Sorry, but the 3-in-1's are not likely to be "the last car seat you'll ever need" as advertised. I had one of these, and my ds outgrew it by height at 27lbs and only 34mos of age. It's not an unsafe seat (as long as used correctly) but there are numerous reasons why this isn't a "great" seat, or at least a seat you'll get the bang out of your buck that is falsely promised. It's essentially a "jack of all trades, master of none".
First the Pros: It comes in pretty covers, and it has a 35lb r/fing weight limit.
The Cons:
The top harness slot is the fourth (or 2nd from top) position. This is stamped onto the shell on the back of the seat (but hard to see so you really have to look for it) and the manual is kind of vague in it's wording as well. Many people are not aware of this which means the seat is easy to misuse. I mention it because I was unaware and found out about it on a car safety tips board (then verified by
carefully reading my manual).
The top
Harness position is 15" and many kids outgrow this by height between 3-4yrs old.
The minimum weight requirement to use as a belt positioning booster is 40lbs. So in order to get full use as a harness car seat and a bpb your dc will have to hit 40lbs right at 4yrs old (the bare minimum recommended age for moving "up" to booster mode) AND not have a torso over 15". That's quite a lot to ask and many children will grow too tall for the harness before they reach 40lbs and 4yrs of age.
Another problem with the seat is because it's designed to convert to a bpb, it doesn't offer a lot of head support (my ds's head slumped horribly when it was in f/fing mode and even in r/fing mode if I didn't have it reclined all the way and he fell asleep. Note that I had the AO which looks a little bit different than the EB linked in the pp but they are essentially the same seat with different covers. The EB linked does look like it has a slightly more padded headrest than my AO had.
It doesn't make a great booster either. The shoulder guides can cause the seatbelt to not retract properly if the child leans forward, the lap belt guides can hold the belt too far from the childs body. It only boosters to 53" and the recommended minimum (and law in some states) is to booster to 4'9 or 57". The seat also expires 6yrs from date of mfgr so if you buy it when your dc is 1 then it will be expired by the time they're 7 and probably not big enough to be out of a bpb yet. Sorry to rain on the pp. but I had one of these seats and it ended up being a
huge disappointment. I would have saved money if I'd just bought a higher weight limit seat. At that time there were fewer options. Now there are a couple more options like the
Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxe and the
Sunshine Kids Radian so you don't have to spend over $200 to get a bigger seat (like the Britax Marathon/Decathlon/Blvd) that will keep your dc in a 5-pt harness
years longer than a 3-in-1 or just about any 40lb limit seat currently on the market. And the older my ds gets, the more I realize I want him in a 5-pt harness as long as possible.
hth.
