Looking forward to using it again with our second child
safety conscious, practical, looking for durability, budget conscious
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| Cons |
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JAN
27
2008
Chicco Cortina Travel System —
My wife and I are going to have our second child in about 3 months and our children will be just 18 months apart. My daughter used this car seat for the first 5 months of her life, not because she weighed more than the minimum but more because she no longer looked comfortable in the car seat, even with all the inserts removed. We like this solution much better than the comparable Graco MetroLite because of how safe the car seat is and how easy it is to install. We also compared it to the Peg Perego and liked it as it was lighter and a much better value for our money.However, we do have some complaints. As you will read in other reviews, the car seat does not fit well in many shopping carts. Target was about the only ones they fit in where we live. Of course, many people told us not to put the car seats up there anyway for fear of tipping, so we didn't find this to be a big issue.
The second issue was that one of the pieces of the five point harness in the stroller stuck together and is still stuck. For this reason, we haven't used this stroller in a long time and won't use it other than to carry the infant seat. I tried to use screw drivers, pliers, and all sorts of tools to disconnect these pieces and we have been completely unsuccessful.
The third issue is that now that we are having our second child, we can't find any double strollers that claim support for the infant car seat from Chicco. This is a problem if you want to use a dual stroller and overall very disappointing. Noone told us this before and we didn't have the foresight to look into this, even though we planned to try to have kids fairly close in age.
Finally, the last issue I have is that this car seat takes up a lot of room in the backseat. In our Honda Pilot EX, we have to slide the seat all the way forward to fit this car seat in. That seems crazy to me as the SUV itself isn't small to begin with. How do people use these in small compact cars?
Even though I have these issues, friends of ours have had far worse issues with other vendors and I can't say that I am unhappy at all. I love the Chicco Cortina System we have and wouldn't change my decision in hindsight. Here is more about what I love:
The car seat base is so easy to install...with a level on the base and all. When the car seat enters the base it makes a distingushable click sound that relieves worries of not having the car seat properly in place.
The stroller moves easily no matter the size of the child.
The head support means there is no need to buy those third party head supports. Its removable in stages as your child grows.
The snack tray is easy to remove and clean.
The fabric is very durable.
The handlebars being movable is very important for my wife and I since we are 9" different in height.
Finally, it was a great value for what we paid.
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After one of our friend's 5 point harness also stuck together, I decided I better downgrade my rating from a 5 star to a 4 star review. The problem is, once they stick together you have to pry the hook out with a screwdriver...and the 5 point harness never works well again.
Last edited on May 09, 2008
Chicco Cortina Travel System is recommended by ejbst25
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