Maybe I'm not so sure about the ConfortSport anymore...

[KimberleyDawn]

I don't know what to do!! I want a good seat but since I'm buying 2 I can't imagine spending $400+ on ONE seat!!!!
I live in Canada and I have been looking into the Britax RA and it looks like I will be ordering it online from an americain site and that will be +++$!!! Whatever price you find I will have to double that because our $ is sooo poor and not to mention taxes, duty, shipping...
Any Canadians on here with some suggestions on a good solid brand of seat that won't kill my wallet (still on mat leave so $ tight). I thought I liked the ComfortSport but after reading many posts I'm not interested in a huge strap hassle.
TIA,
Kim

[Momof3Labs]

Actually, you don't want to order an American Roundabout - you need to buy a seat that is tested and approved for use in Canada.

[KimberleyDawn]

Thanks for the safety reminder.
I was just checking www.childseat.com to see where the closest Britax retailer was and it seems Torono is the only place in Canada that sells them (no big deal I live in Ottawa).
The site did state that:
"At this time, Roundabouts with the new Lower Universal Anchorage Systems (called LATCH in USA) are not available in Canada."
I do plan on calling the stores that were listed to see which Britax seats they did carry that meet our safety requirements.
Kim

[ddmarsh]

I was going to say that if you Paypal me I could pick up the seats for you and ship them, but if the ones I would get are different from Canadian I guess that wouldn't help you. I'm curious what the actual differences are.

Debbie

[KimberleyDawn]

Debbie,
Thanks for the offer!!!
Once I figure out what the differences are I'll post them. I do know that if I don't follow the Canadian guidlines, our insurance would put up a huge fight if god forbid there was ever an accident and not to mention the fines.
Kim

[KimberleyDawn]

Sorry if this post shows twice but my orginal post isn't showing at my end.
Debbie,
Thanks for the offer!
I'll post my findings on the safety differences once my reseach is completed. I do know that my insurance would put up a huge fight if there was ever an accident and not to mention the fines.
Kim

[debsw]

Unfortunately, you cannot use a Britax RA bought in the states here in Canada. The Canadian car seats must have a specific sticker on it that says that it is approved by Transport Canada. There are mixed comments as to when the Britax seats will be available here. Some say this month, others say late Fall and still others say after the first of the year. I called Britax directly and according to them, they have no idea when these seats will be available to Canadians.

I was in the same dilemma as you and ended up buying a Comfort Sport. I hate it!!!!! The chest straps do not tighten evenly and I was not comfortable putting my dd in this. I ended up buying the Alpha Omega and hope that it works better for us. (I just installed it today and we have not gone out in the car.)

Hopefully, the Britax seat will be approved for use in Canada soon. When it is, I plan to give Grandma the Alpha Omega and use the Britax in my car.

Hope this information helps.

FYI - Do a search and you will find a great deal on this subject as this has been going on for months. Also, check out the forums at TodaysParents.com.

[KathyO]

Yeah, the Canadian seats have to have the CMVSS sticker instead of the FMVSS sticker that American seats have. Up until recently, Roundabouts were also certified to a different set of weight limits than they were in the US. Physically, materially, apart from the bilingual nature of the packaging/instructions/print on the seat, and some minor differences in the stuff covered in said print, the seats are the same between the two countries.

And yeah, as far as I can tell, all of the Canadian distributors have sold out of their pre-LATCH stock, and none have gotten the new post-LATCH stock. One, (Lil Niblets and Baby Sprouts, I think) said that they are not planning to distribute Britax in the future!!

I realize that this is not the first of Britax's marketing/distribution gaffes, but fer the love 'o' Mike, guys... you knew that you were going with LATCH _years_ ago!! How hard would it have been to start the certification/distribution process a bit earlier? I wonder if somewhere there isn't a self-fulfilling prophecy at work. Someone in the bureaucracy has decided that Canada will not be a very profitable market, so they don't advertise here, and they only set up distributorships with three or four little boutique places in Toronto, they let their supply line completely lapse for months during the LATCH changeover, and *presto* Canadian sales live up/down to the expectations!!

