****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Seat is well made and very comfortable. The only issue I have is with the upper seat belt strap filtering through the hole without being twisted. Having a twisted seat belt reduces its effectiveness- so I have to manually help my 4year old buckle each time with this seat or else the strap is folded and very twisted. I almost like it though bc then I ensure shes safe. With her cheaper seat, she'd buckle herself so easily I didnt pay it attention.Car seat is easy to install and my son is comfortable in it. It lacks some of the bells and whistles that our more expensive seat has, like cup holders, and I don't have as much faith in it as our graco when it comes to saftey. However, I have no reason to doubt it and I like how easy it is to install/remove due to the easy access of the latches/tightening straps on the front.My 6 year old loves this booster. I like it because I feel he is safer with the high back and when we are ready to move on, we can remove it. He sits high up which he likes and the side head guards will be great for long road trips so he can nap safely and comfortably. The head rest wasn't very easy to put in to place at first but finally got it in. Other than that, installation very smooth.I'm happy with this purchase for my son. It fits him comfortably pretty easy to use with lots of room for growth. I like how sturdy and safe it feels. Dual cup holders are a plus. Only downfall is the seat seems a bit wide for my Acadia seat making it difficult to reach the buckle to latch.I like itGrandson out grew car seat , this is perfect booster . Added support and protection. Grows with him , taller and wider . Very concerned about safety so this was everything I needed.I will agree with another reviewer on this seat. There is hardly any cushioning in this seat. It is all harder foam and the cover has hardly any cushioning. I choose this because I have the Diono Radian RXT(2018 model and a solid seat)which has a little more padding. My son is 8 and has out grown the 5 point harness of the RXT(he is small for his age). The RXT does convert to the booster, but I chose to get this booster because it looked to be more specific for the purpose, and cost is not as much of any issue for me when considering my son's safety. This booster has the larger sidewalls for side impacts. This is important to me because I will be moving my son from the center seat(unfortunately, because of my truck not having a shoulder belt in the center). Looking at other brands, I don't feel like the other seats would be that different in regards to comfort or cushioning, and this one seems safer looking to me. I like the look of the Monterey versus other seats because the sides and the head protection seems to be the largest that I have seen and it is reinforced with aluminum. It looks like a Nascar seat. If it's good enough for Nascar, it is good enough for my son. I will say that I did add about a half inch of "luxury" cushioning to every part of this seat to provide more comfort and, I feel, more safety. I cut and molded them to fit perfectly. There was plenty of room under the cover to do this and I think it filled it out more. The cover seemed loose without it. I am like BASF. I don't make the products that I buy, but I make them better, ha! Another reviewer stated that he did not think this was a safe seat, because he said when you pick up the seat from the back part, the bottom falls off. I will say that they could have designed this better to snap together so that doesn't happen. The other reviewer also said that he was afraid that the back would come off in impact. That is not possible, because of the way it goes together, and once you put it in the car and "latch" it in, the back cannot come off. It only comes off when folded backwards to the flat position, which happens when you pick it up from the back. Again, this could have been designed better for transitioning to another vehicle or just removing and carrying it. Overall, I think this is as safe of a booster seat as you can get and I like the Diono products versus others in regards to design and safety features. They could do a little more in regards to comfort and padding for additional safety, so I would not have to modify it. A little extra padding would not cost that much to add and would definitely make this seat the best on the market, along with a locking mechanism for the back rest to the base. .....just my 3 cents. I will have to see about the buckling and shoulder strap issues that others have expressed once I have used this more.I bought this after my dad got into a hit and run with my car and had to replace my son's car seat. I noticed my son was near the weight limit for the seat we previously had and this gave us an extra 20lbs to grow. Easy to install just has a teather. May buy this again when my daughter is ready for a booster.
