Cosco Scenera Useful Guidepost

This is a good car seat for the low price but it does not have padding. It is nice that it is small and lightweight so if you need to move it from one car to another it’s easy or if you have a small car it fits well but your child may not be comfortable on long trips due to the complete absence of any padding or cushioning. I just use it for the baby’s grandfather’s car but use a more comfortable one in our car since he rides in it more often.

I got this seat because the ones in Europe don’t meet American safety standards, this has all the normal things we all need. I did think that it reclined, but it doesn’t- not a deal breaker, but it is a nice feature to have for long car rides. I think it said two positions because it is a forward facing or rear facing car seat. I heard some parents complain about a car seat like this because it’s hard to get both straps tight, but that’s not hard if you realize how the straps are connected- so you can even it out by pulling near the legs (cause it connects under their legs.)
All in all, I think I would have paid more to have it recline, but it’s a good seat still.

My parents initially bought this car seat for themselves for when they babysat for us. Since they didn’t end up tending as often as they thought, they gave it to us. Our baby, now 20 months old, has been using it since he was 6 mos. We do a lot of driving, and it is actually pretty good, considering it is an economy model. It is really easy to install into both of our cars, and the latch system is really nice when we use our newer vehicle. For our older car, we had to find a restraint locking clip so that the seatbelt would hold it in firmly, but once we got one it has never had a problem with wobbling. The only downside is that while our baby is very tall and large for his age, his legs are still short and stick straight out instead of being able to bend at the knee at the edge of the seat, which could be dangerous if we are ever in an accident. The other problem we had was we couldn’t get the cupholder to attach securely, so we didn’t ever end up using it. This wasn’t a big deal though, as there are already cupholders in the backseat for him to put his sippy in. Overall, this is a great chair, and it’s been through a lot of abuse but still works great!

We’ve owned this car seat for 2 months. Our daughter is 10 1/2 months old. We use it in the center backseat of a 2001 Sunfire Sedan.
Fit: It’s a little long for the backseat. It actually takes up more room lengthwise than the Graco Snugride it replaced.
Portability: My husband has a lap seatbelt and no latch system so this is the carseat we use when transferring to the grandparent’s vehicle. The stand for it’s forward facing feature sometimes gets in the way and we have always to stuff towels underneath to get it level. We’ve gotten good at this though, so it’s a snap.
Comfort: We also own a Evenflo Triumph. For comfort, our daughter likes this one better. It has more of a recline so she falls asleep easier. Plus, she can look back and see us. The buckle doesn’t pinch her legs. Also, if one of the shoulder straps gets a little uneven, they are all interconnected so it just takes a little pulling here and there to fix it.
Disadvantage is the shoulder strap adjustment. You have to pull the seat out to take care of it. Since we are always moving it anyway, it’s not an issue for us.
Definitely worth the money.

Update: 11/16/2009 – We’ve now had this car seat for over a year. The little girl still enjoys it better than the Evenflo Triumph I use in my car. The cupholder we attached is a lot nicer than mine. Now that it’s forward facing, she falls asleep in it easily (which she doesn’t in mine). The only con is that it’s more difficult to get into my parent’s Chevy Impala. This is ONLY because of the angle the seatbelt has to be at to go through the back hole. It’s hard to snap into place and feel like it’s a truly snug fit.

This carseat was purchased to take on airline travel only. It was lightweight, easy to install, and a great price. I would recommend this seat to anyone needing to travel with a carseat. Very nice seat for the price.

I bought two of these for my twins. My primary car seats are Britax Roundabout 50s. Comparing those to these is like comparing a Mercedes to a Kia, but these Cosco seats are perfectly adequate for my second car that I use for quick trips to the store on weekends and sometimes for short trips to or from daycare during the week. I give them four stars rather than five because (1) they aren’t blue as advertised (they’re black) and (2) I had some trouble installing them rear-facing using the latch system in an Acura TSX. I had to get a really strong neighbor to pull the straps tight enough. It takes brute force. Also, the seats don’t recline quite as much as I would like them to. When I tried putting a pool noodle under the front to recline them more, we couldn’t get the latch straps tight enough. Another thing potential buyers should be aware of: Some Cosco Sceneras seem to have more padding in them and have higher quality fabric than others. I looked at a couple of Sceneras in a Target store that were cheaper than the pair I ultimately bought here at Amazon. The Target seats had no padding in them at all and had really cheap fabric. The seats I bought from Amazon were, I think, $10 or $15 more expensive but have nicer fabric and extra padding.