Rear Facing Infant car seat....
Written: Jul 24 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
|
Pros: 5 Point Harness
Cons: Heavy and Big
The Bottom Line: I would look for a lighter weight seat as this one is too heavy.
|
|
|
| Cleavenger's Full Review: Century Avanta |
I bought this Century Avanta infant car seat shortly before my baby was due. I was drawn to this particular seat because it looked nice and comfortable. After using it for several months, I can't say that I'm not a big fan of this particular model. Why? Well, first off it's very heavy to carry and big enough that it won't fit into some shopping carts. Also, I did have a piece on the handle that broke but my husband was able to repair thankfully.
This model has a lever that allows the seat to recline. This is a lame option and it's not worth the plastic that's needed to make it work. It really makes very little difference as it hardly reclines at all. It is easy to use though by simply squeezing the lever and rotating the seat to the desired position.
Another feature is the adjustable handle. It has 3 locking positions that you can use. One position for carrying the seat, one position that will allow the seat to rock and the last position that will prop the seat up and not allow it to move. This is a nice option of the seat that I do use fairly often. There is one red button on each side of the handle that you press which will allow the handle to move. Unfortunately, this seems to be an item that breaks easily as it broke on our seat and I've read that it has happened to others as well. One red button stayed in the down position so I called Century and they were more than willing to send us a pre-paid postage ticket so we could return the seat and then they would send us a new seat. Well, that wasn't an option for us because then we would have been without a seat. My husband took the one side apart and it ended up that a spring had just popped loose and he put it back in. Now it works just fine. We had only used the seat for about 3 months when the button had broken in the first place.
This is a 5-Point harness model which is suppose to be safe to transport that baby in. I find it easy to buckle the baby in.
Unlocking the seat from the base is easy and is accomplished by simply squeezing the lever and lifting the seat out. Really, it can't be much simpler. I do want to mention that you can attach the carrier directly into the car without the base. This is nice if you need to switch cars. There is a leveling indicator on the seat so you are able to make sure you are installing it at the right angle even if you are not using the base.
I find that the straps adjust easily to fit to my growing baby. Both the crotch and shoulder straps adjust in just a few minutes.
This seat also has a clip that keeps the seat from falling out of shopping carts. It's just nice to have to make shopping more safe, though I have run into a few stores where the seat wouldn't fit into the front or the basket part of the buggy.
Two other features that are self explanatory would be a retractable canopy and a washable padded seat cover.
One thing that really urks me is the fact that this (and most) car seats are so huge that they barely fit into some vehicles and not at all in others. I have a full size truck with 4 doors and it doesn't have an inch to spare. No wonder everyone with children has to by mini-van's these days!
I really believe that I'd try a different car seat the next time around.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 90
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Cleavenger
|
|
Reviews written: 71
Trusted by: 221 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.