Combi Shuttle 33 Infant Car Seat: Thoughts?

[oatmealgal]

My husband and I are expecting our first child (a girl!) in May 2010. After dinner we stopped by our local Babies R' Us to have a look around and get some hands-on experience with baby gear. In looking at the carseats, we both really liked the Combi Shuttle 33 Infant Car Seat; it seemed relatively lightweight, had a higher weight capacity (33lbs) than other models on display, and was the easiest (in our opinion) to get in and out of its base. Additionally, the Shuttle 33 was SO incredibly easy to snap into and out of the Combi Cosmo Ex Stroller--which we LOVED because it was lightweight, much easier than the Graco behemoths to wheel around, and which was incredibly easy to manouver throughout the store.

We were both really excited thinking we had managed to find something we liked in the midst of the insanity at BRU, and when we got home I opened my Baby Bargains (8th edition) book to see the review for Combi and was really disappointed. I realize that the review in the book doesn't cover the apparently very new/recently launched Combi Shuttle 33, but still... a C? I've looked high and low on the internet and because of how new the product is, there are no reviews that I can find (nothing even on NHTSA, Amazon, Car-Seat blog, etc).

Does anyone have any experience, thoughts, opinions, etc about the Combi Shuttle 33? I still really like the carseat (though after reading through comments about other Combi products I want to check out how easy it is to use the straps, etc) and am hopeful that this newest Combi iteration addresses the apparent earlier parent gripes and recall issues from its Shuttle line in 2008. Is this just a case of parenting-newbie idealism?

Of course our daughter's safety is paramount above all else so if it turns out Combi isn't safe, I won't give it another look.

Thanks for any insight you can offer :o)

[Joolsplus2]

I had a Centre, predecessor to the Shuttle, and the only thing that drove me absolutely batty about it was that it had a plastic 'puzzle buckle', you had to hold the two buckle tongues together to get it snapped in the buckle. It's really hard to do with an actual baby wriggling in the seat. IF they've changed that, I'd have pretty much no complaints with it, I liked how it installed, I liked you can leave the handle up, I liked how light it is, I like the anti-rebound feature, and the Cosmo's not a bad little stroller for pushing a carseat or toddler around (especially if you aren't in looooove with gigantic shopping baskets like the Gracos have, I'm a light traveler, myself, and dealt with a tiny basket just fine).

Oh, I hope my BRU gets these! Gracos and Chiccos are nice, but we have so many of them it gets a bit boring when there's nothing new to play with :tongue5:

[oatmealgal]

Thank-you so much for your reply Joolsplus2; I was kind of freaking out last night that my opinions weren't in sync with the Combi review I read in BB (sort of like "OMG, I am a horrible parent for liking a brand that the authors think is sub-par!"). I'm glad that you had a positive experience with Combi (minus the straps)--we're also light travelers and were incredibly impressed with how easy it was to use the Combi (we were fairly befuddled by the Graco travel system). I hope your BRU gets this soon so you can play with it :)

We're definitely going to go back and play with the Combi some more, and also compare to the Chicco (which we read positive things about); hopefully some formal product reviews will be forthcoming in the next couple months (before we actually buy a carseat).

Thanks for the reassurance :)

[Joolsplus2]

Don't worry about waiting for Consumer Reports or the BB Book, this board is way more up to date :). And www.carseatblog.com has lots of fabulous reviews (I'm trying to remember if they've done a Shuttle, it's worth a search, I'll look later and link to it if there is, too).