Infant Car Seat review: Urbini Petal

Price: $100.

Limits: 4-35 lbs., 32”

NHTSA ease of use rating: Four out of five stars.

Pros: Adjustable base with built-in lock offs, side impact protection, lightweight carrier (8 lbs), preemie insert, affordable.

Cons: Twisty harness straps. 1.0 version seat. Only works with Urbini’s own strollers, as other stroller makers don’t offer Urbini adapters.

Comments: Urbini is the new brand from Chinese baby gear behemoth Goodbaby, which owns Evenflo and Cybex as well as makes baby gear for a host of other brands. The company sells strollers under the GB brand.

Sold exclusively at Walmart, the Urbini Petal is impressive on paper—a lightweight carrier (8 lbs.) and  adjustable base with built-in lock offs. Goodbaby both designed and manufactured car seats for such brands as Maxi Cosi and Dorel (before parting ways with Dorel in 2014)—their experience shows in the Petal.

With a padded preemie insert, the Petal can work for infants as small as four pounds.

So what’s not to like? Well, like any version 1.0 seat, the Petal has a few rough edges—velcro on the harness can sometimes snag on the harness slots when you tighten the seat. And the harness itself is thin and prone to twisting, which of course is a pain.

Yes, you have to rethread the harness when charging the harness height (the Petal even has two hip adjustments, as well as two crotch positions). While it would be nice to have a no-rethread harness, that is a feature one wouldn’t expect on a $100 car seat.

As of this writing, Urbini is only sold at Walmart (and via third parties on Amazon). The company sells the Petal as a stand-alone seat or as part of a travel system with the Urbini Omni ($199), Touri ($149) or Avi ($299) strollers. (See our review of Urbini strollers in the stroller section.) Unfortunately, that is your only option for strollers that work with the Petal—as of this writing, no other stroller makers make adapters that fit the Petal.

We gave the Urbini a B+ out of the gate, but we’re dropping our rating this time out. As more reader feedback on the Petal comes in, the more negative the ratings trend. Parents knock the Petal’s lack of padding and hard to adjust harness. Some of the scorn we see for the Petal is actually ire directed at the Urbini’s travel systems (strollers that are bundled with a Petal), as the strollers have issues themselves. But more than one parent complained the Petal’s narrow seat meant their child outgrew the seat too soon despite the stated 35 lb. weight limit, in their opinion.

Bottom line: there are better choices out there for infant seats than the Petal. Rating: C-