Graco My Ride 65 LX Convertible Car Seat Review

It seems to be such a daunting task to pick out a car seat for your child. You don't want to go broke but you want your child to be safe at the same time. After all of my research, I decided to buy the Graco My Ride 65 LX Convertible Car Seat in Coda. In this article, I will let you know how I feel about this product from a Mother's point of view.

• Rear-facing for infants 5 to 40 pounds
• Forward-facing for toddlers 20 to 65 pounds
• Dual cup holders
• 5-point front adjust harness
• Adjustable head support
• Machine washable cushion

• Side impact tested
• EPS, energy absorbing foam
• Engineered & crash tested to meet or exceed US standard FMVSS 213
• New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) - peak Crash Force approximately 2X Car Seat Standard
• LATCH equipment

The Graco My Ride 65 is so easy to install. I didn't ever have to look at the instruction manual. The pictures and instructions on the side of the car seat were plenty to guide me through the installation. I also had it checked out with the boys at the fire station and they said it was top notch! If I can install this car seat in about 5 minutes and it be done correctly, anyone can.

I purchased this car seat for around $125 at Target (I chose Target because I had gift cards). There are always sales on different car seats so if you shop around before you need the car seat, you will get you best deal. I recommend checking eBay and Amazon for the best prices. But, avoid buying used unless it is from someone you know and trust. Sometimes, if a car seat has been in an accident already, the safety of the seat is compromised.

Since this car seat is convertible and can be used from birth until 65 pounds, It is a heck of a deal! You could use this car seat until your child moved to a booster/belt positioner seat at around 4 years old.

I didn't buy my Graco convertible car seat until my daughter was 15 months. But, it I use it from then until she is 4 years old. That means I got 33 months of use out of it. Since I paid roughly $125 for mine, that breaks down to only $3.79 per month for my child's safety. If I had known more about convertible car seats, I probably would have bought this car seat for her when she was closer to 6 months old. (You can read why in the Safety section) Then I would have used the car seat for roughly 42 months and the price breakdown would be about $2.97 per month. That's next to nothing!

This convertible car seat allows your child to stay rear facing longer than most. It is recommended that your child stays rear facing until they are 2 years old. I'm am glad to see that it is possible for me to follow these recommendations with Graco's my Ride 65 since it goes up to 40 pounds rear facing. My daughter is only 19 pounds and 15 months old. But, even heavier children could stay rear-facing up to two years with this seat.

I have a 2010 Nissan Sentra and had no problem fitting this car seat into my car. However, I did have to put it in the center spot of the back seat since my husband would not be able to drive comfortable or ride comfortably if the car seat were installed behind one of the seats. I don't think most people would have this problem; but my husband is over 6 feet tall. So, he tends to have the seat as far back as it goes, leaving little room for a car seat.

The My Ride 65 has cushioning on all sides of the seat that make it really comfortable. There is also the adjustable piece that I can only assume is a head rest. This piece cradles my daughters head wonderfully when she falls asleep in the car. Between the deep seat and this adjustable head rest area, my daughters head doesn't flop or hang while she is sleeping. She looks so cozy in there!

One big drawback to the My Ride 65 is that the seat cover is not machine washable. Any parent knows how messy kids are and we NEED to wash that thing every so often. This may be a huge inconvenience to some, but I did not mind since I have a Bissell SpotBot that allows me to clean the seat with no problems.

Using this car seat on a daily basis is so simple. The car seat i owned before this one drove me crazy because you had to take it completely out, adjust the straps, put your child in it, take them out, adjust again, etc. My old car seat also had these strange buckles that made it difficult to get a squirming child strapped in safely.

The My Ride 65 is one of the simplest car seats I have ever used. I just put my daughter in it, snap the chest piece together, and put the two individual snaps in place from the 5-point harness. If it is too loose, I just pull the adjusting strap by my daughter's feet; which I can still get to while it is installed in the rear facing position. If the straps are too tight, I can do the same thing with just a push of a button.

One thing that I was uncertain about when I was looking at other reviews online of the My Ride 65, was that people were complaining about the safety warnings on the top of the seat. The reviews said how ugly they were and that the pictures online didn't show these and they couldn't be removed. Below is a picture of what they look like so you can decide for yourself if this is a factor. It really doesn't bother me or my daughter any.

I love my Graco My Ride 65 LX and would recommend it to anyone who still has a child in a car seat!