Booster type: High back and backless booster.
Weight: 40-120 lbs.
Price: $319.99
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IIHS rating: Not yet.
NHTSA ease of use rating: Not yet.
Pros: Folding booster! Rigid LATCH, adjustable headrest and seat width, no armrests. Side impact protection headrest.
Cons: Only 19″ tall when fully extended—may not fit bigger kids. Pricey.
Comments: Peg Perego’s flagship booster is the Viaggio Flex 120. The big news here is a rigid LATCH connectors and no arm rests on the seat, which will make the Flex a better bet for three-across installations when space is tight.
A knob at the back of the seat let’s you adjust both the seat width and headrest to accommodate growing kids. The seat is well padded thanks to both EPS foam and memory foam.
Among the seat’s more interesting features: it folds! The prototype we saw weighed 18 lbs., so that makes it carpool friendly. Peg Perego claims the actual seat weighs a mere 14.8 lbs. It doesn’t have arm rests, but that means you can fit three of these in a typical backseat.
Of course, since this booster is made in Italy, Peg Perego is pricing it as if it emerged from a hotel mini bar—$300. We realize this is about the same price as some other premium rigid LATCH seats (we’re looking at you, Clek Oobr), but it seems just a tad on the high side.
And rigid LATCH seats have a mixed history in the U.S.—thanks to some vehicle manufacturers that bury LATCH connectors, these seats can be difficult to install in some vehicles. That’s why flexible LATCH is more common.
The only negative we can point out at this juncture: we measured the Flex when it was fully extended and it measured just 19.” That’s isn’t much more than a Graco TurboBooster and will be too short for bigger kids that still need to be in boosters.
While this seat is still very new, the feedback from parents has been very positive. They love the fold and the quality of the fabric and shell.
FYI: A backless version of this seat called the Shuttle (see photo) runs $119.99 .
Rating: A