Gear researching

Holey Crumbcake!  I just lost an entire afternoon looking up carseats!  I finally settled on a Diono Radian R100 for S.  For some reason, his head suddenly sprouted up to the top of his older Roundabout, and the, "I need to get him a new seat this spring", turned into, "Uh, his seat is not safe at all, and is a ticking time bomb of expired, tired plastic !"  Sadly, I don't think I got it for a steal, since I didn't do my normal 2mo. stalking.  At least Amazon Prime saved the day.  Now, I just have to wait weeks and weeks for the blasted RF level adjuster to come.  He's going to be 2 next week (already!), so I can figure something out for now.

I also looked for a high-backed booster so that we could do 3-across in the back of the Odyssey when my parents visit us, but that seemed a lot more difficult to figure out.  We can use the Bubble Bum, but I don't like it for our long car ride when G will likely fall asleep (we're traveling 5hrs. away during their visit).  Maybe 2 Radians will give me more play back there?  I hear maybe the Parkway will do it, but the Recaro Vivo is also a contender?  At least the pricetag on those isn't going to give DH a heart attack.

Anyway, how do you go about researching your gear? 
Have to be in person?
Quick and dirty?
Tons of advice?
Check every forum and/or set of reviews?
Ask your 'Pin friends?

Car seats I check reviews, ask pin mammas, and then check out in person.  I like that BRU will let you try them out in your vehicle. 

Do you need the RFing adjuster to get a good fit? My older 2 were RFing in Radians with out the adjuster - DD until just shy of 4 and ODS 3.5.

I may end up doing the Radian RF just so the seats puzzle together better!