ABC Expo 2011: What’s New from Peg Perego – Primo Viaggio SIP Convertible & Viaggio HBB!

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After a decade of having only an infant carseat available in North America to go with their popular strollers – Peg Perego is ready to launch a convertible carseat and a dedicated highback booster!  These will be called Primo Viaggio SIP Convertible and Viaggio HBB!  Hopefully they didn’t spend a lot of money on focus groups to come up with those names, lol.  However, they clearly dropped many Euros on the design and development of the seats themselves.  With one glaring exception (which we were very verbal about), we were pleasantly surprised and impressed by what we saw.  I’m going to break up the offerings by country since the Canadian seats will have different features and in some cases, different weight ranges.

Let’s start with Canada since those Peg models will have some unique features that their American cousins will not, at least not initially.

Canadian Primo Viaggio SIP Convertible:  5-45 RF, 22-65 FF  (didn’t check RF/FF height limits for this model – sorry!), other specs and measurements listed below.  Not sure when it will be arriving in Canada or the price point.  Clearly we’re failing our friends North of the Border.  Sorry guys!  We’ll follow up when we receive additional info from Peg Perego.

New Canadian Primo Viaggio SIP 30-30 infant seat with anti-rebound handle position. It will be mandatory to use this position in vehicle.  Rear-facing to 30 lbs or 30″ tall.  This will be one of the few infant seat options rated to 30 lbs in Canada!  Made in Italy, not China like every other infant seat on the market in North America.  Of course, that’s always reflected in the pricetag!

Not sure if the booster is going to Canada too but we’ll confirm and follow up.

New American Primo Viaggio SIP Convertible (no ARB).

  • 5-45 lbs RF 
  • 22-70 lbs FF (49″  ht limit)
  • FF lockoffs for seatbelt installs but no RF lockoffs
  • 10 harness height settings
  • 17.5″ top harness height
  • single LATCH strap has dual adjusters
  • V-shaped top tether strap
  • S.A.F.E energy management system (shock absorbing foam element)
  • Available soon (Nov/Dec) $299 ($349 for Leather)

Excerpts from the Primo Viaggio Convertible instruction manual:

*Please note, we incorrectly state the FF wt limits for the Canadian convertible seat in the above video. The limits are what you see posted on the display sign; 5-45 RF, 22-65 FF.

Viaggio High Back Booster: 40-120 lbs with flexible lower LATCH Attachments!  20″ height to belt guide. Base reclines.  $179 ($199 for Leather)

We ran out of time before we had a chance to take a closer look at any of the strollers or the US model of the Primo Viaggio 30-30 infant seat. However, we did confirm that the US infant seat models would continue NOT to offer the anti-rebound handle position.  We wish they would reconsider their stance on that since we love anti-rebound features here in the US too, even if our federal standards don’t require it (yet).

Last but not least, we pleaded with them to reconsider what we thought was an artificially low 35″ stated height limit for their convertibles in the rear-facing position.  The very generous 45 lbs RF weight limit is practically meaningless if they’re going to mandate a standing height limit of 35″ in the rear-facing position.  According to the CDC Growth Charts for boys up to 36 months, 35″ tall is somewhere between the 50-75%ile for boys at 24 months.  Considering that our goal is to get all kids to at least 2 years old in the rear-facing position, we believe there is room for improvement here.  Fingers crossed that they can find a way to either raise the stated height limit or do away with it altogether in favor of a more realistic 1″ rule [on a designated max RF height setting].  If they can manage to do that – the Primo Viaggio convertible has real potential to compete in the current market!

*UPDATE!  Check out our blog article below: 

Peg Perego retracts stated 35″ rear-facing height limit on Primo Viaggio SIP Convertible

 

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