New seat/booster for 5 year old

[khalloc]

My DD currently rides in a high back booster that has a 5 point harness. She uses the harness. Its a Cosco High Back Booster. But she is about 38.5 pounds and the seat said the harness only goes to 40 pounds. DH bought this seat on his own after we lost one at an airport. I've heard here that her current seat is not the best to use as a real booster and I would like to keep her harnessed a bit longer.

She is just over 41" tall and 38.5#. The Frontier looks nice, but honestly I do not want to spend $250+ on a seat and she doesnt ride in his car all that much. Mainly she is in my car in a Radian. I am wondering about the Graco Nautilus.

I also have a 2.5 year old who is in a Marathon in my car and Scenara in DH's. I could potentially pass a seat down to him at some point and get her a regular booster when she is a little older (maybe 7?).

Thanks.

[Joolsplus2]

The Nautilus should be a good choice, it will fit harnessed for another year (or more, depending on how long you want to keep her harnessed, it's quite tall, fits lots of kids to age 7!), and it becomes a good booster. I think if you hunt around with coupons or at walmart, they are $150ish? If you want to go even cheaper, the Evenflo Maestro is a taller harnessed seat, 50lb weight limit, and makes a good booster later, but I'd say it's one step up from what you have already, while the Nautilus is 2 steps up...a $200 Frontier would be 2.5 steps up, if you want to keep everyone harnessed to age 8 and highback boostered much longer :D
At 5 you could also consider a booster, like the Britax Parkway SGL, and it could be pink, a special seat that doesn't have to be gender neutral for the hand-me-downability and can move to your car later... it just depends on whether she'll sit properly in it and DH is on board with making sure she keeps the belt properly positioned for the whole trip (many kids, particularly if riding alone in the back seat, are very good booster riders at 5)

:)

[khalloc]

Well right now we sometimes use DH's car on longer trips. Its a 2010 Prius and DD does fall asleep in the car on longer trips. So thats why I thought a harness would be best. I am seeing the Nautilus on Amazon for $139.72. I might just get that. Probably not right now, but at the latest early in January.

[Joolsplus2]

I think the Parkway has better sleep support than the Nautilus for most kids in most cars, oddly enough. The headwings are deeper and they don't push the head forward (the Nautilus is oddly shaped, the headrest really does push the kids head forward, they are renowned for causing head slump in napping kiddos). If she's not a sleeper, you can't beat the cupholders on the Nauti, though :D