Best Reviewed
Booster Seats
- Best booster seat Graco Highback TurboBooster *Est. $50
- Best five-point harness booster seat Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 *Est. $160
- Backless car booster seat Graco Backless TurboBooster *Est. $25
- Portable high-back booster seat The First Years Compass B570 Pathway *Est. $95
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Best five-point harness booster seat
- Excellent frontal crash protection
- Five-point harness up to 65 pounds
- Converts to belt-positioning booster
- EPS protective foam
- Easy to use
- Very good fit to vehicle
- Moderately priced
- Sturdy and well built
- Heavy and wide
The Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 is a high-capacity booster seat with a five-point harness that can hold kids up to 65 pounds. Experts and parents rate this seat highly on passenger safety and comfort, thanks to its expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and protective deep side wings. Reviewers also like the Nautilus for its versatility: After your child outgrows the harness, you can use the Nautilus as an ordinary booster with your vehicle's seatbelt until your child is 57 inches tall and weighs 100 pounds. It can also be converted to a backless booster, but studies show that backless boosters don't protect kids as well in a side crash as boosters with backs. One drawback to harness boosters is they tend to be heavier and bulkier than belt-positioning boosters, and the Nautilus is no exception. Parents say this is not the seat for folks who need to fit three seats into the back row. If you don't need the five-point harness, the belt-positioning Graco Highback TurboBooster (*Est. $50) gets top crash ratings and has a slimmer design.
ConsumerReports.org is the only source we found that independently crash-tests the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1. The parenting book "Baby Bargains" doesn't crash-test, but experts there do assign letter grades to the seats they review. CarSeatBlog.com covers the Nautilus in its credible best-of list. For critiques by owners themselves, we found both Amazon.com and Buzzillions.com to have a good selection of user reviews on the Nautilus, and BabesandKids.com provides a detailed long-term user review.
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| Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat, Matrix | |
(1,093 reviews) In Stock. Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping |
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Our Sources
1. ConsumerReports.orgDetails/Subscribe
ConsumerReports.org conducts frontal crash tests on five booster seats with five-point harnesses, including the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1. Editors also rate each seat's fit to vehicle (using both LATCH and seatbelt installations) and ease of use.
Review: Toddler Booster Seat Ratings, Editors of ConsumerReports.org
2. Baby BargainsDetails/Subscribe
This parenting book covers the complete range of car and booster seats from Graco. Unlike most car-seat reviewers, authors Denise and Alan Fields use detailed reports along with a letter-grade ranking system to help readers compare models and find one that meets their needs.
Review: Booster Seats, Denise and Alan Fields, Eighth Edition, 2009
Child-passenger safety technician Heather Watson includes the Nautilus in her list of recommended booster seats. Write-ups on each model aren't extensive, but the author's credentials and long history as a reviewer lend credibility to her choices.
Review: Recommended Car Seats, Heather Watson, Oct. 23, 2008
Buzzillions.com has more than 800 owner reviews for the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1, and a nicer interface than Amazon.com. Especially useful are the pros and cons lists, with a tally of how often each attribute is mentioned in the ever-increasing user review pool.
Review: Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Convertible Car Seat in Grey, Contributors to Buzzillions.com
5. Amazon.com
The Graco Nautilus gets excellent coverage at Amazon.com, where more than 700 parents share their thoughts on this booster seat. While Amazon.com lacks some of the advanced sorting features of Buzzillions.com, it has consistently reliable review quality.
Review: Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat, Matrix, Contributors to Amazon.com
This mother of two boys discusses her decision process of why she chose the Graco Nautilus 3-n-1 and her experiences with the car seat over the last two years.
Review: Tiff Picks: Graco Nautilus 3-n-1 Car Seat, "Tiffany", Jan. 2011
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