[s4mom]

Hi,

I have a 2007 S4 avant. We purchased a Recaro Young Sport to use in it. We have the seat installed behind the front passenger. The car seat installs tightly and securely using Latch and the top tether. There is plenty of room for the seat, and my son seems comfortable.

I know it is very tempting to go FF, but I do think you should reconsider. Besides the safety concerns of moving to FF, it may not work out as well as you would like. I would trade some of the extra room for the peace and quiet we had with the rear-facing seat.

Our previous car seat was an AWESOME chicco keyfit. I miss this seat as my son will not sleep when he is front facing. My son is 14 mo, 23 lbs, and about 31.5 inches tall. As he is just a pound over the maximum weight, I put him in the chicco seat last week to confirm my suspicions. He was asleep within 5 minutes... Needless to say this is one reason I am up late tonight looking for a "second" car seat.

This weekend, we discovered something else about the Recaro car seat. It does not have locking clips that are helpful when you are using a seatbelt installation. We have a 2002 Excursion that does not have LATCH, and yesterday we put the Recaro in for the first time, instead of the chicco. My husband is dissatisfied with the installation using the seat belt. The seat moves too much using a seat belt installation in that vehicle. We made our trip using the Recaro anyway but we are going to find a seat with locking clips and that can be rearfacing before we travel again this week...

I do really like the Recaro seat, but it does have some drawbacks, some inherent to FF, and others due to the design choice not to include locking clips.

	Forward Facing Car Seats A forward-facing car seat is one in which the child sits facing the front of the car. The seat should be installed in the back seat of your vehicle. Most forward-facing only seats are for children above 20 pounds.

	Rear Facing Car Seats A rear-facing seat is one in which the infant faces the back of the car. Always install a rear-facing seat in the back seat of your car. This is the safest position for an infant. NEVER place a rear-facing seat in the front seat of a vehicle with passenger airbags.

	Chicco - Click for more info Chicco makes car seats that are tested for safety and comfort. Italian-made Chicco is sold the world over to discerning parents everywhere, mainly because they are thorough with their design but each children’s product they sell is simple to use and stylish. All of Chicco’s car seats have certain universal elements: they’re lightweight, they are easy to install or use, each have the extra perks like canopies or liquid levelers for added convenience. Take a look and you’ll find an up-and-coming competitor for some of the best car seats on the market.

	Chicco Key Fit - Click for more info The new and improved Chicco KeyFit infant car seat (dubbed the Chicco KeyFit 30 thanks to its enhanced-to-30 lbs harness) has the same great features of the original KeyFit, but with a higher harness weight capacity. It is recommended that a child stay in a rear facing car seat for at least the first year of his or her life, and this infant seat from Chicco assures that your child will.

	RECARO - Click for more info With over 100 years of company history and long standing experience in vehicle seat construction RECARO knows how to make long journeys a pleasure for the whole family. Materials, design and technical highlights ensure a pleasant journey for adults and children alike. RECARO uses its strength as the premier mobile seat manufacturer to engineer an innovative line of products for your children. No other manufacturer can apply experience from production vehicles, commercial vehicles, and race cars to design toward the comfort and safety of children.

	LATCH LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren. It is a system mandated by the Federal government in an effort to standardize and simplify the installation of child restraints without using the vehicle's seat belt system. New vehicles and child safety seats manufactured on and after September 1, 2002 will be equipped with the LATCH system. Cars, minivans, and light trucks will be required to have anchor points between the vehicle's seat cushion and the seat back in at least two rear seating positions, and a top tether anchor (with the exception of convertibles). Child safety seats will have a lower set of attachments that fasten to the vehicle anchors. Most forward-facing child safety seats will also have a top strap (tether) that attaches to the top anchor in the vehicle.

	Top-Tether A top tether (or top strap) is the supplemental attachment now standard on almost every new carseat in the USA. Top tethers can be used with either the seat belt or with the lower anchors (as part of the LATCH system). In other countries, their use may be required by law. A top-tether is simply a strap that connects the top of the carseat to an anchor mounted in the vehicle at a location behind the carseat, usually the parcel shelf or a point on the floor of the cargo area. It is designed to prevent the forward movement of the top of a forward-facing carseat in a frontal crash. This reduces the head excursion of the child, and can reduce the chances of injury. Almost all current carseats can only meet the tougher new federal safety standards when the tether is used, even though they must still meet the minimum safety standards without a tether.