Graco Argos 80 Elite 3-in-1 Car Seat, Azalea

I thoroughly research nearly everything before I buy, especially when it involves the safety of my favorite tiny humans! I recently bought two forward-facing Graco carseats for my youngest son. Although he is my 4th baby, I'd been out of the toddler loop for several years thinking we had our last baby 12 years ago. Fate had other plans and we adopted a newborn 18 months ago, starting all over with babies! (Did I mention my oldest is almost 20?)Having been impressed with Graco products over the years with my first 3, and having tried other brands as well, I wasn't surprised by the good reviews on their car seats. I bought a Graco Nautilus LX for one vehicle (at a baby goods store), and this seat (here on Amazon) for the other vehicle. We've been pleased with both. Both seem sturdy and safe, were easy enough to install correctly, and are comfy looking. Our son loves riding in both seats. I bought them about a week apart, and he spotted them when I had removed them from their boxes and wanted to sit in them while still in the living room, which was a handy time to adjust all the settings to his size.Installation can take a while to do correctly, so make sure you don't wait until you need to be someplace in a short timeframe to install! Even though I've installed and used many different seats over the past 20 years, I still read every new seat's manual, and my current vehicle's as well. Every vehicle is different, and not every carseat is compatible with every vehicle, especially if you need more than one carseat at a time! These seats aren't designed to be moved in and out regularly, and that wouldn't be easy to do.I have a contact allergy to rubber and rubber accelerators, and love that the arm rests on this particular seat have fabric covers! (In the Argos 80 Elite in "Go Green" pattern) Not all of Graco's seats have this feature, even in their deluxe or elite models. The Nautilus seat we bought does not, but it seems to be basically the same design as the Argos, so I went to the Graco website and bought a set of replacement arm rest pads for this seat (roughly $15 including shipping) and installed them on the Nautilus. Perfect fit!This carseat is easy to adjust to fit as the child grows, and seems comfortable, secure and safe - most importantly! I recommend it.

I've used mostly Britax up until I tried this Graco car seat after some research. I got this mostly because of the good reviews and the price. I like the cup holder, and the fact that it is a 3 in one. The weight is heavy but it's what I expected of a car seat. The height adjustment is good but definitely does not click and operate as smoothly as my Britax Frontier. The 5 point harness seat buckle has a cover, but the Velcro for the cover is so small that it constantly comes off. As the result, my kids inner thigh sometimes rub on the strap and causes discomfort. The shoulder strap clicker is hard to come apart. The 5 point harness is also very hard to tighten by pulling on the bottom strap after the kid is buckled in. We found the cause of the issue is with the shoulder strap pads. They are rubbery so they catch the straps and causes a lot of resistance when you try to tighten. Overall, the car seat gets the job done and keeps my kid safe, but I would go for a Britax if the extra cost is not an issue because I find Britax made product have more thought behind them, operate smoother and require less work-arounds.

I ordered this car seat for my daughter when we turned her forward facing. I read many, many reviews and was drawn to this seat. The biggest reason for me was the weight limit. 80lbs in the harness is unheard of! I have seen so many that only go to 40lbs, and that terrifies me. No way would my daughter be ready to use the car seat belt at 40lbs! This will be the last seat that we need thanks to the high weight limits. Once she is out of the harness, it still has the high back booster option up to 100lbs and then no back booster up 120lbs. It provides such peace of mind to know that she is safe and secure, and will be for many years to come.As far as installation, it could have been smoother. I have a Hyundai Elantra, so a fairly small car. I had a lot of trouble trying to use the LATCH system because the anchors in my car were narrower than where they are on the seat. I think this is the fault of my car more than the seat. It is sized for an infant seat and not a big kid seat. I ended up using the seat belt and had a much easier time. This afforded me the opportunity to try out the seat belt lock off. It was very easy to use, and with lock offs on both sides it allows freedom to install on any side of the car you want.I had to get the seat belt fully tightened before locking it, because any slack that was there then gets locked in. I did have to redo it after my first attempt as there was still some slack in the belt. After struggling with the latch system, the belt was much easier. I periodically check it as advised in the manual, and it has yet to loosen at all. The seat is very snug and does not budge.The seat comes with body support that can only be used from 20 - 22 pounds. In my opinion, a child that small should not even be using this seat. They should still be rear facing. I was disappointed when I read that, because without that support the seat looks far less comfortable. But my daughter seems to find the seat very comfortable and routinely falls asleep in it.My favorite feature is the adjustable harness/head rest. They are both adjusted with just one hand from the front. There is no need to uninstall the seat, unlace the harness just to move the shoulder straps. Her previous seat we had to do that every time she grew! This is so much easier to adjust!My daughter's favorite feature is the "secret" pockets. She loves to put her sunglasses in there. She is very proud that she can get them in and out all by herself. It is great for storing things that will be routinely used during a car ride but are a pain to continually hand back and forth.My one dislike with the seat is the harness covers. They are thick and bulky, and seem to bother my daughter when she first gets in the seat. From the manual:"With the chest clip at arm pit level, be sure the harness covers are all the way down to the chestclip as shownž. CHECK that long side of harness covers are BEHIND chest clip."It would be nice if the covers were smaller, or removable, or could be higher up covering more of the shoulders. Usually I can just spread them out and that seems to be fine with her.I am very pleased overall with this seat, and recommend it to anyone looking for a forward facing seat. I am probably going to end up getting another one for her to have in grandma's car.