I want to buy a car seat for a 22 pound toddler girl. She is a year and half. Is there an advantage to spending more? I see price ranges from about $50 to about $150. I’m looking on amazon.com since I’m an Amazon prime member and I can have it shipped directly to her.
We have a nice car seat (Britax) and a middle-of-the-road one (Evenflo Triumph Advance) for our similarly-sized 16-month-old, and honestly, there’s not a huge difference between the two. You may want to go to your local Babies R Us and try it out–see how easy it is to work the buckles and adjust it.
The main advantages of the more expensive ones, other than some nebulous and ill-defined “safety” advantages, are that the straps may be heavier and less likely to twist and the seat may be easier to install and uninstall.
Some useful additional information that you have not provided yet:
Is she already riding front-facing? Do her parents want her to be front-facing?
Is the seat likely to be moved from car to car?
How big is the car that it will be placed in? Does anyone else ever ride in the backseat?
How old is the car that it will be placed in? (It would have to be pretty old at this point not to have LATCH, but it’s still possible.)