Customer Reviews

Graco SnugRide 32 Infant Car Seat, Zurich

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When we learned we were having twins, and one of each sex, at that, we discovered a dilemma: finding a fairly gender-neutral color scheme/pattern in pretty much everything we would be getting for them. Then, we took a car seat class at the hospital where we were delivering and learned what to look for in a car seat. The Graco SnugRide32 Zurich fulfilled all criteria. The sage/lime green (which later inadvertently became one of the colors of the nursury) and brown fulfilled the gender-neutral criteria, while looking pretty darned classy at the same time. I now feel like I have to dress up when I'm lugging these things around, just to pull it all together.
Anyway, the features are what's important: The instructor in the car seat class stated that the American Pediatric Association recommends that an infant remain rear-facing in a car seat until 1 year of age or 30 lbs. The SnugRide32 meets this standard and then some, which was rather attractive and money-saving in the long run, as most of the other car seats we looked at had weight limits that topped out at 20-something pounds. This one rates up to 32 lbs. The SnugRide32 base also has the LATCH system feature, which makes installation a lot easier if your car was made in 2003 or later. If not, as in our case, installation is still really easy, as the base has a built-in clamp that helps hold the seat belt more tightly in place, thus keeping the whole thing locked down more securely. Also, the seat has a five-point, fully adjustable harness system that keeps baby safe and snug as a bug in a rug. Finally, it has the one feature that our instructor said was worth whatever extra it may cost--the front harness adjustor strap. You just put the little one in the seat and put his or her extremities in the harness, click the buckles into place, and pull the strap tight. That's it. No need to turn the seat around and fumble with the tightening straps on the back. With this seat, you can just strap 'em in, pull 'em tight, and go. I love efficiency. And the most important reason of all is that my babies love their car seats and could probably sit in them for days if we let them. Wonderful product.

When we were looking for a car seat, it kind of came down to the Peg Perego or the Graco. I mean, as others have pointed out, there are really only a few manufacturers anyways and most of them are pretty similar.
The Graco won out because of a handful of key points:
- The Graco was significantly lighter vs. the Peg (and if you don't think so, you must be Superman...)
- The mechanism to move the handle out of the way was slightly awkward on the Peg, especially for smaller hands
- The Graco was A LOT cheaper. But to be honest, the Graco looks like it. Peg looks like it is a quality design. This Graco model was the best option of the Graco's, the others were so "cheap" looking and the grab handle has sharp edges so you can't hook it on your arm to carry.

So after actually _using_ it, what do I think? That maybe I should have gone with the Peg. Here's why:
- Even with the latch system, the base of the seat doesn't seem terribly secure. I really tugged on it to tighten the straps as much as I could, but still....
- The sitting position for baby? Not so good. Baby gets really crunched up, which may kind of seem secure, but it crunches up baby's breathing passages and also his stomach so baby tends to throw up milk if put in the seat immediately after feeding
- Baby's back gets really sweaty after only short trips in the seat. This never happens in the stroller.
- The should strap system is really bad design. They are _just_ too short to hang them off the side or hook them out of the way when putting baby in. It's stupid, a couple more centimetres and it would've been fine. *** Note: I just checked the Peg, and the design here is way better. It doesn't have this problem and the straps stay nicely out of the way.
- Due to the crunched up sitting position, we don't actually carry baby in the carrier, so weight doesn't really matter that much. That, and as baby gets heavier, the weight of the car seat becomes less significant. *** Note: Regarding the Peg again, I had another look at one, and yes, the design is way better here too. Baby is not as crunched up.
- Also, since we don't carry the car seat out any more, the mechanism to move the handle out of the way, despite not being quite as convenient, is also a moot point.

It's surely an okay seat, but if you're in the market for one, I highly recommend you take a seriously look at the useability given how YOU would use it. Basically the only advantages I see are price and lightweight, both of which are negated by how I use it anyways...
(Yeah, and regarding the price, the Graco looks really cheap, and not in a good way, next to the Peg).

I'll cut to the chase - while this IS a very safe car seat for children to ride in, it is NOT an easy seat for some parents to deal with.

This seat is BIG; if you don't drive an SUV or mini-van it will gobble up your back seat.

