As we mentioned in our latest book, Combi plans to give the convertible car seat market another try, after its ill-fated Avatar and Victoria disappeared from the market in the past year.
The new seat: the Zeus, the first turn-able car seat. Yes, you read right—the Zeus is the first car seat that installs ONCE and then can be turned rear or forward facing. (Okay, it really wasn’t the first, as we vaguely remember a Renolux seat back in the 1990’s the rotated—but that seat just rated 90 degrees, not 180. Renloux withdrew from the US market in the mid 90’s).
The Zeus also has another nice feature: it can be tethered REAR or FORWARD facing. And we liked the anti-rebound bar, a unique feature for convertible
But . . . the Zeus will only work up to 40 pounds forward-facing (and just 22 pounds rear). That’s a shame, as Combi misses out here on the trend toward convertible car seats with higher limits (a la the Britax Marathon). And the low rear-facing limit is also a bummer—-and dangerous, as kids should remain rear-facing to one year of age (or longer) . . . and many babies today weigh more than 22 lbs before they ever reach that first birthday.
FYI: It is possible Combi may get the Zeus certified higher than 22 lbs rear or 40 lbs forward-facing—sources at Combi tell us they are "working on it."
We don’t have pricing info yet, but we did come across an interesting parent review from an American who bought the seat while traveling in Japan.
The Combi Zeus will be released in the fourth quarter of 2007.
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I would at least expect the rearfacing limit to be higher here in the states, as I believe convertible seats have been required to have a minimum upper rearfacing weight limit of 30lbs (they can obviously go higher, but not lower) since 2001.
If it has low bottom slots like the combi infant seats, it wouldn’t be a bad convertible as long as the rearfacing limit is high, because you could go straight to this instead of the infant seat, and then, when you have a second child or the seat is outgrown, get a bigger seat.
I would at least expect the rearfacing limit to be higher here in the states, as I believe convertible seats have been required to have a minimum upper rearfacing weight limit of 30lbs (they can obviously go higher, but not lower) since 2001.
If it has low bottom slots like the combi infant seats, it wouldn’t be a bad convertible as long as the rearfacing limit is high, because you could go straight to this instead of the infant seat, and then, when you have a second child or the seat is outgrown, get a bigger seat.