Customer Reviews

Safety 1st Intera 4-in-1 Convertible Car Seat

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this car seat after reading about it in Parents Magazine. I should have gone with my hunch - that it is too new (I could barely find it) and no one had reviewed it yet. The base is huge, but without it the carseat is lopsided. My 29 month old daughter is tall (37") with a long torso and skinny. I struggle with this every day now. At first she fit it perfectly. Now that she has grown a little, I can barely lock the bottom buckle. It seems to not give enough depth, that is, there is not enough room from the back of the seat to the buckle. This is, of course, on the last of the adjustments. She only weighs 28 lbs, so the booster is a long way away. We will have to buy another car seat since we have had the seat for over 3 months (like I said, it fit when we got it). Beware! If you have a tall child, you may want to check out another one better suited for tall children.

My 3 month old son has been using this car seat for a few weeks now. So far we haven't had any real problems with it. It took my husband a while to get it installed in the car, but he was able to get it nice and secure. I wouldn't recommend this though if you plan on switching the seat between cars. We have a minivan, and the seat fits well in it (on the middle bench). It doesn't seem as bulky as some of the other seats we looked at. It seems comfortable, and my son (who's big for his age) fits well in it. The straps and buckle aren't too hard to work (only once have I had a problem with the straps twisting). It's easy to adjust the straps, too. I think only time will tell how much we like this seat, seeing as how we haven't had it forward facing or used it as a booster seat yet, but so far we like it.

Update: after having this seat for almost a year now, it is still working well for us. This seat doesn't have as nice of amenities as some more expensive carseats (like the Britax we also have), but it will work fine if this is what you can afford. I still give it 4 stars.

I have heard so much about this seat is bad. I have a 7 month old & she loves it. I have a SUV & the seat fits perfect. All convertible seats are big. This one is narrow at the base though. The rep at Babies R US told me this seat is selling the best right now. All you have to do is read the book and be patient. It is not hard to install. So many people complain about the metal rod. Use a pair of pliers & screwdriver & the rod comes out fine. After all do you want something that will fall apart or that a 2 yr old can get out. This will last. The seat cover is easy to remove. Overall the best. My daughter & I love this seat!!!!!

We bought this car seat for our at the time 6 month old, as she was outgrowing her infant carrier! Perfect... could not be happier! Easy to install, and for the straps that dangle in back, they are attached with a screw. I just unscrewed them and put them and the screw in a safe place so I wouldn't ever lose them. Our State Police told us this is one of the safest carseats out there, that the ones with the bars that lower down, most infant deaths in car seats are due to them hitting their head on the bar, it's not as padded as it looks, and if their head hit it hard enough, it gave them a concussion. This seat is perfect for us!

I just bought this seat for my 5 month old son after researching about 4 other seats. I was attracted to it's versatility - this will be the only seat I need to buy, and I was pleased with it's appearance. The seat itself is comfortable and once I figured out how the buckles snapped together near the crotch, getting him in and out is a breeze. Installing it in my car wasn't difficult - there are directions on the seat itself and the manual is pretty self explanitory with good graphics to help. The only difficult part was having to adjust the crotch strap. The instructions said to push this steel bar through the base and pull it out from the other side. Sounds easy enough. It took me a hour, sweating in my car, using odds and ends to push and pull this thick steel bar through tough plastic. I ended up pulling a muscle in my arm! After that, though, adjusting the strap was easy and reinstalling the bar and seat in my car was easy. As for the size, the seat is too big for the middle to be rear facing but there is plenty of room behind the pasenger side (I have a Toyota Matrix). If you have the patience to read the book for a few minutes before trying to put it in your car, installing it should be simple. Overall, a great price for a sturdy, safe seat that should last until your child outgrows car seats and boosters.

I bought the Triumph after reading alot of great reviews. I hated it!!! Let's face it, babies make messes. I had to take 4 screws out of the Triumph's back in order to wash the seat cover!!!! Also, this winter we found out that the harness straps are to short for a 15 month old with a winter jacket on (no matter how much strap you pull out!) Now that he is older, and his hands are constanty exploring, he can get them stuck in the chest stap of the Triumph. I have tried tightening the straps, but they are either to tight or to loose. With the Intera the only trouble that I have found it that it was a little big getting it in the car door. It fit fine once I got it in the back of my car, and so far my son loves it. I had no problem with the latch. The Intera's harness belt buckle is a bit tricky, but not that big of a deal.(unless you have a car seat fighter.) I love that the cover comes off easy, but not too easy for little hands. My son doesn't look like the seat is swallowing him like it did in the Triumph. He seems alot more comfortable. The Triumph was too slouchy. The Intera seems to make him sit up straighter, and then I can lean him back with the recline function. I couldn't get my recline to work without fighting with it on the Triumph.

This is a very comfortable seat for my 7 month old. However, I had alot of difficulty installing the unit rear-facing in my midsized SUV . The latch strap was lacking 2-3 inches from reaching the latch if I used the base/booster. I could install the unit without the base but it defeated the purpose to me so I called the 1-800 number and found out the latch belt included was not long enough to accommodate the rear-facing position with the base/booster unit. They promptly took my information and mailed me a longer strap. My daughter seems content so far...

I bought this car seat thinking it would be great to have since it converts into a booster seat....not a bad price for several years worth of car seat safety. What a mistake! I should have known when I started getting confused reading the complicated owner's manual (I'm a TEACHER and it was still very confusing). Just to adjust the buckle you have to remove the entire bottom base part of the seat, which just so happens to involve removing some type of metal rod. After getting extremely frustrated because I simply could not remove the rod (and I'm no wuss), I decided to return it. You have to remove this same metal rod to install the cupholder....as if a 7-month-old needs it anyway! I bought the Evenflo Triumph 5 and I am very pleased with it. There's no cupholder, but we are surviving! You can't go wrong with the Triumph 5! I was told at Toys R Us that the Intera is returned more than any other car seat. Maybe someone should take a hint and get them off their shelves!!??

We went with this car seat because our little girl is the last of our 5 children and we didn't want to have to get her another seat down the road. Boy did we screw up. First of all it is a great price and it looks so comfy but it is extremely huge for being in a normal car, my husband has a LeSabre and it takes up two seat spaces when we use it in there, also the middle buckle can be adjusted if you take the whole base apart which is not the easiest thing in the world. We are taking it back to go with our initial pick of the Triuph DXL it is just like it just doesnt' go to 100lbs but it is alot smaller base wise to fit it in any car. Yes we will need another car seat after she reaches 40lbs but my 3 yr old still isn't 40lbs so I am not too worried about moving her that soon since she is only 7 months old. Boosters range in price of 20 to 40 dollars I will live with that instead of the aggrivation.

Extremely hard to understand instructions and does not fit in a 2004 Subaru OutBack wagon properly with or without base.Brought in by the local Police station to have the safety officer look at it and he even tried to install it and said it was not a very safe seat.Lots of safety issues with it.Seat leans to far back and extra straps in the back of seat just dangle.Manufacture says to tuck extra strap under seat while using the seat in the rear facing position.Not a very good idea belts are still loose and floppy.Not a very good buy.