This seat is DEEP; newborns can be very difficult to extract from the seat without pulling them by the arms or shirt front. Additionally smaller newborns can experience breathing difficulties from neck flexion as the seat tends to push their chin down to their chest.

This seat is HEAVY; that gal you saw happily arm carrying her infant in it's seat at the store isn't gonna be you. This seat is gonna make you work for it - and wake the little one sleeping while you do it, because its weight makes it very awkward getting in and out of the vehicle as well as extremely cumbersome to simply carry. Door frames, you will soon learn, are not your friend.

This seat's straps were designed by the Devil himself. The straps are too short to pull out of the way for the child's placement, so you always end up setting the child on top, then pulling them out from underneath - again guaranteeing that you will wake them. As well, the vaunted 5 point buckle requires a form a hand strength that is usually reserved for professional wrestlers - only the buckle is barely large enough for the average adult hand to manipulate. Its great fun to time yourself trying to get the silly thing open when Baby is in full battle cry. Once you have it open, its back to fighting with the straps again as they aren't long enough to fully pull out of the way, and will repeatedly grab the child up around the shoulders and arms.

Lastley, this seat is HOT; the number one reason for mid-drive pull overs - sweaty screaming kid.

My baby is 4.5 months old, and 16 pounds, and the harness straps are extremely tight for her. She is only 26 inches in length! I don't think the harness has been designed well. I called Graco and they said there is nothing they can do about it and that I will need to switch to a convertible car seat. If you have an alternative, go with it. I would not recommend this product to anyone.

We love this carseat. Its gender neutral and very well made. We had a graco before this one, but it was one that only held babies up to 26 inches long----and our long babies outgrew it before they were four months old!!! This carseat is awesome since it holds babies much longer.
The one obvious flaw in this particular design/model is that it has the "peekaboo" window, which I presume is for viewing your child. While this is a nice feature to have, someone did not think very hard about when you are outside the sun shines through right onto the baby! They should have included a velcro shade cover that you could fold over to cover the window and then roll back and fasten at other times. I've thought about trying to fashion a cover myself, but with a newborn who really has the time!!???

This is my first review of anything ever, but given my experience with this car seat now, I thought it would be important to share my story.

I was just in a bad car accident this past week with my son in the Graco SnugRide32 Model #1750168 (red and brown - not sure if shown here as an option in color). The other driver ran a red light, and I crashed into him head on into the driver side of his car, going around 40 mi/hr. My car is totaled. My 21-month old child was in this car seat in the back seat behind the passenger side. I still had it rear-facing. He is absolutely fine, went to the hospital just in case, and he was discharged the same night. By law, when your car seat (whether a child is in it or not) is in an accident, it must be replaced. I am 7 mo. pregnant, so I am buying the same seat for my daughter who is coming this winter (who so far seems to be fine from the accident - thank goodness).

Though a tad heavy, I am so happy I was able to keep my son rear-facing for this long because of this seat. (I also hear that people are starting to recommend rear-facing as old as age two.) When my son was an infant, it didn't seem so heavy, and as a mom, your strength grows as your child grows. It only got difficult in the last couple of months because I was pregnant again. Safety was number #1 priority for me, so it is a small price to pay for the added weight.

The base is very easy to install and move from car to car - 30 seconds or so.

My son would get a little hot sleeping in it at times. However, he slept very peacefully in it (and in the beginning, it was the only place he would sleep even at night), and as of last week, I would still sometimes take him for a car ride in this seat to get him down for a nap when he would not want to go down.

I am scared to think what a side impact on his side of the car would have done, but in head on crash, this seat was a life saver.

I hope though that none of you have to experience a car crash with your family in the car.

I had a baby in July 2009. I purchased the Snugride 32 beforehand after doing a lot of research. I read other people's opinions and, based on their thoughts, concluded that it would be best to purchase the 32 because I would be able to use it for one year or up to 32 pounds. This logic was faulty for several reasons, which I will outline below. Before I do that, a little background: I have a big baby. He is 6 months and already over 20 pounds. I had a feeling he might be big, which is why I bought this seat. However, the seat is almost at the end of its life already after only 6 months and 20+ pounds. Here's why:

1. The straps are way too short. My son was maxed out within the first couple of months. Why don't they make the straps longer? Why isn't there another setting or two for height? It is a very tight fit. We live in New England and it is now winter and we cannot put him in there with a couple of layers on. We will have to switch to a convertible car seat very soon.

