Britax One4Life Slim All-in-One Car Seat, Parchment

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] We've used a total of 5 car seats over the last 10 years for our 7 children. As you can imagine they have gotten a lot of heavy use over the years. The car seat we purchased for my oldest is expiring this year and we needed to find a replacement. By providence, the Stellar Product Testing Panel offered us a car seat to try out and we jumped at the offer. I must say I'm impressed with the durability and features. The three biggest perks are that 1) it is narrow (16.5 inches) and allows for a child to squeeze into the seat next to it, 2) it grows with the child, from a rear-facing newborn to a belt-positioning booster for my elementary schooler, and 3) it has plenty of leg room while rear-facing (we like to keep it rear-facing as long as possible). My daughter in the picture is 20 months old and has plenty of room for her feet. There are 9 positions and we can adjust 2 more over to gain even more leg room when we need. This car seat doesn't get installed like other brands I have used, and I needed to read the instructions to figure out how to install it (I also learned that vehicle latches are only rated to 65lb for the seat and child combined which means most forward-facing installations will need to use the belt). The instructions were easy to understand and once I knew the proper way, the car seat was very easy to install. This car seat is extremely heavy, I wouldn't be surprised if it is 2-3 times the weight of my other car seats. It seems very solid and durable and the weight doesn't concern me as I don't plan on taking it out of the van for many years. If I was transferring it to grandma's car when she takes the kids out or moving the seat around in the car for carpools I would reconsider using this seat. There are a couple of other nice features. The height and length of the straps adjust easily at the touch of a button. The (optional) cupholders are removable for easy cleaning. The recline position and switching from rear-facing to forward-facing is done with one button press, no rerouting straps necessary. I can't speak for how easily the cover comes off to wash but the cover separates at the bottom for easy vacuuming (already needed as you can see in the picture). My daughter seems comfortable sitting in it even for longer rides. I normally wouldn't pay extra for a car seat that can grow with my child as we've been handing regular car seats down to the next child and getting separate booster seats for the child that outgrew it. However, if I was in a situation where keeping one car seat for as long as my child needed made sense the Britax One4Life Slim All-In-One car seat seems like a solid choice and I would definitely recommend.