Reviews for RECARO Young Sport toddler car seat

This is an awesome car seat! I only want what is best and safest for my son! I started him out in Britax, which I still like, but their version of this seat, the Regent, was too big! When I saw this seat, and everything is came with safety wise, including the SIP (Side Impact Protection), it made me feel really good about getting this for my son. Installing it was a breeze compared to the Britax and it fits perfectly in my Pacifica! My son loves it and I feel good in this decision! Recaro makes a solid, safe seat and I feel good knowing my son is in the BEST seat we can get to protect in the event we are in a crash! Recaro only makes seats, so you know you are getting the best with the most up to date safety innovations!! I did alot of research and even went on their website. Britax is good, but Recaro is a step above the rest! My son thinks of this as his RACE car seat! He truly is more comfortable in it, and even when he falls asleep, his head has support for him when he does doze off. I cannot say enough about this seat! Lets just say, I wish they had an adult version of this seat!!!

We would not recommend this car seat. It has hardly any padding and its hard for the child to look around the head restraints (which are hard as a rock). We bought this car seat thinking it was rear and foward facing and this is not the case. This is only for children over 1 year of age. I'm sure this is a very safe seat but the comfort is just not there.

Comments from EliteCarSeats.com:

Isn't it interesting how much some people just love a product, and others just don't at all?

We love this seat, but more importantly, our tall and still pudgy child loves it! He sleeps so much better in this than his Britax (which we also like) because it has the wings, which in addition to making for a great pillow, make me feel so much better about his side impact protection. I was recently in a side impact crash (totaled my Explorer) but felt so much better knowing that if he had been in the car, no shattered glass would have hit his face because of those wings! There was not a piece of glass in the car seat. He can still see out the windows though and has a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo. The bottom line is that for me, this seat seems much more substantial compared to the Britax. We've encountered no problems with fit, we've had in an Audi A6 coupe and wagon, VW Eurovan, Explorer, ForRunner and even the rock-crawling Toyota with no fit problems. I do wish it had a cup holder though (although he'd probably just fling the water around anyway :)

Awesome child seat! This is my first ever child seat purchase. The Recaro introduction was perfect timing. Solid construction and easy to switch from car to car. Moving my daughter in and out of the seat is easy. I have read all the reviews of various child seats and the Recaro by far is the best. The pricing is very reasonable with all the safety features it comes with. Recaro manufactures seats and only seats. I wouldn't want anything else for my daughter except the best.

I own quite a few car seats, and this is certainly the one I feel my child is the safest in. The quality of the materials is top notch - all the way around. Only issue is it is not as easy to get a child in and out of as say our Britax Roundabout, but the extra safety and comfort is worth it. Also, be sure to follow the belt / height positioning carefully, otherwise the belts will seem too short. There is a belt bar in the back that needs to be adjusted as you adjust the height.

The Recaro Young Sport screams quality before even taking it out of the box. The combination of solid craftsmanship and sturdy padding suggests I could tumble my car end over end into a ravine and all that would happen is that my little one would get dizzy. (...and then call out "more! more!") But anyone considering this seat should also know that the wings on either side of the head are deep -- on the order of about 8 inches -- and really do hamper your kidlet's ability to gaze anywhere but forward. My daughter enjoys looking all around as we drive, and had to crane forward to do so -- a position that quickly becomes uncomfortable, and I'd sure hate for the gremlins of fate to pick a craning-forward moment to launch us off that embankment. I'd also like to see Recaro come up with some kind of cupholder. Yeah, I know it's an American obsession that the world likes to laugh at us about. But for someone experiencing those first few steps of independence, having control of her own cup is a Very Cool Thing -- and it saves me from trying to wrangle her a drink of water while negotiating traffic. But that's a matter of personal preference. So here's the nutshell from me regarding functionality: If your driving routes are populated by crazy drivers, or if you simply want the best protection for your child no matter what, the Recaro Young Sport is an almost peerless candidate. (I say "almost" only because I haven't tried them all out there, though I do include the excellent Britax.) If your criteria include "happy factor" as well as safety and comfort -- especially if your little one isn't much of a car-seat sleeper -- he or she might prefer another seat.

Ever since we thought of having a child we've always known that we wanted a Recaro seat for our child. So we ordered a Recaro Young Sport as soon as we could find one. This is a very solid seat and presents little doubt that it will protect our son well. Initially, we could not find a Recaro in stores so we settled for a Britax Boulevard. But that seat did not work well in our Land Rover Discovery Series I and we moved that seat to our 2005 Honda Odyssey. A web search for Recaro child seats brought us to Elite Car Seats where we bought our Recaro Young Sport. The Recaro Young Sport fits much better in the Discovery because it does not have a large base below the seat. But living with the Recaro has presented difficulty: the main issue is that unlike the Britax, our son does not like to be placed in the Recaro. We have not been able to determine why this is so. We have checked all the straps for similar slack so that he can move about yet be restrained. But he still does not like the seat. The additional pad that is placed above the seat bottom does not attach to any part of the seat and stays in place by friction (no Velcro strap or clip or anything) so if you have a struggling child the pad will be pushed around by the child's feet and end up in a bunched up heap making the entire operation very difficult. So we had to stop using the pad in our seat. Also the protective pad in front the point where the five-point harness meets slides off too easily. Again presenting a challenge with a resisting child. The seat's user manual is supposed to be stored in a pocket underneath the padding on the inside of the seat back -- this seems like a good idea because it will always be handy. But running my hand over the padding I can detect a crease and indentation where the top of the user manual ends underneath the pad. We've been wondering if this is what is making him uncomfortable. We'll probably remove the manual from its pocket first to see if that helps. Next we may go to a hobby store and get some thin furniture foam padding, about the same thickness as the pad in the seat and place that underneath to see if it improves. Other theories for his dislike include the large Side Impact Protection pads that obstruct more of his vision. Or it could be that the Recaro armrests are not as conveniently placed for his arms as they are on the Britax Boulevard. We may post a follow-up if we are able to resolve this. I am disappointed that the Recaro is not working out for our son because it is a nice solid seat and looks good in the car.

This is an excellent seat and I recommend it without reservation. I shopped for some time, high and low, and I'm delighted I bought this particular model.

My daughter is 2.5 years old, 36 inches tall and approx. 35 lbs. So, we're just short of a full-on booster and a little too large for a convertable. This was clearly the best seat in the category as it has 5-point harness, LATCH, and amazing side-impact protection (seriously, AMAZING!). The buckles, fabric and even the directions are of the highest quality.

This is no cheap piece of plastic. It's heavy and seemingly rock solid; it reflects superb craftsmanship.

We put the seat in my wife's car -- a 2000 VW Passat -- with ease. It fits nicely.

The seat is somewhat narrow, but my daughter fits fine even with a puffy winter parka. Upon reflection, I actually think the snug fit is best and would imagine all but the huskiest kid would fit fine in this model, even with a jacket on.

Not sure if this seat will save my baby-girl's life, but I do feel better knowing I sought the safest seat I could find, and now have her in it. I'll buy another, if needed, for our younger son when the time comes.

Finally, I had an excellent experience with Elitecarseat.com. The order was processed and shipped in hours. Package arrived in two days via (free!) FedEx Ground.