Reviews for RECARO Signo convertible car seat
All Customer Reviews
- Average Rating:
- Highest Rating:
- Lowest Rating:
- Number of Reviews:
- 34
Sits too high and blocks the view
Reviewer: Anonymous , West Lafayette, IN
Date: May 09, 2008
We recently bought the Signo for our youngest daughter, since we are very happy with the Recaro Young Sport booster that we have for our 3.5 year old. Whereas the Young Sport fits snugly in the car, the Signo looked like it was made for giants, and for giant cars! We have an Audi A4 Avant, so it is a midsize/small car. The Signo was sitting up very high, especially in the rear facing position, and completely blocked the view for the driver. Our daughter is only 10 months, and I want to keep her rear facing for at least another year for safety, so I will get by with another seat for rear facing, but once we turn her around, she will definitely get a Recaro Young Sport. Fortunately we had paid extra, so it was no problem to ship it back.
Was this review helpful?
Overall, a great seat
Reviewer: Anonymous , Warrington, PA
Date: May 03, 2008
My daughter is 4 and we purchased the Signo after she outgrew her Britax. LOVED the Britax. As with others, I have experienced huge problems with the straps twisting, but even she has learned the quick fix for that. If they improve these straps, I think they should replace them on the car seats of those with twisty ones. It could be a safety hazard. She can buckle herself into this seat with ease, but cannot unbuckle it - love that. She adores it and loves being in it. She says is it very soft. I thought she might find the side head rests annoying, but she loves to lean against them when she is tired. As to installation - the first time is a pain, but it gets easier. There is a learning curve. For instance, I didn't know the tightening/loosening strap was snapped on. DUH. Once I unsnapped it was much easier to loosen/tighten the car seat straps. I agree about the infinite adjust being buried - but it does mean that you can just untether it, loosen the straps and adjust without having to take it all the way out of the car. The last thing to think about it the cover. My daughter got sick in her seat and it was nearly impossible to get off the seat. The cover wraps under the infinite adjust system making it so you have to peel it out from around and over the headrest and then wrestle it back on when dry. All that being said, no car seat is perfect! We do really love it, but if Britax had a competitor, I would check to see if they had fixed some of the design problems that the Recaro has.
Was this review helpful?
Ricaro Signo
Reviewer: Jennifer , ohio
Date: April 24, 2008
We are very pleased with our Ricao Signo carseat.
We have not had anything negative happen, nor have we had any problems with the straps twisting like some of the other reviews have mentioned.
Our son is 8 months old and weighs 22lbs and fits very comfortably in his new seat.
Was this review helpful?
We like it!
Reviewer: the Germans , Riverside, CA
Date: March 29, 2008
We had our Signo now for 3 month. So is our daughter now, she had it from day one. The twisting harness problem We do not have, since we losen the straps every time she gets out and tighten them up again when she gets in, due to different clothing she might wear (thickness is the word here). The seat is soft, offers good protection (SIP) and is easy to use, we too have to use a rolled towel to tilt the seat more, not a big deal. We use the seat in our '05 Dodge Ram (4 door (RF) and '06 Jeep Liberty (RF) with no problems. Adjustments are easy and quick. The only thing my wife and I have to realy complain about is the buckle! I have strong hands/fingers, but pressing the red release button is hard and takes a good grip, otherwise I would crush my childs pelvis. I understand it has to be hard for children to open, but not that hard. As we had orderd the seat we heard there is a pad that goes below the back and lifts the child behind higher to make strapping easier. They shipped it at no charge, installation was easy and it does make a big difference. I can see where in small cars the seat may have hight issues. Other than these little things we are very happy with our seat, and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves their child and wants the best protection (SIP). We have taken our daugther offroading (mild) in this seat and she was asleep for the entire time, that tells me either she is nuts or the seat is comfortable.
:-)
Was this review helpful?
Safety first
Reviewer: Anonymous , Rochester, NY
Date: March 05, 2008
We researched lots of carseats before deciding to purchase the Signo. As far as safety and cost-effectiveness, we give it 5 stars. However, we are using it rear-facing for our very tall 5 month old and we had to put foam under the base to get it reclined enough to get her in the seat in our envoy. That was really disappointing considering the price of the unit. Hopefully, they will recognize the need for a steeper recline in future models. Other than that our daughter loves it and we feel secure in the fact that she is safe and comfortable. We also like that will be the only carseat we need to purchase until she hits 7-8 years of age. The adjustable headrest/straps is a dream!
Was this review helpful?
good but not perfect
Reviewer: Anonymous , redmond, WA
Date: February 26, 2008
i've had two of these seats for a few months now, for my 8-month old and my 3 1/2-year old. they are both very comfortable in. it took me a few weeks to get used to these car seats. unlike other users i have had very few strap twisting issues. my biggest complains are that the seats were hard to install, especially RF. i did have to put a towel under it, but that's what the manufaturer recommends in the manual. my other major complaint is that in the FF positon the knob that adjuststhe height of the shoulder straps is burried in to the back of my vehicle seat making it nearly impossible to adjust. the infinite adjustibility was a big selling point for me but in the FF position that feature is useless. i would recommend going to a store and installing it in your car before buying it. also they claim that you can put a newborn it this seat but the shoulder straps do not go down that far!
Was this review helpful?
