At the end of the day we have a carseats to protect out children. Convience and ease of use is important, but nothing matters more than keeping our children safe. A few days ago my car spun out 360degrees and flipped, landing upside down in the woods off the highway. After crawling to the back I easily removed my child and got him out of the car. Amazingly he didn't have a scratch bump or bruise on him. The police commended the instalation (which I did myself following the directions, it took me about 30mins to get right the first time, after I got the hang of it, it was a five minute process, which we have done often because we move it between two cars)
Several days now after the accident, he is as happy as ever, showing no signs of any physical trauma(he did have a chest x-ray at the hospital)

I have kept my child rear facing even though he is 15months, It was one of the things I liked about this carseat was you could keep them rearfacing longer. While... Read more

I have had NO problems with this car seat for the past 9 months that my daughter has been riding in it.

I'll respond to each previous reviewers' complaints:

The clasps/clips:
The issues that a previous reviewer wrote about the difficulty with opening and closing the clips/clasps on the seat have not been even a small problem for me. (And I've had problems with previous seats, so much so that I've had to change seats several times before finding this one.) I put my daughter in and out of this seat several times a day and I've never once become frustrated with it. (And it's not because I'm super patient. I was frustrated with 3 other seats until I found this one.)

The too upright position of the seat when rear-facing:
If the car seat is installed properly, when you put it rear facing you need to place a rolled towel or swim "noodle" under the car seat at the foot and tilt it back until the line on the side of the seat lines up with the... Read more

I really, really, really wanted this car seat to work. It's a second seat for my mother's car. I found it for $129 with a manufacture date of 3/2010. I have a Britax Diplomat in my A4. I really like it, but wanted something equally safe without the Britax price tag for my mother's Civic. It's a very nice seat, and is probably a fantastic choice for some.

Plusses: The seat is well made. Although many dislike the buckle design, I find it comforting knowing the baby cannot disconnect it on his own. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it functions well. The fabric is high quality at the seat is made in the USA. It's good competition for any of the larger TSIP Britax seats if the price on the Britax is outside of your budget. The seat is reasonably easy to install firmly. There are many adjustments similar to the more expensive Britax seats.

Minuses: It's huge. I followed the directions, and in the fully reclined position, the seat simply would... Read more