Convince me that we need to buy Britax car seats...

Well there really is no reason you *need* britax seats. But if you can afford it, I highly suggest getting them. I truly feel they are safer, not just from crash test ratings, but because they are simpler to install, therefore less likely to be used wrong.

If your DD is very tall in the torso, it will be worth it to buy a britax regent which has the highest harness slots of any seat. If you shop around, you can find them as low as $200 with shipping. If she's leggy and not too terribly tall in the torso, you can buy something less pricey, like a cosco apex for $100 (which needs headrests behind it) or a sunshine radian, which you can get as low as $180 on sale. Both harness to 65 lbs I think and do not have as high of harness slots as the regent.

If you expect the boys to be tall too, then one of the britax convertibles that harness to 65 lbs will be worth it. Yes, they are expensive, but they have the tallest top harness slots of any convertible on the market, I think.

Or you could get something cheap for the boys right now, like cosco sceneras ($40-50) and put more money into Britax regents (or whatever they will be called in a few years) later. The cosco scenera only harnesses to 40 lbs, but it has higher harness slots than any other 40 lb limit convertibles and it rf's to 35 lbs, rather than 30 or 33 lbs.

Any way you work it, your DD needs to be harnessed and your twins need to be in convertibles, whether you decide to buy one or two new ones. Good luck!

What kind of carseat do you already have (your dd's old one)?

I'm also wondering this. The Evenflo Triumph got the same marks in the CR tests and costs a bit less. So now I'm confused :

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That little bit of price difference goes a long way. If I'm not mistaken (I might be ) the triumph has some of the lowest harness slots out of the convertibles seats, so it's outgrown by height fairly early by average sized kids. So, if your 3 year old outgrows his evenflo convertible and needs yet another seat before he's ready to go into a booster, you didn't save any money at all, KWIM?

I've also heard that evenflo seats suck. : I guess they are pain in the butt to use??? I don't know. My sister had one and she hated it with a passion and she's not picky about car seats like I am.

So crash ratings are only part of what you need to look at when you pick a seat. Britax seats do extremely well in crash ratings AND they have higher harness weights and taller harness slots.

That doesn't mean everyone needs britax. A lot of average kids can go straight from a cheap seat like the cosco scenera, into a booster. The great thing about britax is that taller or heavier than average kids aren't put in boosters before they are ready. And of course, sometimes kids aren't mature enough for a booster until 6 or 7 years old, so that gives parents more options.

I love our evenflo triumph they are so easy to adjust the straps .

We moved my 3yr old out a few months back because she was so tall, she does great in the booster which is a graco with the seatbelt, plus she met the wieght requrement to move to the boost she was 33lbs or so when we moved her.

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See, but that's the thing. You moved your DD out of a harness because she outgrew the seat, but it is *strongly* recommended that you keep your child harnessed until AT LEAST 4 years AND 40 lbs. I think it is even th law in some states. If you are aware of the huge risks of using a booster this early, then I won't try to change your mind, but you shouldn't encourage others to use a booster that early. It's just not safe. If you aren't aware of the risks, you need to read up on it a bit and watch some crash test videos.

The seats with the lower harness slots should be avoided because you will likely be tempted to just buy a booster instead of a higher weight harnessed seat when they outgrow their seat at an early age. Using a booster too early can be very dangerous.

That's one reason I love britax. They have so many options to keep your child harnessed and they really seem to care about kids' safety. I can't say the same thing for other car seat manufacturers who obviously don't care if their customers are harnessed until the are ready for a booster.

I know exactly what you're going through, I just went through all this a few weeks ago prior to going on vacation that included long hours in the car. DS2 at 8mo was well over the limit for his infant seat. I spent hours reading lots of the old threads here on MDC and following links. Thankyou MDC and all the posters in those threads, I felt very priviledged to benefit from all the advice and experiences. I became convinced that I wanted the Britax Marathon convertible for DS2, and spent hours trawling the internet for a decently priced Marathon with no luck. Then I spoke to a carseat technician and she reinforced all that I had read and also told me that DD at nearly 3 would be better off in a Regent rather than her current carseat. I balked at the price but not as much as DH, however the sweetener for us came when the carseat tech GAVE us a brand new Regent!!!!!!! We had gone to have her fit the Marathon we had just bought (DH stayed in the car outside Babies R Us - he just couldn't bear it!) and she happened to have a brand new Regent right there, so she fitted it into our car for DD. Many thanks to a wonderful woman!
So it might be worth calling carseat technicians in your area for advice, who knows you might luck into something!

