My wife got me a Diono for Father’s Day. She knows how much of a car enthusiast I am, and she thought I would love the look and how compact it is. It fits in my Golf GTI perfectly, and you can even fit 3 next to each other in case we ever need a third car seat. I expected this car seat to be like the others we’ve owned: good, but unremarkable. I was wrong. Here’s why I was wrong, and why every new car seat I buy will be a Diono.
Diono: 5 reasons why this car seat has made me regret every other car seat I’ve ever bought.
1 – Rear facing limit
It has an astonishing 45 pound upper limit for rear-facing. Charlie is 4-and-a-half years old and could still be sitting rear-facing in this thing.
2 – Heavy and sturdy
3 – This one’s a twofer.
First, it doesn’t have wide arm-bolstering that you’d normally have to lift your child over to place them in the seat. You can slide them in from the side. Don’t worry, though, there’s still a cup holder attachment. Second, because of this narrow footprint, you can fit three Dionos across in the backseat. Or, if you drive a sports car with small back seats, this should fit well into that too.
4 -Safe Stop®
5 – Comfort
And finally, the shoulder straps themselves. In the Diono your child will not have a sharp-edged, thin seat pressing into their chest and neck. The part of the straps that contact your child there have the thickest, most plush, expensive-feeling gel padding I’ve ever seen on a car seat. Perhaps it’s just for safety, adding another layer of suspension to what the Safe Stop® system already provides. But no matter what, it makes the straps comfortable enough that your child won’t at all mind when you tighten those shoulder straps properly tight to the appropriate, safe level.
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