The Best Rear-Facing Car Seat

Jess-Miller-Sunglasses
Published by 
Jess Miller
Last updated: 
October 3, 2024

As parents, we're always concerned about the safety of our children, especially when it comes to severe concerns when driving. A child's car seat should be as comfortable as it is safe while we're toting our little ones around.

In this article, we'll explore some of the best rear-facing car seats to provide your children the comfort they need while giving you peace of mind while you're on the road.

How We Rate Our Products

We base the opinions in this article on several factors which include:

Comfort: An uncomfortable child is an unhappy child. The best-rated car seats in our list will accommodate children's happiness and durability.

Effectiveness: Having a car seat is a safety standard. You'll want to make sure that every aspect of your child's next car seat checks all the boxes when it comes to its effectiveness.

Parental Approval: If other parents don't love these car seats, then why would you? Parental concerns and comments get highly regarded for our reviews.

The Best Rear-Facing Car Seats

Evenflo car seat
Image source: pixabay

Graco Convertible Car Seat

The Graco convertible car seat is a rear-facing car seat that protects infant set range from four pounds up to 50 pounds. What's nice about this car seat is that you don't have to retire it as soon as your child gets too big for it, as it converts over to a forward facing toddler seat that can hold from 22 pounds up to 65 pounds.

Thanks to the four-position extension panel allow you to adjust up and provide up to five inches of additional legroom so that your child can ride safely in the rear-facing position longer. On top of the extension panel that provides comfort for your growing child, this car seat also features A six position recline which helps keep your child comfortable during the ride.

These extendable features also continue to the address where you'll be able to take advantage of 10 different positions that comfortably accommodate a growing child. These extendable features are great for parents who don't want to spend a lot of money on a car seat but understand that their child will grow at a quick rate.

You can even adjust the harness but straps them in, and it can adjust as you change the headrest in a straightforward motion. This feature super convenient for parents who have busy schedules or have their arms full and they desperately need to get their child strapped in and appropriately adjusted.

The safety features extend further on to the inRight latch system which allows parents to watch their child into place within a second. All you have to do is take a look at the instructions and make sure that everything is in place, only set it up once and you'll never have to fight with it again.

If you're concerned about safety, this car seat has been rigorously crash-tested to exceed all United States standard testing, including tests such as:

  • Front-end Collision
  • Rear end collision
  • Side-impact tested

Through these tests, they found that the occupant in the seat was solely held in place thanks to the five-point harness system that comes implemented into this car seat. The machine washable seat can be removed from the device and cleaned within a matter of moments, and it's highly comfortable which allows your child to enjoy a customized form of comfort for the ride.

There is a pair of integrated dual cup holders which keeps your child's drinks and snacks clothes for their convenience, and securely holds them in place in case you have to make a sudden stop. The frame itself is steel-reinforced, so you know that you'll be able to utilize it for many years.

Evenflo Tribute LX Car Seat

For those parents who like to have a little customization with their car seats, the Evenflo tribute LX convertible car seat has over eight different colors to choose from that will match your child style as much as your own. The color options that you get for this car seat are:

  • Neptune
  • Pink Mums
  • Abigail - which is an electric pink color
  • Azure Coast
  • Jupiter
  • Pink ice
  • Saturn
  • Venus

This car seat combined safety and comfort and what's so far the best value in our list. You'll find that the car seat is compact and it provides a great fit no matter what kind of vehicle you're driving with your child. This car seat also has excellent impact protection, showing that it can withstand well against side-impact, frontal, and rear impact collisions with flying colors.

You can extend the life of this car seat further thanks to its convertible option to turn into a front facing car seat once your child gets old enough to ride front facing. At rear-facing, this car seat can hold up to 30 pounds in weight, and then when converted to a forward facing car seat, it can hold up to 40 pounds in weight.

What does car seat you get for shoulder strap positions which allows you to utilize this car seat despite how fast your child may grow, that does not only save money, but it will enable your child to stay in comfort while they're traveling with you.

The foam liner that comes built into your child's car seat not only gives them a more comfortable ride, but it also helps protect them if you do get into an accident. This feature extends further to your harness covers, the plush head pillow, and the buckle covers so that your child won't get fussy from being uncomfortable.

If a child does accidentally spill their drink on their car seat, a wash rag with a bar of mild soap will easily clean any spills or stain that gets on your car seat. As a bonus, you can also take the washable material off and throw it in the washer and dryer under the delicates setting to get it clean that way.

To ensure that your child is strapped in correctly, refer to your local laws and safety guides for child safety to make sure that your seatbelts and your child's car seat are correctly installed.

Graco My Ride 65

Another car seat by Graco makes our list, known as the My Ride 65, and this comfy car seat comes in three different colors that you can choose from, such as:

  • Sully ( blue coloration
  • Go green
  • Sylvia (pink color.)

With the My Ride 65, your baby will be able to stay rear-facing for up to 40 pounds in the baby car seat mode. This feature is considered to be longer than what most car seats will accommodate for, however according to the American Academy of Pediatrics you should be keeping your child rear facing as long as physically possible.

