Recently, my 3.5 year old daughter has been desperate to sit in a booster like her older sister so I tried the Recaro ProSPORT combination harness-to-booster car seat. She’s a little small for her age, but the booster can be used starting at 27″ height and 30 lbs in weight, so I thought I would give it a try.
I did not know, but certainly now appreciate, that Recaro has historically designed seats for race cars, which means the seats have to be pretty comfortable and safe. It is actually pretty interesting to think that a leading manufacturer of competitive racing seats also manufactures car seats, but it definitely increases my peace of mind knowing that there must be some serious engineering going on in developing the safety and comfort features of these seats. The ProSPORT is built with Recaro’s Side Impact Protection which protects 5 areas identified to be most vulnerable in a side impact collision – the head, neck, face, torso and pelvis.
Recaro’s latest endeavor happens to be making their car seats more fashion-forward, and they have come out with appealing color combinations, such as their Hanna option, which is a raspberry pink, brown and tan combination, and the Envy option, which is a lime green, brown and tan. The seat colors complement car interiors while playing to the style sensibilities of those trend-conscious moms, like me! I have the Envy option, which is a great gender-neutral, stylish option for a mom who wants to add just a little bit of style to her undescript grey minivan…
Here’s my pro/con list on the Recaro ProSPORT:
Pros:
- Respected as a safe, high-quality car seat that goes from harness-to-booster mode
- Great looking – ours is the Envy color option, which is green, tan and chocolate brown
- Comfortable. The seat is very well padded and my daughter does not complain of discomfort during our longer car rides.
- Easy push button LATCH hooks which are a cinch to install (for harness-mode)
- Great pouch on side of seat to store owners manual
Cons:
- Pretty expensive ($264) considering there are other highly rated car seats out there.
- After fiddling around with removing the bottom buckle for booster-mode, I’m still not sure how to remove it. But, since it didn’t seem to be a safety hazard to leave it, it’s still there.
- The car seat itself is pretty heavy if you’re lugging it around or swapping it from car to car.
I tried the Recaro ProSPORT in both harness-mode and booster-mode. My 3.5 year old really wanted to be in a booster like her older sister and the Recaro ProSPORT was the first “booster” that I felt comfortable having her in. Even without the harness, she fits snugly in the seat, and it looks and feels like she is well protected. The tether also ensures that the booster is snug on the seat, and I like that. The Recaro ProSPORT runs about $264, converts from harness-to-booster, gives you absolute peace-of-mind that your child is in a top-notch safe car seat, and is absolutely worth the investment.