UPPAbaby Mesa V2 Infant Car Seat Review

A look at the Mesa V2 by UPPAbaby. Is a premium infant car seat worth the splurge — or will a cheaper seat do the same job?

The Short Version

The UPPAbaby Mesa Infant Car Seat with Base is a safe infant car seat that easily pops out of the base, so you can carry your infant without waking them or attach it to a UPPAbaby stroller like the UPPAbaby Cruz.

Overall, the design is sleek, and the entire UPPAbaby product line feels like Apple products: quality, and they all play nice with each other. The ability to detach the car seat from the base is nice because you can install extra bases in other cars if you have more than one car.

One thing to know before buying: this review covers the V2, but UPPAbaby has since released the Mesa V3 and stores no longer sell the V2 new — so the shopping links in this post point to the V3. Our V2 expires in 2028, so there are still years of safe use left in it.

The Pastello Scale: 🖍️🖍️🖍️🖍️✏️ (4.5/5)

Why We Brought It Home

When we first brought the UPPAbaby Mesa Infant Car Seat with Base home, we wanted safety and convenience. Many of the features — the SmartSecure system, the LATCH design, the no-rethread headrest adjustment, and the ability to click the seat straight onto a stroller — didn’t exist in competing brands (or those brands were still trying to mimic them and hadn’t gotten it right yet).

I didn’t want to deal with buying attachments to convert a stroller to be compatible with the car seat or uninstalling the car seat to make adjustments as our baby grew. The features were novel at the time, so I decided to give it a shot. It’s not perfect, but it was worth the extra money for the safety and convenience — and now many brands have copied those features.

The Everyday Feel

Like many other UPPAbaby products, the UPPAbaby Mesa V3 Infant Car Seat with Base has a premium look and feel. The fabric, plastic, etc. all look premium to match the price point. While I don’t value the look as much as safety and convenience, it’s a bonus.

For everyday use, the base is easy to install (I did watch a YouTube video), and the visual indicators helped me make sure I got it right. I bought a second base for our other car so I didn’t have to uninstall it if we had to switch cars.

All the features I mentioned above worked like a charm. It was surprisingly easy to install the base into the car and align it to the green indicators. Adjusting the recline was as simple as pressing a button and pulling. Similarly, removing the car seat from the base took only a button press, and connecting it to the stroller required a simple snap.

A Few Quiet Details

  • Easy Install: The base is quick to install in the car, the carrier pops out with one click, and the seat snaps onto a UPPAbaby stroller without adapters.
  • Infants 4 to 30lbs: The car seat is meant for infants 4 to 30lbs and comes with an infant insert that you can use while your infant is on the smaller side.
  • Hassle-free adjustments: You can move the harness without re-threading. The headrest is also easier to adjust, and you can move the crotch buckle between two different positions.

The Low Lights

We found that whether we attached the base using the LATCH system or the seat belt, we often had to press the base back down to get the “green” indicator at the top. Although it only takes a second to fix, it’s annoying to check the indicator every drive — and to lift the car seat out just to see it.

The car seat itself weighs 9.9 lbs, which isn’t heavy on its own, but as your infant grows toward the 30 lbs weight limit, it gets awkward to carry or clip onto the stroller — the combination of weight and width is a lot to manage.

At around $350 — plus a second base if you have two cars — it’s also one of the pricier infant car seats on the market.

This review covers the UPPAbaby Mesa V2, and we’ve seen a few reviews saying the V3 has positioning issues for newborn infants.

Is It Worth the Space?

If you’re already in the UPPAbaby ecosystem with a Vista or Cruz stroller, it’s worth the space — everything works together seamlessly, and clicking the seat from car to stroller without adapters is the whole point. Otherwise, as a standalone infant car seat, cheaper brands have mimicked many of the features that made the UPPAbaby Mesa V2 one of the best car seats — so the premium mostly buys you the ecosystem.

Shop the Notes

A quick note: our review covers the V2, but since UPPAbaby no longer sells it new, the links below point to the V3.

A quiet note: Some of the links in my journal are affiliate links. If you click them and decide to buy, I earn a small commission at no cost to you.