Once your child has graduated to a forward-facing seat, the Graco my ride easily converts to a forward facing car seat that can hold a child up to 65 pounds safely in the car seat. Your child will get to utilize the dual cup holders faced on either side of their chair to hold their snacks and drinks which will keep them in place even if you have to come to a sudden stop.

The My Ride 65 comes with EPS lining which is an energy absorbing foam that helps keep your child safe when dealing with an impact. The five-point frontal adjusting harness I'll also keep them latched in safely, and it's even held up against some of the most rigorous testings when it came to crash testing the car seat.

The car seat comes with a removable infant insert, and toddler's headrest to help keep your child company no matter how big they get. It comes with a one second latch system that, once installed the first time correctly, makes it easy to get your child buckled in and ready for their next adventure in the car.

Safety 1st Guide 65

If you have a smaller car or you're looking for extra space in a larger vehicle, the safety first car seat featured here will accommodate children anywhere between five pounds to 40 pounds, and it's rear-facing mode. Want your child graduates to a front-facing car seat, and you can utilize this car seat for up to 65 pounds in a forward-facing way.

The five-point harness that often comes used in the best car seats is easily adjustable from the front which is extremely convenient when it comes to your child growing as fast as they do in their toddler stages. On top of that, the five-point harness keeps them in place in the event of an impact while the steel framed body helps protect your child in the event of an accident.

You’ll be able to choose between five different colors for your car seats:

  • Seaport
  • Caspian
  • Chambers
  • Victorian Lace
  • Chateau

This convertible car seat is also the perfect car seat for families that have multiple young ones that need to get strapped into car seats. You can fit three of the seat side by side in the backseat of most vehicles and cars thanks to their compact size.

The body pillows are removable and allow your children to sit as comfortably as possible and even the cup holders removable so you can quickly clean them and provide your children with a convenient way to grab their favorite snacks or drinks.

This car seat meets and exceeds all of the federal safety standards in regards to crash testing and side-impact testing. Safety 1st is a company that has dedicated themselves to providing peace of mind to their families that they sell to so that you know that your child will be safe no matter where you go.

Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 Convertible Car Seat

The Graco 4 in 1 convertible car seat as one of Amazon's top sellers as far as child safety car seats are concerned. With the forever convertible car seat, He'll have 13 different colors to choose from when you're trying to decide which car seat to buy.

This car seat also comes in two Styles, the 4Ever and the 4Ever DLX which is a little wider and has different areas of support and cushion.

This car seat gives you at least ten years of use starting at the four pounds mark and going all the way up to 120 pounds. For the rear-facing capabilities, this car seat will support your child for up to 40 pounds which put SIM in about two years old on an average scale.

When you convert it to a forward facing toddler seat, it will take up to 65 pounds what's 22 pounds being the minimum.

It can be converted once again into a booster seat with a high back belt positioning mode which will take 30 pounds up to a hundred pounds and then the backless belt-positioning mode will allow your child to ride on it up to a hundred and twenty pounds.  With ten years of guaranteed years, this is the best value that you can get in a car seat.

As with the other Graco models in our list, this car seat does feature the inRight latch system which allows parents to have a secure one-second latch attachment so they can get their kids in the car and get going to their next destination. All it takes is a little bit of installation at first, but once it has gotten installed, you'll never have to worry about it again.

Any adjustments that need to happen to your child's car seat becomes naturally easy to do thanks to the single-handed adjustment feature, and this car seat also allows it. All of the material is machine washable, and they're easy to take off of the car seat itself without removing the entire thing altogether.

There is a convenient strap storage that's accessible when you change your car seat into a booster seat, and it keeps all of your unused straps organized.

You’ll get over six positions to work with to keep your growing child comfortable during each car ride, and its cup holders allow you to hold all styles and sizes of cups and snacks.

Disney Baby Apt 50

If you grew up loving Disney and your children do as well, the Disney baby car seat and carrier would be the perfect choice for your little one to ride in. This car seat is convertible and accommodates your child from four pounds 40 pounds in its rear-facing mode and then 20 pounds to 50 pounds in its front-facing setting easily.

This car seat has several different design options to choose from, including:

  • Minnie Sweetheart
  • Mouseketeer Minnie
  • Mouseketeer Mickey
  • New Mouseketeer Minnie
  • New Mouseketeer Mickey
  • And Minnie Polka Dot

This car seat is designed for growing children, providing six different harness Heights that spaced perfectly for young children. It also features three Buckle locations to compliment the harness Heights and provide a safer ride for your children while they're in the car.

A car seat also provides side impact protection, and it's built right into the seat design. The best kind of protection shield your child and a side-impact crash and the foam that comes factored into the chair also provides shock impact watch keeps your child secured in the chair.

This chair also features two cup holders that are accessible for both front-facing and rear-facing writers, and they're big enough to cater to most bottle and sippy cup sizes.

All of the fabric is machine washable and easy to take off which means they'll be no stress when it comes to your child spilling their favorite juice all over their car seat. Might have to do is gather it up, put it in the washing machine, set your settings to delicates and started. Once it's thoroughly dry, putting it back on it's easy as well and you don't have to fuss with it.

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