2. There is no way you'd want to carry a baby much larger than 20 pounds in his car seat. You would never use this product up to 32 pounds for this reason. You need a stationary seat anyway once the baby reaches about 20 pounds.

Another major problem with the Rittenhouse model in particular is the lack of head support for an infant. Our baby's head was always flopped to the side. I am giving the seats two stars because it looks nice (I have the Rittenhouse and get many compliments on the nice black and white pattern), seems to work fine and was comfortable for the baby in the first few months. He especially liked it when he was a newborn but he seems cramped now.

We are tight with money right now (who isn't?) and feel that the 32 was a bit of a waste of money. You can purchase a regular [and more lightweight] Snugride for a lower price and use it for the first 3-6 months and then switch over to a convertible seat. If you have a big baby, you will have to do this anyway, whether you buy the 32 or not because the 32 can't accommodate a very large baby. While it is admittedly very useful to have a carrier car seat for a newborn, it becomes much less necessary after 3-6 months. Convertible car seats can face rear so you don't have to worry about compromising your baby's safety.

Unless you only care about style and not price or practicality, I would recommend saving a few bucks and getting the regular Snugride or some other inexpensive but functional carrier seat for the first few months and investing in a good convertible seat for later on.

I ordered this carseat for my baby when I was expecting because it just seemed the smart thing to do with babies coming into this world at 8+ lbs and 19"+ long! Well our little boy came into this world weighing 7.06 lbs and measuring 20" long! Most rear facing carseats only go up to 22 lbs and 22" long, so this was definitely a wise choice. He's only 13 days old and we have used the carseat on 3 occassions and so far so good! It's spacious enough so that he doesn't feel cramped or confined once buckled in. The downfall to that is that his head bobs a bit too much for me because the infant insert is still a little too big. We purchased an additional head support piece (not Graco) to resolve this issue. It works well... He was awake when he was placed in it the second time and he cried a bit but calmed down after he was all tucked in. The other times he was asleep and remained sleeping... The carrier is easy enough to remove from the base which is a huge plus. The colors are rich looking with a baby feel (the green), and can work for either boy or girl (I didn't know what I was having when I ordered it)...The straps are easy enough to adjust once you read the instructions. To date the carrier is not too heavy, but that may change once he puts on some pounds... Overall I love this carseat so far... If that changes I'll add to this later on.

Okay, I'm not sure if this is the case for ALL Graco car seats, or just this one. But seriously, Graco - you need to do something about the straps. My baby is 6 months old and nearly 17lbs and yet I can barely squeeze him into this car seat. As it's now chillier out, I've started dressing my son in warmer sweaters and coats and yet I can't loosen the straps any more on the car seat. Trying to wrangle him into it is an absolute nightmare. Why Graco can't make car seats with longer straps to accommodate growing infants is a mystery to me. And what pains me is that I have no idea what to do. There is no way he'll make it all winter in this car seat - it's simply too tight (and I've adjusted the height of the straps already. The problem is that they just aren't long enough). And yet, I don't really want to fork out another $100+ on another rear-facing car seat. Gah. My other complaint is that the handle doesn't come forward enough so if you want to dangle little toys from it they just hang right in the baby's face. Lastly, it's already pretty heavy, which doesn't seem that big of a deal when you're carrying around a newborn. But once they get to be 14 lbs or so you REALLY notice how heavy it is...

We have had this car seat for 8 months now. I love the pattern, the safety, etc. I bought this because my babies tend to be big and outgrow their car seat before the 12 month mark. My 8 month old is going on 20 pounds now and she fits in the seat and has room to grow taller still, where in many other car seats our kids heads were hitting the top at this point. So, overall the seat seems like it will accomodate a larger infant, but the straps do NOT lengthen enough. They seem to be made for the smaller car seats. Even though my baby still fits height and weight wise, the straps are maxed out and we can barely fasten them now! I would have skipped the infant seat altogether and bought a combo, based on my past experience with bigger babies, but I was sure this seat would last the full 12 months. Graco at the very least should make the straps longer or provide new longer replacement straps or something. False advertising to say it can be used up to 32 pounds(which we are still far from reaching) if the straps won't accomodate an infant that size!