Evenflo Tribute 5 Convertible Car Seat, Kristy

We purchased this car seat as an extra to be used by her care giver and for travel as is lighter weight than our other one.
We were on a trip over the holidays this year and involved in a very severe head on car accident.
My almost 2 year old daughter walked away with a tiny bruise on her chest/neck from the strap (my one complaint about comfort with this seat is it has no cloth gaurd for the straps at the neck line) and was playing with my brother's dog later that night while the rest of us (4 adults with seat belts) were in critical to severe condition and in the hospital for many days.
I am purchasing another one to replace and can say from experience this seat did it's job!
Always be sure your kids are correctly in their seats!!!!

I have only had this seat installed for about two weeks or so, but I'm already thinking that perhaps I would have been better off with another. My daughter is 7 months old now, and she is long for her age, but weight-wise she is average. Here are the cons of the seat that I have experienced so far:

1) The seatbelt buckle point in the center is very nice and heavy duty, but the placement is awkward. When I fasten the leg belts over her thighs and into that buckle, I have to slide 2-3 fingers underneath to make sure that her skin doesn't get caught between the plastic pieces. The pieces that buckle are literally ~on~ her thighs, and easily pinch her when closing, if I don't prevent it.

2) The "reclining positions" are made possible by a swiveling plastic platform under the seat - you can either have the platform in the back or the front section. In my minivan, neither position looks very different in terms of angle of recline than the other. I've got a...Read more

We got this as a second car seat, and I'm satisfied with it for the price ($45) but if we had paid more I would have returned it.

My daughter seems comfortable in it, and I love that at 18mths she's only on the second of 4 shoulder strap settings and the first of 2 lap settings. It seems like it might have been too roomy if she had been much younger though.

Flaw #1: The cup holder is cheap and flimsy, and completely useless to us as the ring folds down when she tries to get her cup into it. I wouldn't trust a fast food cup in it at all.

Flaw #2: this is actually a major irritation to me - the big red release button for the harness takes 2-3 tries for both my husband and I to open, which gets old when you're running to several places and keep having to fight with it. Her other car seat manages to be difficult for her to press while easy for our thumbs to get it on the first try.

Flaw #3: there isn't a lot of room in the strap...Read more