We ended up buying it online at Walmart.com! From what I've found they sale it on Amazon for $107, Babies R Us for $98 and Walmart for $78. Though, the one at walmart is only the 'Sport' Version.
From what I can tell the only difference int he original and sport version is that the original comes with an infant body support, the sport one doesn't.
It's not sold in stores at babies r us, so you can't go there to see it 'in person' but it is sold at some walmarts. We have about 5 walmarts around here and within the past few weeks I've only seen one that carries it, the Laffeyette one by the way. Which is right by my school, so one day on my lunch break I went to check them out. They had them in two colors, black and grey, and black and hot pink.In my opinion the pink was extremely overwhelming and bright. And since this was for hunter's car we went with the black and grey. I ordered it online, free shipping.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Safety-1st-Guide-65-Sport-Convertible-Car-Seat-Athens/19514414
^ there's the link to it!
Well my first impressions: (remember it hasn't been installed yet, so this is just my opinions on looking at it inside the house)
I loved how compact it was! It will definitely fit in small cars!
The head support moves up and down, even past the shell height!
To give you a reference Emerson, is 8 1/2 months, 27 inches and about 19 lbs!
The crotch buckle has 3 slots, for rear facing you have to use it on either 1 or 2, (closest to the baby). But it doesn't matter for forward facing. Emerson's fits best on slot 2. But none of our other car seats have this feature so I was definitely surprised!
One con I did see was that this car seat is that is supposed to be usable from 5-65 lbs. But there is no way a newborn would be tall enough for the straps to be at or below the shoulders for rear facing. The straps would definitely be above the shoulders for a newborn, so i would not recommend this seat for baby's first seat. There are 5 strap heights and emerson is on the very lowest.
Because we have older cars, neither one of our cars have latch capabilities. So in order to use the seat with a seat-belt you have to store the latches in different places. This would be very confusing and probably get very misused with careless parents who don't read the manuals. But in storing this I learned that it will be very hard to install this seat rear facing with a seat belt, the spot where you would insert the seat belt is very small and if you had a big arm it would be very difficult to install. Because of this, I would not recommend this seat if you will need to move it around from car to car a lot.
Another thing I noticed, was the latch system. We use the latch system when Emerson's car seats are in my moms 2009 Accord. But i did notice that this car seats latch system is a lot easier to use than the Graco My Ride 65's. That being said, they are definitely harder to use than the Chicco Keyfit's Base's latch system, which I have to give it to Chicco they have the worlds easiest latch system!
Also, on this car seat, the cover is definitely well padded! And I think the bottom/leg part of the seat is actually more padded than our Graco MyRide 65.
And there isn't a level ball on this seat, this is the first seat we've owned without one, so i feel like it will be a lot harder to tell if it is truly level.
Another con is that this seat has a height limit to rear facing, while our Graco MyRide 65. This seat will only rear face until 40". While the MyRide will until the head is 1 inch below the shell.
The chest clip seems flimsy to me, and is definitely thinner(cheaper) than the Graco and Chicco chest clips. This seat also didn't come with Shoulder Pads/covers which honestly I think it makes it easier to ensure the harness is tight enough!
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| Sorry it's sideways! But she loves it! |
