Evenflo Platinum Symphony Elite All-In-One Car Seat

I absolutely LOVE this car seat. I had been searching for about 6 months after my 2nd child was born. She's freakishly tall and skinny so I knew she would need something beyond her infant seat sooner than later. Since I have another car seat in my SUV, I knew we probably couldn't get away with putting her (or her big brother) in the middle. Because of that fact, I wanted to make sure she had ample side-impact head protection if she was going to be sitting behind one of the passenger seats. The wings on the Symphony are excellent and very plush - my anxiety about her in a crash has gone down significantly! The adjustable headrest is a great feature, as I move it up all the way to make it easier for putting her in the darn thing. No matter what car seat you have, putting a kid in the car rear facing, especially once they get bigger, is always going to be a challenge. But it's worth the momentary struggle to keep them super safe while driving!I had bought 2 other car seats and was sorely disappointed because at only 1 year, she was already halfway through the height adjustments for a seat that was supposed to last until age 4-5. No thank you! I had my eyes fixed on the Symphony DLX version until I realized that it's basically a higher priced version of the LX due to the fancy LATCH buckles (which, if you use LATCH, they look amazing! My car is older so I didn't need them). Since LATCH was not part of my needs, I decided to save myself roughly $30 on the LX in Crete. The colors are excellent and match my son's Evenflo Maestro in Bradley (color I could only find at Target). That wasn't a huge selling point but it was a nice bonus. The seat was easy to install even with a seat belt, and I didn't need any pool noodles to get the right angle (unlike some cheaper models). I was actually surprised that this seat wasn't as massive as I expected in the back of my car. You could still fit another (albeit, skinny) person in the middle seat if needed.My daughter is very comfortable in this seat. She even stayed asleep in it when I took her out of my front carrier and put her back into the car! The harness is easy to tighten and loosen and the straps pull from the bottom, not at the shoulders. That takes a little getting used to but a feature that I am already beginning to love. Especially when she does fall asleep in the car, it makes the transfer to her bed a lot easier!The cup holders are nice and flexible. We don't use them too often but I like that they expand to fit those weird-shaped sippy cups and such. I also hook on some toys to the elastic band for my baby to play with. Sometimes she gets silly and puts her feet in the seatbelt guides on the sides. I love that she seems very well protected but not cramped up with tons of padding and other space-inhibiters.Overall, this is the best seat I could find on the market in its price range. There are more expensive ones out there but I now have my die hard, you-must-only-buy-$300+-car-seats friends, switching to Evenflo for their quality and affordability.

This car seat has to be the best car seat I have owned. I am a grandmother now and am always looking for things that will keep my grandchildren safe, but comfortable at the same time. I imagine myself sitting in a car seat for hours at a time and think about what I would like to sit on. This car seat has superior padding in the seat, goes from infant seat to 120 pounds and still provides ultimate safety and comfort. With my 3 month old grandson I do not worry about his safety with this seat. The side impact padding is very thick but does not lay against him and make him hot like some car seats will. Love how easy it is to get him in and out of the seat and the ability to grow with him and still be able to get him unfastened with one hand while I secure him with the other. I cannot say enough about this car seat. I hate car seats that I have to buy for infants then buy another seat for toddler and so on and so on.....tired of that expensive form of marketing. One thing that I must tell you is that even though this seat goes from rear facing to forward facing with ease, the rear facing position with a newborn can take up a lot of space. But that is true with all rear facing car seats I believe. However, it fits well into my Cadillac SRX4 Small SUV but cannot sit in the middle position of the car due to its base width and the fact that my SUV does not allow for a car seat in the middle position. Something this grandma should have researched more when she bought her Caddy not the car seat.

I bought this seat for my almost 2 year old and it is a GREAT car-seat! It was so easy to adjust for her. It took me maybe 5 minutes to get it ready to go in the car after opening it. It seems very comfortable also and she has a lot of support for her head and neck while napping. The latch system made it easy to install in my car and it feels very sturdy. No more hooking it around the latch with this car seat! Simply push it into the hook and it snaps into place.. The best part of this seat is the latch system release feature!! All you have to do is press a red button on each latch and it releases from the metal hooks. (It is very similar to a seat belt release).. But don't worry, it is not easily pressed by a child or on accident. I can have this car seat installed safely in about 1 minute and I can have it taken out of my car in about 30 seconds. LOVE IT!