DEALS TRACKER: We find the best deals for April 2020 on car seats, strollers & baby gear. Bookmark this deals page and check back frequently for the latest bargains and promo code offers, so you find them here first before they sell out!

We’re the baby gear deal experts, so we know where the best deals are on the stuff consumers actually want to buy. We scour Amazon and other retailers to find the best bargains. We don’t just rely on automated tools and other deals pages, so we find the best deals for you, our valued readers, first. This is the resource other deal pages use to find deals so please feel free to share* our links!

Have you considered an Amazon baby registry? What do you get when you register? A free gift box valued at $35, a 90-day return policy for most items purchased from your registry, group gifting so multiple people can contribute to gifts, and more. Check it out!

What you need to know about Amazon pricing: it’s FICKLE. When a product’s price is reduced we rarely know how long it will remain at that price. Sometimes it’s a few days, sometimes it’s a few hours. The best advice we can offer you is to ACT QUICKLY if you see a great deal on something you really need or just seriously want. Just adding something to your cart does not guarantee you that item at that price – you must complete the checkout process to seal the deal. Most items on our list offer FREE SHIPPING & FREE RETURNS to Prime members but always double-check this before you put the item in your cart and checkout. Not a Prime member*? There’s a 30-day FREE trial. It’s a no-brainer! Try it out and score some great deals. You can always cancel before the 30 days is up if you’re not sold on the many benefits of an Amazon Prime membership.

Coronavirus update: Due to COVID-19, Amazon is shipping only essential items. Essential means feeding items like breast pumps, breast milk bags, and baby monitors. Carseats and strollers may have delayed shipping. If you need a carseat before then, we appreciate your support by using our links in the paragraph directly below.

Looking for more info on a certain carseat or booster? Check out our REVIEWS page. We have in-depth reviews of over 100 carseats and boosters. Prefer to shop at other stores? If you received great advice from us or discovered a good deal here and share it with friends, please mention us and share* our links to Amazon, Albee Baby, Target.com, Walmart.com, Kohl’s, and BuyBuyBaby. Thank you!

This post and others at CarseatBlog contain affiliate links. Please read About CarseatBlog for our affiliate policy and see our Marketing Disclosure.

Select Editors’ Picks:

These carseats are among our Editor’s Picks and are reader favorites, too!

• Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant Seat $199.99
• Chicco NextFit Zip Convertible $249.99
• Graco 4Ever DLX All-in-One $269.99
• Graco Extend2Fit from $137.99
• Britax Marathon ClickTight $279.99
• Graco Nautilus SnugLock LX $199.99
• Nuna Pipa Infant Seat $299.99

Infant (Rear-Facing Only) Car Seat Deals:

☆ Indicates a CarseatBlog Recommended Carseat 

Britax B-Safe 35 in all fashions for $199.99 ☆

Chicco KeyFit 30 in all fashions for $199.99 ☆

Chicco KeyFit 30 Magic (with cold-weather boot) in “Coal” or “Isle” for $179.99 ☆ 14% Off  No Free Returns

Evenflo LiteMax DLX (with Load Leg) in “Mallard” or “Meteorite” for $169.99

Evenflo LiteMax DLX (with Load Leg) in “Meteorite” for $152.49 10% Off 

Graco SnugRide SnugLock 30 in “Balancing Act” or “Tasha” for $127.71 ☆

Graco SnugRide SnugLock 35 DLX in “Binx” for $169.99 ☆

Graco SnugRide SnugLock 35 Platinum XT in “Bryant” for $199.99 ☆ 20% Off

Graco SnugRide SnugLock *Extra Base* for $31.99 

Graco SnugRide SnugLock DLX *Extra Base* for $59.35

UnbuckleMe – Easy Buckle Release Tool for Parents & Grandparents $14.99

Convertible & All-in-One Deals:

The Rear-Facing Tether Is Back—Aussie Style

Clek recently introduced a “new” old safety concept: the Australian-style rear-facing tether. It’s been a few years since rear-facing tethering has been in vogue, but back then, it was the Swedish-style of tethering with which everyone was familiar—where, on only certain carseats, the top tether was anchored to the vehicle’s front seat track when rear-facing. Aussie-style RF tethering was available on Britax carseats because they had (still do!) a V-shaped dual tether that wrapped around the carseat and attached to the vehicle’s tether anchor. Aussie-style tethering is still popular in . . . Australia and Clek is bringing it back to North America to work in conjunction with anti-rebound bars (ARBs) to limit motion during a crash and manage energy.

