Cosco Apt 40RF Car Seat Reviews

Customer Ratings:

After a doctor visit a couple days ago, I discovered that my 10-month-old daughter is now 27" long. That means she is already about to outgrow her Graco infant car seat! It was time to start looking at convertible seats for her to upgrade to. After reading several reviews on Amazon, I decided to take a trip to the local Kmart to get a feel for some of the things that reviewers were talking about here. I am glad I did! This model was one that I had already saved on my wishlist for later consideration, and it ended up being on sale at Kmart for $39! I quickly grabbed the last two that they had on the shelf (one for me and one for my wife), and today was the first day using it. So far, I am fairly happy with it, and I will lay out pros and cons later. In brief, however, I would say that this is a good basic car seat for the budget-conscious parent. If I were going to spend the $60 they are asking for here on Amazon, I might choose a different model, but at Kmart's price it was a no-brainer. A few cons make it a 4-star item, and I will come back and edit my review if I find any other problems later on.

PROS

Light weight. I don't know if that is a huge deal since we are leaving them permanently mounted in our cars, but it is very light weight.

Easy install. The directions were very easy to follow, and the manual is laid out in a good logical order. I was able to make all of the fit adjustments and mount the seats in both cars within about an hour.

Easy child loading. This seat has a similar concept to the Graco infant seat that we started with. You put the child's arms through the two shoulder straps, then buckle the two metal clips into the crotch strap, then clip the chest clip closed, and finally pull the harness adjuster strap to cinch everything down. This one-strap harness tightening is a genius invention! On our old Graco seat, the shoulder straps had to be individually tightened, and it was difficult to get them adjusted evenly. This one-strap system solves that problem.

Cheap price. At the sale price I got at Kmart, this turned out to be the most affordable seat on the market. There were other selling points, but the cost was certainly a factor to consider.

One-piece construction. This is nice because the only moving parts are the restraint system. The rest of the seat is one solid piece, which means there are no moving parts to break. This even includes the two cup holders that are molded into it.

CONS

Size. OK, from what I have read, lots of these convertible car seats are big front-to-back when installed in the rear facing position, so that was to be expected. I had to slightly incline and move forward the passenger seats in both of our vehicles (a 2008 Kia Sorento and a 2003 Dodge Dakota Sport). Aside from that size problem, this seat is also incredibly wide. I suppose some of that has to do with the two cup holders, but the seating area also seems to be excessively wide, especially considering the limitations of the restraint strap positions (which I will talk about next). Even though the seat is supposedly sufficient for infants starting at 5 pounds, I don't know if I would trust it to secure such a small baby.

Strange restraint strap positioning. My daughter is currently 20 pounds and 27" long. Obviously, we have her rear facing and will try to keep her like that until she reaches 40 pounds, but that might be a challenge with the crotch strap. We already have the crotch strap at the middle position, and in rear facing position the manual says the third crotch strap position cannot be used (to leave room for the LATCH belt or seat belt to pass through the shell), and it already seems tight at that position. Time will tell if this will be a problem, but it already looks like the crotch strap is going to get too tight well before she reaches 40 pounds. So, then we will either need to get another seat or turn this one forward facing to use the third crotch strap. So, that will bring up the problem with the shoulder straps! At 27" tall, my daughter's shoulders are already even with the next-to-last set of holes for the shoulder straps. It is fine if she grows past the last set of holes for rear facing, but the manual says that the shoulder straps should be even with or higher than the child's shoulders for forward facing. Again, time will tell if this things are really problems, but it looks to me like the crotch strap is going to be too small for rear facing and the top strap holes are going to be too low for forward facing. So, she may outgrow this seat sooner than she might outgrow another convertible.

Child removal. While putting the child in and cinching down the straps with the one-strap adjustment system is fairly easy, removal is a little more difficult. Because of the shortness of the crotch strap, it is tough to get a good grip on it to push the release button. The straps also seem to be a little difficult to loosen, but that is something that will probably get easier with more use.

No mechanical level. There are just lines on a sticker to reference the correct angles to install the seat. It would have been nice if they put actual bubble levels instead of just stickers that force you to "eyeball" the angle.

Overall, I am happy with the seats for now, but we might end up replacing them sooner than we would another brand.

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I bought this car seat for my youngest when he outgrew his infant seat, at just under 1, since the suggested age to turn a child forward facing went up to 2. He will be 2 in February, and he's already too tall for the harness in the forward facing position. It's very wide, feels cheap and much less sturdy than I'd like, and the strap on the left side has always been tighter than the one on the right for no reason. I will be having to shop for a new car seat for one of my boys in a few months, which means I'd have been better off buying something else to begin with when I bought this one.

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I use this cosco carseat as an extra in our vehicles. It's fairly easy to move from vehicle to vehicle, its cheap but it feels sturdy, and I really like the built in cupholders. I have a more expensive carseat in our main vehicle but wanted an extra and this works perfectly.

Honest reviews on Cosco Apt 40RF Car Seat

most carseats are very narrow and my daughter has long legs and she could compensate for having to be in rear facing position by spreading her legs instead of being squished.

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The seat is great and fit my grandson perfectly, but the only draw back is that the bottom two clips are very hard to unfasten to get him out. Don't know if it needs some sort of lubricant, but I really have a hard time getting him out.