Liked it so much for the first kid, had to find it again!
Written: Oct 15 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
|
Pros: T-shield is secure, easy to use. Seat stable in our van.
Cons: T-shield too big for newborns, straps need "give" like old style.
The Bottom Line: Highly recommend for older-than-infant age for safety and ease of use.
|
|
|
| roflol's Full Review: Century 2000 STE Classic |
The T-shield design was there for my first son 15 years ago and held up like new through baby #2, so we passed it on when we thought we were "done." I loved it so much that when I was pregnant with (surprise) baby #3 I hunted high and low for another one, and K-Mart was the only place around here that sold them. This was the *only* seat my Houdini niece could not contort out of. The ease of use was a second bonus, and they are built like tanks.
This incarnation of the Century T-shield is no different. I've seen lots of moms working frantically to get an uncooperative toddler in a 5-point car seat - hold a leg here, click that buckle in there, pin another leg down, get another buckle in (the hole's there somewhere). Too complicated for me. With the T-shield, you bring the shield over the head, make sure your child isn't blocking the buckle hole, and click it in. The adjustability is great - as your child grows, you adjust the straps at the shoulder level for the height of the child. Adjustment is not difficult.
The cover is removable for washing, but like all of these removable covers you have to pay attention to what went where for when you put the cover back on. Most of the rest of it is easily wiped down with a soapy cloth, and a little creativity gets the rest of it clean (wash cloth on a butter knife for the buckle holes).
I used a different car seat during the infant months because this car seat is not meant to be taken out of the car for shopping and the like, and there are lots of good seats out there for just that purpose. But once your baby is too big for those tote-alongs, this is a good choice.
The seatbelts in our Ford Windstar made rear-facing a little ungainly as the seatbelt did go across the lap portion of the car seat, so it was a little awkward to use rear-facing, but no more so than other models and again the T-shield made securing easy. Once we were in forward-facing mode, that problem went away as the seatbelt is threaded through slots in the back, and ours are tight so the seat does not tilt.
The only thing I dislike about the current style is the lack of "give" or retractability of the straps. The straps on our first one were retractable to a certain extent, so the shield could be pulled out a bit while going over the head, and then would retract to snug up. This was a safety issue, though, and they sent out "fix kits" - a button to be installed on the strap to keep the shield from retracting too far. After the button was installed, no problem, but I guess removing the retractor was their fix for the newer models. Just means you have to put the T-shield over the head with a little less room to spare. Not a good thing, but not bad enough to make us not want the seat.
Overall, I'd choose this type again in a heartbeat.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
roflol
|
|
Member: Terri Lynne
Location: Missouri, USA
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
I'm a home-based medical transcriptionist in the greater Kansas City area. Married, 4 children.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.