Graco SnugRide 32 Infant Car Seat, Rittenhouse

When we learned we were having twins, and one of each sex, at that, we discovered a dilemma: finding a fairly gender-neutral color scheme/pattern in pretty much everything we would be getting for them. Then, we took a car seat class at the hospital where we were delivering and learned what to look for in a car seat. The Graco SnugRide32 Zurich fulfilled all criteria. The sage/lime green (which later inadvertently became one of the colors of the nursury) and brown fulfilled the gender-neutral criteria, while looking pretty darned classy at the same time. I now feel like I have to dress up when I'm lugging these things around, just to pull it all together.
Anyway, the features are what's important: The instructor in the car seat class stated that the American Pediatric Association recommends that an infant remain rear-facing in a car seat until 1 year of age or 30 lbs. The SnugRide32 meets this standard and then some, which was rather attractive and money-saving in the long...Read more

When we were looking for a car seat, it kind of came down to the Peg Perego or the Graco. I mean, as others have pointed out, there are really only a few manufacturers anyways and most of them are pretty similar.
The Graco won out because of a handful of key points:
- The Graco was significantly lighter vs. the Peg (and if you don't think so, you must be Superman...)
- The mechanism to move the handle out of the way was slightly awkward on the Peg, especially for smaller hands
- The Graco was A LOT cheaper. But to be honest, the Graco looks like it. Peg looks like it is a quality design. This Graco model was the best option of the Graco's, the others were so "cheap" looking and the grab handle has sharp edges so you can't hook it on your arm to carry.

So after actually _using_ it, what do I think? That maybe I should have gone with the Peg. Here's why:
- Even with the latch system, the base of the seat doesn't seem terribly secure. I really...Read more

I'll cut to the chase - while this IS a very safe car seat for children to ride in, it is NOT an easy seat for some parents to deal with.

This seat is BIG; if you don't drive an SUV or mini-van it will gobble up your back seat.

This seat is DEEP; newborns can be very difficult to extract from the seat without pulling them by the arms or shirt front. Additionally smaller newborns can experience breathing difficulties from neck flexion as the seat tends to push their chin down to their chest.

This seat is HEAVY; that gal you saw happily arm carrying her infant in it's seat at the store isn't gonna be you. This seat is gonna make you work for it - and wake the little one sleeping while you do it, because its weight makes it very awkward getting in and out of the vehicle as well as extremely cumbersome to simply carry. Door frames, you will soon learn, are not your friend.

This seat's straps were designed by the Devil himself. The...Read more