22 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
Excellent Car Seat!
Date of Review: Jul 23, 2007
The Bottom Line: Completely recommended, everybody should be using one of these!
Introduction
I have nothing but good words to say about this Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP car seat. We kind of took for granted its great qualities until we started looking for the follow-on seat : a convertible. Our baby boy has now outgrown this infant seat, his feet are sticking out the front. He is just above 20 pounds and 8 months but I guess he is on the long side (yeah!). He is supposed to be at the 75 height percentile. I am not bragging, but be prepared to let go of this car seat if your baby is in the 75 percentile and is about 20 pounds and 8 months. His weight is on the 50 percentile.
Too bad that Peg Perego does not make (yet) a Convertible car seat. We would buy it no questions asked and would pay up to $500 for it!
Build Quality
Everything clicks and slides easily and effortlessly. The fabrics are soft yet sturdy. Whether it is the belts which adjust easily in the front and back of the seat or buckling it all up together, it is impressive how easy it is to set it up. We did not realize the uncommon build quality as we tried other car seats and saw that the buckles don't fit well or are hard to slide. You don't want to be fussing with buckling the baby WITH A FUSSY BABY, so you want to have a car seat that set-up easily and quickly with all the possible safety.
The design cradles the baby comfortably and his body fit well from day one (though he needed extra padding around his head at the beginning).
Features
The canopy that covers the baby is well secured to the seat and is easily retractable when strolling it or when driving and needing extra protection from the sun around the baby. This car seat is part of a travel system where it attaches to a stroller.
The handle has three positions: taking the baby around (pointing straight up), seat in the car (pointing backwards and up) and then secure on the ground (pointing backwards and down). If you want the baby to rock a bit AND you are around you can leave the handle in the "seat in the car" position or "taking the baby around" position since the bottom of the seat is rounded and rocks easily. Sometimes our baby would rock himself while waiting for us to finish putting our shoes in front of him.
Weight
Though the seat is not the lightest (that usually goes to Graco and their "hollow: car seats) I found that I enjoyed the handle and how the seat fit next to my body as I was walking. I also like the solid build quality. No "hollow" seats for our baby, thanks.
Safety
After following the simple instructions for how to set up the LATCH system I took the seat in the car to a safety check-up point which happened to be at a Volkswagen dealership. The inspectors (one official one in training) looked around the seat and shook it to the point where they shook the whole car and then acknowledged how well it was installed and secured in our Volvo S60.
What really sold me on the SIP was the FOUR metal rods at the bottom of the seat that are used to attach to the base. When researching and checking out car seats, please think of the single possible point of failure, something that would make all the other safety features useless. In our case it was that the infant seat could detach from its firm base if it was not attached to it safely and strongly. The base and the seat match so well that it is almost impossible to not slide it and click it into the base correctly.
Car Fit
The Primo Viaggio SIP fits perfectly in our Volvo S60 which has a relatively narrow (side to side) and shallow (front to rear) rear bench seat. We installed the base of the seat with a mat to protect the leather and also to provide added grip. The seat fits right between the seatbelts seat attachments and the LATCH belts went right around and over the seatbelt attachments. This way we could have (and had) passengers on both sides of the baby. Other car seats don't allow for the seatbelts to be used as their bases are too wide. We are trying-out a Britax Decathlon Convertible car seat and it does not fit well between the seatbelt seat attachments so we will probably not keep it as it slides a bit side to side.
Bottom Line
Leave the computer behind and go and get this car seat! :-) Well, take your baby along (if he has already been born) and see how he/she likes it and how it is fitting at the current age.
