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Typically when we buy things without research, I'll pull it up on amazon in the store and see how the reviews look.

We have a safety first extra seat that I don't like. Sides are too high and my son always complains it's not comfy.

I like our diano radians a lot though.

We got a graco for our babysitters car and love it. Our everyday seats are foonfs. We also have a Britax pioneer that I love. And I would agree with above we did not like the pria.

@meadow: I would look for one of the graco clones - mysize, fit4me, size4me. Even possibly the contender. They all last until 40 lbs rear facing (they have a rear facing height limit but it's practically impossible to hit) and will last a decent amount of time forward facing.

My TRU had a ton of them left.

For quick info once in store I would look for a review on car seats for the littles.

We have NextFits as our primary seats and have 2 cheap Cosco Scenera Next seats for our other car. They are cheap and like 9lbs and we use them when we fly so we went with the lightest seats. They aren’t as easy to install obviously but they just stay there unless we fly (like once a year) so it’s fine.

I would avoid the Evenflo Tribute. It’s great for travel but rear faces only til 37” so we had to flip our kiddo sooner than we wanted. Plus the strap loosening thingy is terrible and you can get your finger straps in it.

I would go high end enough that it comes with strap covers.

@PinkElephant: I guess I'm always just surprised that kids don't spend roughly equal time in their parents' cars. I know that 1 parents normally does daycare pick up and drop off, but I'm just surprised that the other parent doesn't do trips to the park, library, etc.

@DesertDreams88: Gotcha! My DH is gone 14 hrs/day Monday-Friday, so similar to @Foodnerd81: , if he needs to take more than one big kid somewhere on the weekend, he just drives my car. DD3 is still in a bucket seat, so technically we can put her in his car too using the vehicle belt. So between the two of us, we can always cover any combination of kids we need to transport (just not the two big kids in his commuter car, but that's fine, because we can always put the baby in her bucket seat in his car while the two big girls go somewhere in my SUV). His car is very much a commuter car, so if the kids were going to be in the car for a long time, we wouldn't be using that car, for our own convenience/comfort as well

@SweetCaroline: Agreed! The pria is the worst! We have two and I am physically not strong enough to tighten the one in my husband’s car. I’m a grown woman. How is that possible?!

@Jennibenni: @DesertDreams88: we only had one set of seats until my oldest was 6 and old enough for a booster! Even now that is the only second seat we have, if both kids go somewhere they have to take the family mobile

@DesertDreams88: My kids are in DH’s car 99% of the time. He does daycare drop off and pick up, and on the weekend we only drive his car. He has a new minivan with all the bells and whistles that we love. On the other hand, I have a teeny tiny SUV that pretty much only I like riding in.

The only time I drive the kids is for one off things, like last week I took DD to her 18m ped visit. Oh and we never go to the library (it’s pretty much only open bank hours, ie when we’re working). And we probably go to the park a few times in the spring and that’s it. I would pretty much never think to take the kids without DH.

We have a Graco Extend2Fit for the babysitters car, and a Britax Forward facing only one that my friend gave us when her son outgrew it as the one for my husbands truck.

If you don't find something you want to spend the money on at babies r us or they're out of stock; I bought the Extend2Fit off of Bed Bath & Beyond online with my 20% off one item coupon and got free shipping.