No, they didn’t make this seat yet when I needed it. Recaro use to only make a front facing seat. I ended up getting a Britax Boulevard,with side impact protection.
Right now, the difference between the Recaro you indicated and the Britax would be a coin toss to me. The Boulevard has been around awhile. Recaro has a great reputation for building good seats. The thing I don’t like about the Boulevard is the lower buckle sits too far in and a big kid will have issues using it. Also my kid figured out how to loosen the strap, so I had to spend a week teaching her don’t do it or you might go into the windshield if I stop suddenly. Britax was Made in the USA, so that was a bonus.
The Boulevard barely fits in my car (the height is the issue). Anyway, my car is being torn down right now, so I’m tooling around a C320 with the car seat, so there’s more space for it.
I found the most useless thing was the Infant Car Seat. I used it a total of 2 times before she outgrew it. 1 time bringing her home from the hospital, 1 time going to her checkup. Lasted for about 6 months.
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the actual protection is probably a toss up, but the Recaro to me just look a lot more supportive w/ the side head pad. It’s definitely a huge seat. We’re actually looking into getting a FX because the Recaro would take up way too much of the back seat of the C240. It’s hard to put him in since the head room in the C240 is low and the width of the car is just too narrow, so, people sitting in the back would be a tight fit. I’m not sure how big the Britax is, but you might want to check that out before getting the C320. C-class back seat is not that big.
We only got 1 infant car seat and my wife used it a lot over the 4 months that he fit in them. I do have an extra base for it in my car that I used a total of 2 times :-).