What makes Aussie-style tethering Aussie-some (sorry, how could I *not* do that?) is that it keeps the carseat from rotating down toward the floor of the vehicle, similar in function to a load leg. In turn, the child stays more upright during a frontal crash, which is the most common type of crash, so that the carseat can absorb those crash forces, protecting the child’s head, neck, and spine.

The Q-Tether is available for $19.99 as an accessory for use with all unexpired Foonf and Fllo models. It limits the ability of the carseat to rotate down toward the floor of the vehicle in a frontal crash, performing similarly to a load leg or to using a Euro belt path which is found on more and more rear-facing only infant seats, including Clek’s Liing. When forward energy is limited, rebound energy, which is typically 1/3 the energy of the initial crash, is reduced as well. What does this mean for your child? The less bouncing around in a crash, the safer she’ll be.

There are 2 parts to the Q-Tether. The part that attaches to the tether anchor has a metal splitter plate on the other end—the splitter plate is typically what a harness attaches to on the back of a carseat. The other piece is a long strap with a loop on each end that wraps around the carseat, is threaded through the unused forward-facing lockoffs, and is attached to the splitter plate. Owners of Clek convertibles are used to “assembling” their carseats for installation (adding the ARB, putting adding the RF base onto the Foonf, putting the seat panel back on after RF installation), so the process of installing the Q-Tether will only add a few more minutes.

Tips to Make the Q-Tether Installation Process Go Smoothly:

• Install your Clek convertible rear-facing
• Open both forward-facing lockoffs first
• Tighten the harness. If the harness is loose, you may accidentally thread the Q-Tether strap underneath the harness on the back of the seat.
• Make sure the long strap is loosened all the way. If it isn’t fully slack, you may not be able to attach it to the splitter plate, depending on your vehicle’s head restraint design.
• Additional hands always help because you’re trying to wrap a long strap around a carseat and through 2 lockoffs. Attach the non-adjuster side to the splitter plate first, thread it through the lockoff, pull taut, then close the lockoff. That will hold the strap in place and you can then thread the strap through the next lockoff.

Getting Kids In and Out with the Q-Tether

Alright. It’s the big question and I’m saving it for last. You’re looking at this tether that completely goes around the carseat and thinking, “I have to thread my thrashing kid through this tether, then try to get the harness on him.” Probably similar to putting an outfit on your cat. This is why the Q-Tether is attached with loops on each end of the long strap: the adjuster goes on the door side so it gets loosened and tightened each time your child is placed in the seat.

In my Tesla Model X, I had typical tether issues with the Q-Tether sliding off the shoulder of my vehicle seat when I went to tighten the strap. You can mitigate this by pulling the strap in toward the inside of the car instead of pulling the strap towards yourself; if your child is older, they can pull the strap taut. In my Tesla Model 3, the tether anchor is on the parcel shelf so it’s like any other sedan, except that Tesla wants the splitter plate off to the outside of the head restraint on the outboard positions (check your vehicle owner’s manual if you have a non-movable head restraint). I had no issues with my 2011 Acura MDX.

Model X

Model 3

Acura MDX

If you’ve installed your carseat with the seat belt, you will have a couple of belts to keep your kid’s feet out of when you place them in the seat. If your child likes autonomy (and you have the time), they can climb in by themselves, of course. Our 3-yr old model had no problems climbing into the Foonf in the Acura MDX from the outside and it would have been even easier climbing in from the center seat (Q-Tether adjuster would have gone on the inside if that were his normal spot to climb in). It does take some maturity for that to happen, though. He tried to pull the Q-Tether strap tight, but wasn’t quite able to get the last bit of slack out, despite having a little bit of practice. If the Foonf were his daily ride, I’m sure he’d have no problems whatsoever.

