Bases are designed to stay in your car – so when you travel in an Uber or taxi, go in someone else’s car, or rent a car on vacation, you’ll want to travel with just the carrier. To use the carrier as a standalone car seat, you’ll use the vehicle’s seat belt to secure the carrier to the vehicle. There are 2 ways the seat belt can wrap around the carrier in these situations: 1. the European belt path, or 2. the American belt path.

This video clearly shows why you’ll want a seat with a European belt path if you plan to use the carrier without the base.

In our experience, the European belt path will yield a secure installation in about 95% of vehicles anywhere in the world… while the American belt path will yield a secure installation in only about 20% of cars in the US, and almost none outside the US.

Not only is the European belt path much more likely to yield a safe, secure installation, it also decreases the forces on the baby’s head and neck during a crash because it prevents the car seat from reclining any further – exactly like a load leg can do on a base, which you’ll learn about below.

Don’t be fooled- even though it’s called a European belt path, it’s found on many US car seats, and is something you’ll want to use when traveling with just the carrier at home or abroad.

Click here to read lots more about the differences between the American & European belt paths, as well as see videos showing the complete step-by-step installation of seats with these two different belt paths.

All of these seats are certified for babies 4 pounds and up – but just like clothes, seats that claim to be the same size can fit babies differently. We’ll tell you if you can expect any issues with fitting a preemie into these seats.

While some issues of fit can be overcome by putting strategically placed rolls alongside the baby after the baby is buckled snug, others can not be overcome. Specifically, the structural head rest in some of the no-rethread harness seats tips forward in such a way that makes it more likely for a baby’s head to fall down to his chest – which is a dangerous position for breathing for kids who can’t sit upright unsupported. The other issue that can’t be overcome is when the crotch buckle & chest clip hardware are too tall (even at their shortest setting) to allow you to get the straps properly snug without the chest clip being at the throat (the chest clip should be at the top of the arm pits, not the throat).

You can learn more about rethread and no-rethread harnesses here… but in a nutshell, we typically prefer a rethread harness on an infant seat because the carrier will be lighter and the straps are typically easier to tighten on the baby. No-rethread harnesses introduce extra friction into the system – that makes it harder for you to tighten the baby’s harness straps.

Infant Inserts: Most infant seats come with some type of extra padding – typically under the child’s back & bottom and behind the head – that is removable. Some of these infant inserts are helpful, some not so helpful. Some are required for certain weight ranges, some are always optional. You must read the manual to the car seat to see what can be removed and when you should do this.

Shoulder Strap Covers: Most infant seats come with fabric covers on the shoulder straps. These are marketing tools – as the seats look comfier with them. However, the majority of kids do not like these covers as they put more pressure into the side of their neck that they do not want. We recommend removing the shoulder strap covers on all of the infant seats as not only do the kids typically hate them, you’ll also dislike that they make it harder to tighten the straps on your baby and will increase the amount of twisting that the straps do. We recommend pulling your child’s shirt up so that it is in between the strap and their neck.

None of the seats in our buying guide have straps that can get uneven.

Uneven means that the straps are longer on one side of the child’s body than the other. Uneven straps drive parents crazy and typically lead parents to leave the straps too loose on the child. Some seats have separate straps for the left and right side of the child’s body, making it such that the straps can NOT get uneven. All of the car seats in our table (except for the now-discontinued Britax B-Safe) have straps that can NOT get uneven.

Straps that can get uneven are also more likely to get twisted. Twisted straps are more than just annoying – they are also unsafe as twisted straps concentrate the crash forces over a smaller area of the child’s body which increases the risk for injury. The video below shows two tricks for untwisting straps that you’ll want to know.

Regardless of which car seat you get, you’ll want to watch this video to learn how to buckle your baby properly… and we’ll even show you how to do a safe-for-the-car-seat swaddle at the end!

Handle Position

There are 4 possible positions for the handle on an infant carrier as shown below. Note that most infant carriers do not offer an anti-rebound position.

Click here to see what handle position is allowed on all currently made, and recently discontinued, infant car seats. 

While you ride around with your seat belt loose while you drive, and rely on it to lock when you slam on the brakes, this does not work for car seats as the seat belt has to be held tight around the car seat during normal driving, so that the car seat is tightly coupled to the vehicle.

Most of these bases have built-in locking devices for the seat belt – which will make it such that you are more likely to achieve a safe, secure installation of the base. However, some of the locking devices work much better than others… and we’ll let you know where you may encounter trouble (like the belt slipping through after the lock-off is closed, or the belt scrunching in the lock-off preventing it from closing).

If you will be installing the car seat in the center of the back seat you absolutely want to have a seat belt lock-off (and of course, one that works well). The center is statistically the safest spot of the car, since you can’t take a direct hit there – so it’s a good place to think about putting your baby’s car seat. Read more about the center vs. side here.

Not sure what LATCH is? That’s OK! Click here to learn about LATCH.

Rigid vs Flexible LATCH

The Nuna Pipa base has rigid LATCH where the lower anchor connectors are rigidly attached to the frame of the Pipa base – meaning that there is no strap to tighten when you install the Pipa base (yay!).

All of the other bases in our buying guide have a flexible LATCH – which means that they have a lower anchor strap (since straps are flexible, it is called flexible LATCH). 

