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It has been a few years since we had child seats. We found the best way to figure which was best was to give a bunch a trial.
Of the products you posted, there were things I liked about the Simpson Child Car Safety Seat and the Recaro Young Sport. The thing I liked most about the Simpson was that it was certified for aircraft use (with the five-point harness system attached). I also liked its simplicity in design. The thing I liked about the Recaro was the carrying handle. Unless it is a seat that is going to put into one car and it stays there full time, you'd be surprised how important that feature is.
One thing that disturbed me -- and perhaps both companies assume the buyer already knows this -- is that neither mentioned the ability of the seat to be installed with rear-facing option. I can't imagine that either one is incapable of this at their going prices, but it not being mentioned concerned me. (The Simpson being aircraft approved almost has to be by default if memory serves me right.) Both probably have this capabilty and is not a concern.
Both have "sleeping" adjustablity -- a nice plus. The Simpson states it has two positions from which to choose. The Recaro states it has a knob feature which may be easy to use. It doesn't say it has variable positioning (a plus over the Simpson if true) or if it is one sleeping position (a minus if it is true). Neither shows a pic of the sleeping position.
If I were to choose on faith of the pics and description, I'd probably opt for the Simpson. Not only is it a hundred bucks cheaper (and the other things already mentioned), it looks simpler to deal with. My experiences with car seats is some of the ones we looked at in the day had all these fanciful features and adjustablities but when it came time to implementing those features you had to be sure you weren't teaching your child vocabulary best learned in junior high school.
However, I am not one who likes to choose on faith. I am not so quick to give up on the fanciful features out of hand and there is one other major feature the Recaro has in its favor -- removable and machine washable covers. That may be worth $100 right there. If your child is going to "grow into" these seats along the way, you are going to want to do more than Scotch guard, wipe down, and Lysol these things. Sure, they look nice now in their prestine little advertisements but after a few weeks of Gerber's coming out of both ends, you may appreciate your Maytag a little more.
There are other considerations. Do these seats leave permanent marks on your seats? How easy are they to adjust when installed (especially important given the back seat of a Bug isn't the easiest thing to be contorting yourself around)? How easy is it to install and remove? How easy is it to inspect the goings-on back there when you are at a light or for your wife when she is riding shotgun?
The only way to assess these things is to have them. So, my suggestion is to buy both of them. That's right, both of them. (Get the color you want in the Recaro.) Test 'em out. Imagine all of your situations. See how "easy" and "simple" and "adjustable" and the rest-of-it they really are.
Then return the loser. (Make sure they are returnable, and not with some stupid restocking fee.)
Yeah, you will have spent the extra shipping fee for the one you don't keep but it will be worth it over getting one that looks better but is aggravating the crap out of you for the next five or more years.
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