Manufacturer's Date Problem

[himom]

A group of friends from church threw us a beautiful shower yesterday, and a bunch of them pitched in and bought us a Evenflo Trendsetter Advantage Travel System (Osh Kosh). I wouldn't have chosen this one myself (I was leaning toward the Combi) but it's really nice and I like having all the extra accessories, even if it does add to the weight. Overall, we thought it was great.

What worries me is the manufacturer's date on the carton says 3/15/00!
Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing? I'm just wondering why they are still selling things that are 3 years old (I don't know what store it came from). Are all travely systems that far behind in the stores?

Does anyone have any thoughts? There are supposedly no recalls Evenflo for that date. Should I be worried? Given Evenflo's rep, I'm mostly worried about the carseat.

I should have called myself "paranoidmom" instead of "himom!"

:7
--Jodi

[reseam]

I don't know where they bought the system, but I do know that I have seen them at Big Lots and that store does sell things that have older manufacturing dates, like my SIV from 12/00. It doesn't mean there is any problem with it, just that the manufacturer probably isn't making the system anymore and therefore there are no newer dates available.

The stroller other than big and bulky should be fine, we have one although not OshKosh print from that year and are very happy with it, haven't had one problem other than fitting in smaller vehicles.

As for the carseat, I'm assuming it's an On My Way, since I believe those were part of the Trendsetter systems, I know mine came with one. The seat should be fine as well, Evenflo seats have a 6 year life span, so there are at least 3 years left for your seat. I personally don't like the OMW since it was a 3 point harness and there was no way to adjust the height of the harness. The straps came out above DD shoulders for quite a long time and most carseats the straps are supposed to be at or below shoulder level. However we didn't realize this until way after DD was done using it, so when I was expecting Josh I picked up a 5 point FPSIV from Big Lots which I love and actually does sit down into the stroller seat pretty securely, so it's like having a travel system again.

Anyway, as long as you like the system then it's fine to use. If you decide you aren't happy with the carseat, but like the stroller Evenflo did tell me any of their carseats should fit on the travel systems, although the colors/patterns wouldn't match

HTH

Rese
Mommy to Kayla 09/23/00 and
Joshua 11/11/02

[himom]

Can anyone clarify the new LATCH requirements? I was under the impression that every carseat sold after September 2002 had to be LATCH compatible. Is it, instead, that anything manufactured after 9/02 has to have LATCH?

Because if it is the former, then my new seat should be LATCH compatible, which it is not.

--Jodi

[egoldber]

It is every seat manufactured after September 2002 that is required to be LATCH compatiple. Generally seats that are LATCH compatible have a big sticker or clearly state this on the box.

Personally, I would return this item and get what you really want. You have to live with this purchase for a long time.

HTH,

[angusmom]

If the travel system was clearly new in the box, never had been unpacked or fiddled with by anyone else and it has its instructions and warranty card, it sounds like your friends got a closeout at a really great price somewhere (like Big Lots as someone else here mentioned).

These manufacturers always have some inventory that doesn't sell through and then it goes through a liquidation process. 3/15/00 is really shockingly old, but probably nothing to be real paranoid about. The Trendsetter Advantage Travel System was hot, hot, hot when it was on the market, so it's a great product.

If you want LATCH, you might be able to use this conversion kit with your On My Way seat:
http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/eve/eve12808.html
I'd definitely give a call to Evenflo first, though, to be sure.

[himom]

Thanks for all the info and advice....now I have to go figure out what to do!

Jodi