Push-on vs. Hook Connectors

At the end of the car seat’s lower anchor strap there is either a hook-on connector, or a push-on connector. Push-on connectors tend to be much easier to connect and disconnect – especially because you can disconnect them even when the lower anchor strap is tight. In contrast, with the hook-on connectors you must first loosen the lower anchor strap (which can be incredibly difficult when you’ve installed the base really tightly) and then can unhook the connectors.

Click here for a more complete explanation of what types of LATCH are available on infant seats – flexible vs rigid, push-on vs hook-on.

A few of these bases offer the additional safety feature of a load leg – which is a metal support leg that comes down from the edge of the base and rests on the floor of the vehicle. The load leg has been shown to decrease forces on the baby’s head and neck during a crash. Learn more about load legs here… and you’ll see why we really like this additional safety feature.

Seat Belt Installation: Due to other factors – like the geometry and contour of the base, where the seat belt path is located and how that matches up with the seat belt anchor locations in the vehicle, as well as how well the seat belt lock-off works, etc – you will be more or less likely to yield a secure installation with the seat belt in your vehicle, and the amount of effort required to do so will vary as well. If you plan to install the car seat in the center of your car, make sure to pay attention to the seat belt installation column (in our features table) as you’ll almost certainly need to use the seat belt to install the car seat in the center, since fewer than 5% of vehicles have LATCH in the center seat. We’ll let you know, based on our experience, how we rate the seat belt installation for each base.

LATCH Installation: All of these bases have a way to secure themselves to the lower anchors (LATCH) in the vehicle. Some bases will be more likely to yield a secure installation in your vehicle, and some will require more or less effort to do so. We’ll let you know, based on our experience, how we rate the LATCH installation for each base. Note: the carriers do not have LATCH – and are always installed with the seat belt.

Rear-facing car seats can take up room into the front seat – some car seats take up more room than others. The smaller your back seat and/or the taller the person sitting in front, you’ll want to pay more attention to this image below. In many cases, installing the rear-facing car seat in the center seat is the perfect place as it will often tuck itself in the space between the two front seats and not push either of the front seats up (as it will if it goes on one of the side seats)… and, the center is the safest spot in the car because you can’t take a direct hit. Make sure to pay careful attention to the seat belt installation category as installations in the center seat use the vehicle’s seat belt as the center seat almost never has LATCH.

BabyJogger and Graco are now owned by the same parent company – Newell. The BabyJogger city GO is, for stroller purposes, the same as a Graco Snug Ride – the city GO will fit on the same stroller adapters as a Graco Snug Ride.

The Britax seats include all B.O.B versions with the same name – i.e. the Britax B-Safe is the same as the B.O.B. B-Safe. 

The Chicco Key Fit includes all Key Fit models – the 22, 30, 30 Magic, 30 Zip, etc.

The 4 Cybex infant seats – the Aton, Aton2, AtonQ, and CloudQ – should in theory all fit onto the same strollers – but the reality is that there are some instances where they differ. The CloudQ will have the most variation in which strollers it fits onto. When our table says Y for a Cybex seat fitting onto a particular stroller, assume that the Aton/Aton2/AtonQ will fit – and the CloudQ may or may not. The Aton & Aton2 will have the same stroller compatibility. There are a few examples – like with the Maxi Cosi Dana stroller – where the AtonQ fits but the Aton/Aton2 don’t. Make sure to read the fine print for the stroller you are looking at to see if there are any notes about the Cybex seats fitting.

All of the Graco seats in our table are called the Snug Ride… so we left that out of the name. All of the Snug Rides in our table are also the “Click Connect” models. Our table only includes seats that are currently on the market, and the older “Classic Connect” models are no longer being made or sold. The most important part to look for in the name is now “SnugLock” as this series of seats has several stand-out features not found on the other models. Graco has made things very confusing with their use of nearly identical names for a dozen seats… we’ve tried to simplify it as much as we can. 

The information applies to all Pipa models. Please know that Jett is not a different model of the Pipa, but just a different fabric color (which they charge more for as they think you’ll pay more for that gray). Please note that the Stokke Nuna Pipa has Stokke stroller adapters built in – and will ONLY fit on Stokke strollers.

The Peg Perego information applies to all versions of their 4-35 infant seat but does NOT apply to their 30/30 infant seat. 

The Mesa was changed in 2015 and the European belt path was removed (shocking, we know!) – otherwise older and newer models of the Mesa are essentially the same seat. 

Frankly, none of their car seats in the US have any of the key features we’re looking for – none have load legs, rigid LATCH, a European belt path, or even a seat belt locking device on the base. In our experience, the Maxi Cosi car seats are some of the least likely of any infant seat in the US to install securely in your vehicle.

Looking for a carrier that is equally lightweight as the 9 lb Maxi Cosi Mico? The Cybex Aton2 & Nuna Pipa both weigh 9 lbs… and also offer a European belt path on their carriers, and a seat belt locking device + load leg on their bases (and the Pipa has rigid LATCH too)!

Side note: We LOVE the Maxi Cosi car seats in Europe as many are cutting edge, but the US ones are completely different from their European counterparts. The only exception is the Maxi Cosi RodiFix – a fabulous high back booster designed and made in Europe that is also sold in the US.