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You really lucked out!

My DH hates to spend money on car seats too, but he just looks the other way and lets me do my thing. We recently sold our marathon to my sister, whose DS was outgrowing his snugride, and bought a regent. My DS is only 19 months, but he has a freakishly long torso. He was coming close to the rf'ing height limit on the marathon, so I weighed my options and just decided to sell while I still could (the seat was only a year old) and we found a geat deal on our regent ($200 with free shipping).

I fully intend to keep him harnessed until he no longer fits in the seat. Hopefully, his legs will start to grow and his torso will slow down a bit. His shoulders are already level with the second slots on the regent. Another 1/2 a centimeter and I'll have to move the harness up to the third slots. He's built like his daddy. :

And that's another thing I wanted to point out....

Lots of the 40 lb limit car seats have a top harness height of 13-14 inches. My DS's torso is 14.5-15 inches with a diaper and fully clothed. He's only 19 months and 29 lbs and he would have outgrown many of those car seats already. He does have a long torso for his height, but he's only in the 75% for height. He's not *that* big. Just something to think about.

I just bought a Britax Marathon, it came yesterday and I haven't installed it yet, but that's the plan for tomorrow morning! I bought it because they are very highly rated, and you pretty much never hear anyone on here posting about how much they hate their Marathon--it seems like most people really like them and find them easy to use and find that their kids are comfortable in them. And like the PP said, they have a lot of room to grow into. I like it that I'll be able to keep her rear facing for quite a while, which is safer. Also, for me a big deal was that they have a 100% cotton seat cover (the "New Blues" denim one.) We live in the desert and my DD is a sweaty little beast, she gets really hot and uncomfortable in her current infant seat which has that shiny silver-colored nylon-y rough synthetic fabric on it.

But anyway, I found this seat on sale at babystyle.com for $218. With shipping and taxes it came to about $259, but still cheaper than a lot of places, and I couldn't find the 100% cotton covered one anywhere locally.

We splurged and bought the Britax Marathon and we absolutely love it. We did it for a few reasons. First, it was one of the few seats that fit properly in the center of our Honda Civic. We tried a couple of others (a hand-me-down and another brand we eventually returned) and the instructions said to wedge a towel under the car seat. : It just seemed a little tippy when we did that. The other thing that sold us on it was the incredible safety record. According to our research, the Britax is the only one that surpasses the Transport Canada recommendations for car seats. The others meet the recommendations, but we liked the surpass thing.

But then again, we're ever so slightly the over-protective, hand-wringing variety of parent, the kind who fret about kids with snotty noses making our son sick... :

I should say that you are the only one, however, who truly knows your family's needs. I wouldn't say you absolutely need a Britax. But it is a great car seat.

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My sister is also going to have to buy another harnessed seat, although she doesn't realize it yet. Not for the reasons your sister is, but because her DD is tall also and she has the alpha omega and the top slots are really low. I can't imagine her DD wil even be 2 when she outgrows the harness. I wish she had come to me before buying it. It could have saved her money in the long run. Oh well. Maybe I'll be able to convince her to get a regent when that seat is outgrown.

The AO is one of those seats that has really low harness slots. Just from lurking around car seat boards, it seems to be outgrown by height at around age 2.5. WAY too young to use it as a booster. It claims to be the only seat you'll ever have to buy, but they are sooo lying.

I cannot say it enough: How high the harness goes makes a *huge* difference in how long the seat can be used. Most kids outgrow seats by height before they hit the weight limits. Just because the seat can be used until 40 lbs, doesn't mean your child will be 40 lbs when they outgrow it.