Best Infant Carrier Car Seats For 2022

At only 25 inches in length, the Cybex Aton 2 Sensorsafe is an inch or two shorter than the most popular infant car seats on the market, making it ideal for fitting into vehicles lacking second-row legroom. The nine-pound seat offers several notable safety features, including a sensor built into the chest clip of the carrier (requires use of vehicle’s OBD II port) that can send an alert to the parents’ phone if the ambient temperature has become too hot or too cold. The alert also acts as a reminder that the baby is in the vehicle. It also is equipped with linear side impact protection extenders that can be used when installed in outboard seats to reduce the collision forces by 25% and a load leg to help mitigate rebound in the event of a collision. Its relatively narrow 17.25-inch width makes it a good contender for parents who need to accommodate other car seats, and its 12-way recline will make it easier to find a level position when using the base. 

Clek has earned a niche following by developing a family of narrow infant, convertible and toddler car seats that more easily accommodate “three across” in vehicles compared with rivals. At just shy of 17 inches wide, the clean minimalist design of the Clek Liing infant car seat carrier offers several features for safety-mined parents, such as a metal load leg and naturally flame-resistant 100% Merino wool lining free of flame-retardant chemicals. Balancing its hefty $400 price is its nine-year lifespan, which will enable parents to use it for multiple children, and its seven-position recline helps make babies lie safely and comfortably in most vehicles as they grow. Measure carefully, however, because its 27.75-inch length may make it a tight fit for positioning behind the driver or passenger, and purchasing an additional $200 base for other vehicles costs as much as some new carriers and bases combined (all infant car seats can be installed using only seat belts). While it uses the same stroller adapters suitable for Maxi-Cosi, Nuna and Cybex infant car seats, it may not be compatible with some of the more budget-friendly mainstream stroller brands.

Parents trapsing through airports and frequently hopping in and out of Ubers will get a lot of mileage out of this all-in-one infant carrier seat and stroller because it eliminates the need to store and lug around a bulky separate stroller base. It would also be a good choice for urban dwellers who use public transportation as their primary mode of transport.  The Doona is the only combo stroller-infant car seat available in the U.S. market, and can deploy its retractable wheels by releasing its latch. But integrating the wheels with the infant car seat carrier does have drawbacks. The product weighs 16.5 pounds on its own, which is on-par or lighter than many strollers on the market, but the added weight of a baby may make it difficult for some parents to lift out of the vehicle—especially as the baby grows—which can make conversion into a stroller awkward (especially in inclement weather) because you may need to place the car seat on the ground to deploy the wheels. Its compact design also means you lose underneath storage for diaper bags, toys, or other overflows. On the other hand, the wheels tucked cleverly under the carrier means there’s no worry about fitting a clunky stroller base in the cargo hold, freeing up that space for groceries, luggage, and loads of other baby gear.

While all babies benefit from the comfort of lying flat, it’s especially important for premature and newborn infants with delicate organs. The PegPerego is one of only two infant car seats that offer a reclining carrier that adjusts to a lie-flat position in the stroller to keep a napping baby comfortable during long walks (the other is the Cybex Cloud Q). The carrier is equipped with several collision impact force mitigators, including integrated side-impact “kinetic pods,” an anti-rebound bar and load. It also features an infinitely adjustable knob (rather than multiple fixed positions) along with the weight-based level indicator to help caregivers find the appropriate recline angle to keep the carrier level to the ground as the infant grows. It’s also suitable for babies up to 32 inches, which is a couple inches more than some competitors. But that means it’s longer than most. At 31-inches, the Viaggio 4/35 Lounge’s length may limit in which vehicles or seat position the carrier can be used, but it also seems to enable the baby to lay the flattest when in the vehicle.

While you can look up a car’s crash-test ratings by the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, you can’t do the same for infant car seats. All infant child seats sold in the U.S. meet the safety and performance requirements defined in Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (FMVSS 213) that governs child restraint systems, which means they all passed tests that simulate frontal collisions up to 30 mph, but aren’t graded. There isn’t an easily searchable database to view these Pass/Fail test results, and instead most manufacturers promote impact protection performance results from their independent testing. However, NHTSA analyzes labels, instructions, installation features and secure-ability and scores on a five-star rating scale to give parents an idea of a seat’s usability. Britax has historically been one of a handful of infant car seats awarded five stars in nearly all categories of NHTSA’s Ease-of-Use ratings, and it’s is consistently among the top-rated infant car seats by Consumer Reports and Baby Gear Lab.  The available FlexFit model uses an additional layer of side-impact protection and features Euro belt guides for seat-belt installation without the base, and the optional FlexFit+ model includes an anti-rebound bar. Because all models are suitable for babies between four and 35 pounds and up to 32 inches, parents may get a few more months of use out of it before switching to a convertible car seat. However, its warranty isn’t as long as some competitors and at 10.9 pounds, it slightly on the heavier side. Still, it’s well-designed with usability in mind, which is why all adjustable parts are an attention-grabbing bright red color.