Pretty good seat
Reviewer: Anonymous , Richmond, VA
Date: February 10, 2008
I purchased the Signo back in November and have been fairly pleased with it. My son was in the Chicco key fit infant car seat before and had outgrown it. The installation was sort of a pain at first. I have a Suburban and the seat dips a little, so I had to put a towel double folded underneath the car seat so it would be level. He sits rear facing and is 10 months old and 30 inches. His legs do hit the back of the seat. My only other complaint is that the seat belts twist ALL the time!!! It is very frustrating to keep fixing it. It will usually happen several times a week and I think this is an issue with this particular seat. I do however enjoy the rolling height adjustment to make it easier to fix, as well as the side impact protection. I think my son enjouys it and he falls asleep in it all the time, so it must be pretty comfortable. All in all, I would recommend this seat, but there are a few issues they need to work out.
Was this review helpful?
Agree on harness twisting problem...
Reviewer: Anonymous , Worcester, MA
Date: February 09, 2008
I first heard about the Recaro seats from my sister, who is also a first time mom... She has an Eddie Bauer seat that she is not that happy with, so she thought she'd send some good advice my way... I've been researching car seats for a while and a bit uneasy about what to get. I was very excited to get the Recaro Signo, but a little unsure about my experiences with the seat thus far. Being a first time mom, I figured I was just being overly picky. After reading the comments, I agree with the harness twisting problem and some other issues. We have installed the seat ourselves, but needed to add a rolled towel to level the seat (I expected that we would have to do this anyway) The seat installed fine, but it is very high in my Toyota Tacoma full cab pickup. When RF, my baby is hitting the car back seat and he is only 9 mo., but very tall (30 inches long). I find it difficult to put him in, esp. when the harness is tucked underneath him. I never knew that car seat manuf. made a velcro piece on either side for ease of placing child in. That would be great. Britax does and
I didn't even realize this was such a huge convenience... Recaro needs to add..Also, the straps twist a lot, but I thought that was common...guess not!!!I understand comfort, but convenience and time saving is important. Why spend time fixing straps when we (parents) should not have to. The material is very soft, but a little too soft, hence why the straps twist in the plastic harness pieces. A bit stronger material would suffice, but I'm concerned that parents are the guinea pigs for this "new wave" safety seat. Auto racers and children are equally important with regards to safety and the R&D should make sure that this seat is top notch and parent tested b/f turning the product loose on the market. Also, a concern and something I did not know is w/Como, you can remove SIP? but wih Signo you can't? I am concerned that the SIP is not going to be wide enough to keep up with my son's growth. I hope he can fit into this seat up to 70lbs. I am not so sure and feel like I already see myself buying another seat. For our other car, I am skeptical about buying another Recaro and will consider the Britax...
Thanks for reading. Hope improvements will be made.
Was this review helpful?
Reality Check
Reviewer: Anonymous , Mt. Juliet, TN
Date: January 28, 2008
I did not want to give this seat a rating because we have only been using it for two days. However, I wanted to give some information regarding some of the factors that lead me to this seat. I really struggled between this seat and one from the Britax line. The deciding factor was that Britax had every feature that I wanted, only not all in one seat accomodating a child up to 65 lbs (they should take the best featurs from the Boulevard and Decathlon and quit trying to make consumers give and take on features). The Boulevard would have probably been my choice, but the crotch strap is not adjustable and is oddly placed on the seat. It was perfectly placed for my 6 month old, but I couldn't see her being in the seat for very long without it becoming uncomfortable. So back to the Recaro. It had every option that I wanted, seemed to be better built than the Britax line and was competitively priced with the Britax. Although my daughter looked as if she was in a Lazy-Boy in the Decathlon by Britax and fussed when we took her out, I decided that due to the lack of SIP, I just couldn't do it. Statistics show that many infant and toddler fatalities are due to side impact collisions so this was big on my list (my assumption is that all car seats will have it within another couple of years and parents will be urged not to use car seats w/o SIP made prior to some date of manufacture). I noticed that one review stated that this seat was hard to install. I did not install mine (instead, I had the police dept. install it), but it did not look any different that any other seat I have installed. I asked the cop if he had any experience with the brand, and he said that he had never heard of it. However, once he had inspected and installed it (rear-facing behind the drivers' seat in an 2004 Infiniti G35 by the way), he stated that it was a very solid seat from what he could tell. Finally, I have already noticed that the harness straps are more twistable than the Britax straps and that velcro would have been nice to hold back the belts while the child was being put into it, but these are minor issues in my mind. I'll sew some velcro on if I really want it (granted at $300 or so you would expect not to have to do that). In the end, we are happy with our selection and if that changes, I will be sure to update this review. Note to buyer: the Como and Signo are almost identical, but we decided on the Signo because the pillows on the Como were closer together and made our daughter uncomfortable. Combine this with the fact that you have to manually re-thread the harness straps as the child grows (including taking it out of your car each time), and I decided on the Signo. Please note though that the pillows / head support can be taken out of the Como, but cannot be taken out of the Signo. Hope this helps some of you. There just aren't many good reviews out there yet on this seat and getting most people to even consider that there may be a viable option to the immortal Britax is a feat Recaro will have to strive to accomplish. Sorry to the reader for jumping around, but it is hard to write and review a cohesive entry in the two inch comment box.
Was this review helpful?