Love the seats, hate the company.

KathyO, frustrated Canuck

[KimberleyDawn]

Thanks for the info!
Post as soon as you have an opinion on the Alpha Omega.
Kim

[crazyshopper]

Hello,

As a fellow frustrated Canadian, I hear your pain!!!

Since the Britax isn't available here (with the LATCH), I am debating between the Century Next Step and the Evenflo Comet...KathyO, if I'm not mistaken, in another post, you mentioned that you have the Evenflo Comet...how do you like it? It seems better priced than the Next Step, but it only comes in blue (I would like black)...where did you get yours?

I have a Jetta, so I hope it will fit!

Thanks,
crazyshopper

[KathyO]

It's a friend of mine who has the Evenflo Comet, and likes it, and she is one of the more critical shoppers I know. On the question of fit, try the compatibility database at www.carseatdata.org if you haven't checked there already.

For those Canadians who are still pining after the FPSE convertible, I did just notice some on ebay.ca and ebay.com, which are being sold by a seller registered in Canada. You'd certainly want to verify with the seller BEFOREHAND that these seats actually HAVE the CMVSS sticker ON them, but since FPSEs were being sold in Canada for some time after they ran out in most US outlets, the odds are not bad that these are Canadian seats, and legit for use up here.

Hope that helps!

KathyO

KimberlyDawn, I got so excited yesterday - found a single lonely FPSE at the Zellers one town over, and was all set to track you down and offer to ship it to you, but the styrofoam inserts were all cracked, and Fisher-Price is no longer replacing them, phooey...

[KimberleyDawn]

Don't tease me like that!!!!!!! I'm still in a desperate state over a choice of car seat. Look at the emotional roller coaster I have been on!!!!
Comfort Sport- Canadian approved but crappy reviews from various owners and I SO DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH THE STAPS!!!
Britax- NOT Canadian approved
Triumph- NOT Canadian approved
AO- I just can't figure out if people actually like it or not!
Century and Cosco- I just don't know...

KathyO:
JUST TELL ME WHICH TYPE OF SEAT TO BUY!!!! I don't want to have to try and figure this out anymore!!! If you had my Canadian selection which seats would you choose (number them (1) being best and so on...)? Ya, I know it would be just your opinion and I still need to make my mind up in the end...
Kim

[KathyO]

Okay, so you know this is just my opinion... I emphatically invite any of the on-board car seat techs or other experts to weigh in on this one (given that we are working from a limited set of possibilities in this market...)

If it were me, I'd seriously consider getting one (or two) FPSE's off eBay.ca or ebay.com... but first I'd make absolutely sure from the seller that these are seats with the Canadian sticker on them. (A couple of vendors are describing the seats as both CMVSS and FMVSS-certified... no seat will have BOTH stickers. It's one or the other.) I love my FPSE, and so does my girlfriend who bought one. The prices being charged by eBay vendors on the "Buy It Now" option are not that far off what you'd pay to get it new back when it was more commonly available.

If that didn't work out... I'd probably take a good hard look at the Comfort Sport, and make up my own mind about the straps. Hey, there's no seat out there that doesn't have people who hate it... I'd probably spring for the one with the cushy padding (LVX, I think - available at The Bay, last I looked). I firmly believe that a comfy child is a less-fussy child.

If that didn't look like a seat I could live with... well, I'd have to do another round of homework to decide which of the leftovers was first in line. But I'd avoid Cosco products (in their Eddie Bauer and Safety First forms as well) if I possibly could, because I really intensely dislike Cosco as a company, and do not trust their safety/response to complaints record. And on a usability level, three of the moms in my group bought the AO, and all three hate it and wish they'd gotten something else. Besides, the options you can choose from when it's time to get out of the convertible and into a toddler-booster are lots more appealing than the Canadian convertible choices are, and include a couple which harness up to 48 pounds (hooray!) which the AO won't let you do.