You can’t argue with safety and the Q-Tether offers an extra measure of safety. It’s awesome that Clek is using simple tools to help parents who want to provide an extra bit of energy management should they be in a crash. And it’s great that Clek is providing this safety tool retroactively to owners who already own Clek seats so their kids can benefit from it too!

You May Have An Automated Car and Not Even Know It

When many of us think of an automated vehicle, we think of a futuristic car that drives itself without a steering wheel; we tell it where to go and it magically takes us there safely. There’s a bit of wonderment and fear thrown in since all the human control is taken out of the equation. We’re supposed to sit back and relax, perhaps read our phones or meditate. While that vision may seem far off, it’s actually not. Fully automated vehicle pilot programs have been in place in several cities around the United States for a few years now with mixed success and GM has petitioned NHTSA to deploy vehicles without steering wheels or other human controls this year. But these kinds of vehicles are highly specific and not what the Average Joe or Josephina comes into contact every day when they drive to work or run errands. What is automation in today’s car?

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines levels of automation and that’s important when it comes to describing what’s available in the average vehicle because the actual driver assistance technology names used by vehicles manufacturers is very proprietary and confusing (gotta love creative marketers!). Most of us have cruise control, which falls into Level 1 longitudinal control (lengthwise control). Adaptive cruise control, in which your speed will vary based on the distance of the car in front of you, also is a Level 1 automation. Bet you didn’t realize you had an automated car!

Level 0: No automation; this includes blind spot warning, automatic emergency braking, and lane departure warning

Level 1: Lateral automation, such as lane centering (lateral control, or side to side control), OR longitudinal automation, such as adaptive cruise control (speed and distance control); this level is basic speed and steering

Level 2: Sustained automation of both lateral AND longitudinal controls; this level is the car driving itself, but the human driver must have hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take over at any given moment

Level 3: Very similar to Level 2, but the vehicle monitors the surrounding environment; human driver must be ready to take over at any time when the automation system requests

Level 4: Driving is performed by automation system and no human is required; vehicle will pull itself over if something happens and is usually limited in some manner, such as speed

Level 5: Truly automated with no human intervention whatsoever; does not exist yet

Vehicle manufacturers like to give their automation packages slick names. It can be confusing for consumers and dangerous because they think their vehicles are far more capable of doing things than they really are. Take Tesla’s Autopilot, for example. Autopilot makes it sound like the system drives itself like a plane on autopilot: just punch in some coordinates, sit back, relax, and let the car do all the work. It couldn’t be further from the truth. While using Autopilot, I’ve had my Model X veer off the interstate as it follows lane markings towards exits I didn’t want to take, accelerate into stopped traffic it didn’t “see,” and drive like only a grandpa could due to the adaptive cruise control. I don’t blame the technology—I expect it because it’s relatively new technology and far from perfect. I only use Autopilot on long trips on open highways because Teslas are tiring to drive; I honestly don’t know how people can fall asleep on city freeways and stay alive in them, and a number of them haven’t. There’s a theory on why Autopilot can’t see red firetrucks parked in freeway lanes (read about it here)—at least 2 people have been killed by slamming into firetrucks.

Other manufacturers have equally confusing names for their technologies: Nissan uses ProPilot Assist, Volkswagen/Audi and Acura use Traffic Jam Assist, Cadillac uses Super Cruise, and BMW uses Driving Assistant Plus. All of these automation systems, including Tesla’s Autopilot, are Level 2 (sorry to burst your bubble, Tesla fans, Autopilot is not higher up). All of these automation systems have adaptive cruise control and lane centering, but Cadillac’s Super Cruise adds a hands-free ability and BMW’s Driving Assistant Plus adds camera features.

Adaptive cruise control has been in vehicles around the world for well over 20 years, but if you’ve owned a vehicle in the US in the past 7-10 years, especially a higher end model, you’ve likely had one with it. Technology in vehicles is moving so quickly that we’re seeing these features start out in the more expensive cars and move to the more economical ones very rapidly. Automated vehicles with varying levels of automation are on our streets and we’re having to interact with them more and more each day. Knowing that they’re out there and what features they have make us more informed and safer drivers.