Top Rated Infant Car Seats

A high-quality infant car seat is a necessity, but not all infant car seats are equal. The best infant seat seats have features that improve crash test performance. For example, load legs -- shock-absorbing components that are affixed to the seat or base and reduce movement during a collision.

Chicco KeyFit is a favorite of CPST instructors. It features a rear-facing weight and the height limit is high, a bubble-level indicator, and a spring-loaded reclined foot that makes it simple to set up.

Graco Mesa Max

The Graco Mesa Max ranks as one of the easiest infant car seat best car seats to use. It is made of great materials, a simple design, and a handy feature for attaching the harness of a child to the headrest to make it easier to tighten. It also comes with a large hideaway canopy that allows you to keep your baby sheltered while traveling. It's a bit heavier than the average stroller, which can be problematic if you intend to carry it around, or use it with your award-winning UPPAbaby.

Mesa Max's impressive performance in crash tests demonstrate its dedication to safety. It scored high in both frontal and side impact tests, which means that your baby will be protected from both sides of a collision.

The anti-rebound feature is a notable safety feature. It helps reduce the force of a crash's rebound, and protects the child's head. This is a rare feature in car seats for infants and makes the Mesa Max stand out among its competitors.

If used with the base, the Graco Mesa Max can be installed quickly and safely in your vehicle using LATCH. The load leg as well as recline angle adjustment and tightness indicator ensure a quick, accurate installation. The base weighs 12.6 lbs which is slightly heavier than the typical infant carrier seat car seat but not enough to be an issue.

The UPPAbaby Mesa V2 uses the same dual-knit fabric as its predecessor. It is free of harmful chemicals that are fire-resistant. It comes with an infinitely adjustable backrest, as well as a robust insert for infants who weigh between 4 and 11 pounds. The fabric is GREENGUARD gold certified, which tests for low chemical emissions and low VOCs.

The UPPAbaby Mesa Max is slightly more expensive than other alternatives, however it offers top features and modern safety technology to ensure a safe travel experience. The base is included and comes in a variety of fashionable colors. This adds to the value proposition. Its thoughtful features and sturdy design give parents peace of mind on every journey.

Britax Boulevard ClickTight

The Britax Boulevard ClickTight is a great choice for parents who want an automobile seat that can expand with their child. Its rear-facing capacity is 40 pounds, which is higher than the majority of infant car seat best car seats. Additionally, it can be used as a forward-facing car seat until your child reaches 65 pounds.

The ClickTight Installation System is its biggest selling feature. It is the most secure, easiest and most secure system on the market. It lets you tighten the seat belt by pushing a red release button and pulling the harness strap and not having to loosen it, then re-thread. This reduces the risk of incorrectly tightening a seat belt which is the main cause of car seat failure.

The EZ-Buckle Pad adds another safety feature that holds the buckle in place when you put your child in the car seat. This feature together with beltpath cutouts on the sides of the seat, makes it easy to get your child into and out of the car.

All three ClickTight convertible seats (Boulevard, Marathon CT, and Advocate CT) have the same features. ClickTight Installation System is one of them. Also included are an impact-absorbing frame that can accommodate 7 recline positions.

It's a hefty seat, so it might be worth looking at an alternative that is lighter when you are planning to use it frequently for car swaps or traveling. The seat is quite large, so it might not fit in smaller cars.

If you're looking for a budget-friendly seat with the same quality the Graco 4Ever is a great choice. It has lower crash test scores than the Boulevard, but it's still an excellent seat for your little one.

The Graco also comes with push-on LATCH connectors that make it simpler to remove the seat. The LATCH connectors on the Boulevard have a different release mechanism which requires you to press a grey button and pull on the webbing to loosen it. This can be difficult if the webbing is tight. However the seat comes with a convenient storage compartment for belt straps when they are not in use.

Clek Liing

If you're looking for a baby car seat that has it all -safety, style, convenience and luxury -- you'll love the Clek Liing. This rear-facing car seat has an excellent crash test score, a wide variety of features, and is easy to put in within most vehicles.

The Liing is designed with features that exceed US and Canadian safety regulations. It's designed for a simple, secure installation - at any seating position - and is packed with safety features that are advanced like an energy-absorbing steel load leg as well as two-piece shells lined with EPP foam for increased side-impact protection. The base has seven recline positions and a trusty bubble indicator that lets you know precisely when the seat is at the right angle for your newborn.

The Liing is modern, sleek stroller that parents love. It is equipped with innovative safety features such as rigid lower anchors which are easier to attach than hook-and loop connectors. The Liing also comes with a convenient one-handed release that makes it simple to remove from the base or to use with various compatible strollers. At less than 17 inches in width, it's narrow enough for 3-across in most vehicles and is a good fit in many convertible car seats as a booster.

The Liing infant car seat best seat earns first place for ease of installation with its unique rigid-LATCH system. The Liing's lower anchors click right into the vehicle's lower seat belt slots and the seat's top tether strap snaps onto the headrest of the vehicle to create an incredibly secure, tight fit that eliminates the risk of the child being thrown around during a crash.

The seat is light, with the base weighting 9 lbs and the carrier itself weighing an easy 10.5 lbs. Other rear-facing seats have a much heavier weight however, if you plan on taking the car seat and its base all over the place, the slight difference won't be too obvious (especially when you add a child to the equation! ).

Parents love the Liing's integrated canopy and 100+spf protection from the sun's rays by the mesh peekaboo. Caregivers love the blanket made of merino that keeps the baby warm and the capability of the handle to pivot past the canopy. This allows parents to grab the seat if they need to.

Graco Trio Grow SnugLock LX

The Graco Trio GROW SnugLock is a 3-in-1 seat that can be converted from a rear-facing infant to a forward-facing harness and then to an highback booster. It features the SnugLock installation system that allows for a smooth and easy installation using either a vehicle seat belts or lower anchors. It also has the option to use the top tether in booster mode (although we recommend using the lower anchors at all times for added security).

We love that this seat does so much for children of different age groups. For babies who are just beginning to crawl it comes with an infant insert which helps to help support their necks and backs. When they get older, the insert can be removed and the seat can be used as a regular toddler car seat. This is the only car seats that allow the top tether to be used in booster mode. We highly recommend it.

Its base is fairly compact from front to back, which means it shouldn't pose a problem fitting in most vehicles. It requires the headrest to be raised, however, to allow a clear path to the lower anchor webbing. There's a convenient knob for adjusting the headrest, and the display window displays the location of the headrest.

One of the most impressive features about this seat is the SnugLock installation system, which is an anchor that is in the belt path. This makes fitting this car seat using the lower anchors an easy task and is almost as easy as using the seat belt of your vehicle.

The manual also has an excellent illustration of how to correctly connect the lower anchor connectors while routing them through the belt's new path, which can be a bit confusing initially. It's important to keep them out of the crotch buckle loop, and away from the chest clip, so that they don't hinder the buckle system.

The Graco Trio Grow belongs to the Protect Plus Engineered Family, which means that it has been subjected some of the most rigorous testing in the field. This includes tests for rear, side and rollover accidents as well as frontal impacts.