Oh, and somewhere in there I'd write a cranky letter to Britax about their crummy management of their Canadian distributorship - here we stand with CASH IN HAND, wanting to buy their product, and WHERE ARE THEY????

So there you have the line from here! I'm sorry - I really didn't mean to tease you about the FPSE - it's just so's you know that there are girlfriends out here keeping an eye out on your behalf!

Keep us posted,

KathyO

[KimberleyDawn]

KathyO,
Thank you sooo much for the above info!!!!
I coundn't find the Comfort Sport you suggested on The Bay website but I found this one at Sears. Is this the seat you meant?
http://www.sears.ca/cgi-bin/ic_item.cgi?lang=e&id=169&cid=24&itemID=98161
Kim

[KathyO]

That's the one - DLX. If they're not available for visual inspection at your local Sears, I know for sure I saw one at the Bay. Their online store is www.hbc.com (although I imagine the price is pretty comparable). Frankly, the cup holders and all that hoo-haa doesn't do anything for me, but I remember feeling the padding on the ComfortSport DLX and thinking that it was the closest I'd felt to the padding on the Roundabout. I can't believe some of the hard, angles-and-corners stuff they expect your kid to sit in for long periods. I mean, I've got a lot more padding on my butt than my toddler does, and _I'D_ be screaming for mercy after a few minutes, I swear!

Hope that helps,

KathyO

[hipmaman]

My 2 cents...

As far as I know, Li'l Niblets still says that they would get the Britax seats in later this August. They don't know if they will get the RA or MA (Marathon) as well, as Britax is not telling them (that's what they claim).

I heard the LATCH RA took this long to pass the Canadian tests, hence the delay in production. I also heard that the MA which is certified for use rf 33 lbs and ff 60 lbs in the US, will only be ff 48 lbs in Canada. This PO'ed me off, but that's a different story :) This has something to do with Transport Canada insisting that the top tether and LATCH having the same weight limit (48 lbs) or something like that.

Anyway, this is to show you that everything we hear is inconsistent and might or might not be true at all. The only thing to know for sure is to keep checking with the stores and when they have the inventory, you'll know.

As for which seat to try other than the Britax, Victory V, Comfort Sport DLX are the plusher ones. Tribute V, Accel DX V, Comfort Sport LX are less padded.

And personally, while I like the quality of the FPSE, at this point, I hesitate to get one since the last time one was made was in 2001 (or early 2002). You don't know how old those on ebay are made and you only have about 6 yrs for a seat to be 'usable' and 'safe'. The other thing with the FPSE, I find the seatback short (shorter than those mentioned up there) and that means your child would not last in it as long as a seat with taller back. My ds had about 1" of seat over the top of his head at 10 months (long torso) while he is still okay in the RA now at 27 months. Plus, it legally only has 22 lbs rf weight limit.

Good luck.

[Piglet]

What about the Evenflo Victory? I don't know much about it, but thought I might mention it as an option...

http://www.babyproofingplus.com/item1625.htm

As for the FPSE route - that is a hard one. I "illegally" used mine to 30lbs RF, based on the fact the seat wasn't at all different than the US one, jut TC didn't do a re-cert. since Fisher Price was no longer manufacturing them. I am not suggesting that it is the best thing to do, but I had my reasons (DS was 22 lbs before his 1st birthday).

I do tend to agree with Hipmaman on the age thing, though. You want the longest lifespan out of your car seat and I would hate to buy something that was already 2 years old (at $200). Also, I don't know how helpful FP will be with their seat in years to come. If they aren't offering replacement foam, then they probably will not help you if something gets lost or breaks within a little while. That having been said, if all you are trying to do is bide the time until Britax comes to Canada, you can buy a cheap (and safe) convertible for the time being and then buy a Britax at your earliest opportunity. The cheaper one can then be re-sold, given to grandparents, etc. Just a thought.

Marina