As you may know, we’ve been looking for a Group 1+ car seat for Oscar for a while now as he was fast becoming too small for his infant car seat. With thanks to my lovely sister over at Mummy Loves who is a Graco Ambassador, I received a Graco Nautilus car seat to review. The Nautilus is great as it is Group 1, 2 and 3 (9-36kgs) – so this is the only car seat that we will ever need for him now!

Graco Nautilus – The Details

Safety

  • Side impact protection
  • 5 point harness
  • Lock-off mechanism
  • Group 1 Stage: 9 to 18 kilos with in-built harness and harness protect
  • Group 2, 3 Stage: 15 to 36 kilos – please remove harness and use with a seat belt
Ease of use
  • Direct-access recline handle
  • Intuitive belt routing
  • One-hand adjustable head support
Comfort
  • Height adjustment (grows with child)
Convenience
  • Machine washable cover- Integrated cup holder
  • Storage compartments

My first impressions on receiving the Nautilus was that it looked lovely and spacious and extremely sturdy looking.

Oscar's first time in the Nautilus

Oscar certainly seemed very happy in his new seat though he was a little perplexed with suddenly being able to see forwards.

When it came to fastening the car seat into the car (we use it in a Kia Sorento) I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install. With all the media going on about how so many car seats aren’t correctly fitted, it is nice to find a car seat which really is easy to fit and doesn’t move an inch when I test it.

I also like the fact that it has a drinks holder and a couple of handy storage compartments in the arm rests. Now Oscar is a little young for having drinks in the car yet but I know from experience with Zara how annoying it is trying to pass drinks back to a toddler and trying to reach for dropped cups.

Oscar in his big boy seat

I have to admit I’ve not quite figured out the recline feature yet as it doesn’t recline quite as much as I like but at least it has one, the seat we have for Zara doesn’t have a recline and I always feel sorry for her when she falls asleep bolt upright. Oscar at least has a little recline to make his snoozing easier.

The Graco Naultius can be bought from various places, the cheapest I’ve found this morning was on Amazon for around £125 here >> Graco Nautilus Group 1/2/3 Car Seat
which although it seems expensive at first, considering it will be the only car seat I need from now on, it’s not a bad investment.

The Graco Nautilus also comes with a FREE childrens play centre ;) – as you can see from the following photos, the box provided hours of entertainment for both Zara and Oscar lol

So Oscar gets a car seat and I get a new den - great!

Plenty of room for me and all my toys in here!