It's why we cradle their heads when we pick them up. In an accident, everything inside your vehicle keeps moving at the exact same rate of speed at which the vehicle was moving when it was stopped by the impact. (This is how loose music CD's become deadly ninja throwing stars too!).

In a rear facing car seat, the entire back of the seat absorbs the impact of the crash, and all the crash forces are spread evenly over the back of the seat. Very little of the crash forces are transmitted to the child. The seat pretty much rides forward, and then back in the crash. For low speed crashes, many rear facing children will in fact sleep through it if they are not awakened by the noise, or a scared parent. In a forward facing crash with a 5-point harness, the child's body is held tightly to the seat along with the car seat, but their head is flung forward. In very young children whose neck bones haven't yet hardened, or fully hardened, this can result is over stretched neck bones which leads to something called internal decapitation. In other words, the child looks fine from all outward appearances and seems asleep, when in fact their spinal column has been severed, and they are dead or severely injured.

Watch this video to learn more about the dangers of internal decapitation: Front vs Rear Facing Video

So, for a child of your son's age, I would suggest looking at the Graco MyRide65, the Radian 65, Radian80, or RadianXT, and the Safety 1st Complete Air. The Radian XT has really awesome side impact protection, and is a very narrow and well constructed seat. If you have a wide kid, then you may have issues further along. Remember what I said about kids outgrowing a car seat by height before they do so by weight? Unless you have a heavy child and expect them to continue to be heavy for their age, then bypass the Radian 80 and get the Radian 65 for less money because there really isn't much of any difference other than maximum forward facing weight between the two seats. The Graco MyRide65 is the most affordable of these seats, as it sells for around $150-160, but can sometimes be found for less on sale. Keep your eyes open!

The Complete Air is a Babies-R-Us exclusive seat at this time. It has some very innovative new features, but it's not as sturdily built as the other seats I have mentioned, and it is priced very high at $250. As it is right now, it's not my go to extended rear facing seat. In fact, it has one very serious issue, and that is it is a horrible fit for newborns. I don't care if the box says it's for children as low as 5 lbs, the lowest slot setting for the straps is very high, and won't fit most children until they are at least 10 months of age. Before buying this seat, make sure that you try your child out in it to see if it fits correctly! On a side note, the Britax convertible car seats have similar issues with high bottom slots, and generally don't fit most infants until they are around 6-8 months of age. For rear facing, the straps MUST be at or below the shoulders! So if the straps are too high, the seat is not safe for YOUR child. Once they fit properly, then the seat is safe for YOUR child.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Wineaux
Licensed Child Passenger Safety Technician
CPST - Car Seat Tech

Wineaux, thanks for all the info! Our son looks to have another 2" or so until he'll outgrow his Graco Safeseat. I read your post and was kinda surprised to not see a suggestion for any Britax car seats, do you not like them? Before I read your post I was kinda leaning towards the Britax Boulevard...

I like Britax, but they've not been updating their core seats as of late, and a lot of other manufacturers have. So I get more bang for my buck elsewhere atm. That said, the Britax seats are just incredibly EASY to install, so if you have problems getting a good install, do not hesitate to look at the Britax seats. They're still REALLY good car seats. I like them a lot. I'd like them a lot better if they had a car seat that went to 40 lbs rear facing...

It's an all-in-one car seat. I am not a fan of them at all. They make OK rear facing seats, less good forward facing seats, and downright awful boosters. They force parents to forward face their children too early, and the put them into a bad booster seat too early. I can think of a lot better seats to spend my money on.