When my girls were around 6 months old I decided it was time to start the search for a good convertable car seat. There are SO many to choose from and many of them have good reviews. What sold me on the Britax Boulevard 70 even though they are VERY expensive and I had to buy 2?
Here goes…
*REVIEWS/TESTIMONIALS: Not only are there a TON of positive reviews on here, if you go to the Britax website & look at both their Reviews & especially the Testimonials, that should make up your mind if you are having any questions. Look at the Testimonials for the Britax Marathon & Britax Boulevard, they are from people who were unfortunate enough to have the safety of the seat tested from being in wrecks. Some of the pictures & stories are amazing and will bring tears to your eyes BUT EVERY person who wrote their reviews say the Britax kept their kid safe or saved their life! I had already been leaning toward Britax but once I read all of those Testimonials my mind was made up.
*REAR FACING: After reading the importance of keeping a child rear facing as long as possible, I knew I wanted a seat w/ a high rear facing limit. Do some searches for videos to see how important rear facing as long as possible is
*5-POINT HARNESS: After reading about the deaths of children who were not using a 5-Point Harness even though they were tall enough & weighed enough to be in a traditional booster, I knew I had to have a 5-PT Harness they could stay in till they outgrow this seat. Actually I am sure their seats will expire before they outgrow them.
*Latch: Seatbelts CAN fail
*Side Impact Protection: After watching some car seat crash tests I realize how much of a difference Side Impact Protection Makes, it is a HUGE difference
*Padding/Comfort: Considering this is something your child is going to be strapped into, it better be comfortable. This is so padded, soft & very comfortable, my girls fall asleep in them ALL the time.
*Durability: There IS definately a difference in the quality & durability of car seats. We looked at several different car seats IN PERSON and Britax felt & looked more durable than all the others. This is solid & massive, NOT cheaply made at all.
*SIZE: We have a mini van so a big car seat was no problem for us. I feel MUCH safer putting my girls in something that is huge & massive rather than a flimsy & small car seat. Also, despite the fact that many people think this big seat won’t fit in a small car, I’ve read many reviews where they do. You need to go to a BabiesRus and they will let you take the car seat & see if it will fit in your vehicle.
Ease of Use: These are SO easy to use. I love that if they grow I don’t have to undo everything and re-do the straps, I can just move the knob. The front adjust is amazing, so easy to un-tighten & re-tighten.
For the people who say they have problems getting the harness to adjust or tighten, you should get the straps completely loose & try to tighten them all the way w/out the child being in the seat to see if it works that way, try it several times. If that doesn’t work, take the seat out of the car & try it. If you continue to have problems you should contact Britax Boulevard 70.
For the people who said the seat belt strap is too short & pinched your childs legs, make sure you are using the circular piece of material to cover your childs legs. My best friend bought this seat and her daughter has the fattest thighs I have ever seen. She does not have any problems with this being too tight or pinching her daughters thighs.
If you have trouble getting the seat belt snapped, loosen the harness, snap the belts & then tighten. This is what we do when we put our girls in thicker winter clothes or snow type suits.
Also washes well. One of my girls got sick all over her entire car seat. The instructions say to hand wash but we have a hand wash cycle on our machine so that is what I did and hung it to dry. It looked brand new. Getting it back together was a little tricky but I found a video on the web and figured it out.
I think I put my girls in these seats when they were around 7 or 8 months old because one of my girls were getting close to the height limit for their infant seats. They are now 13 months old and we all LOVE these seats. I also get compliments on how cute they are ALL the time. We have the Madison color that I believe was discontinued.
Related Post :
- Britax Boulevard 65
- Britax Boulevard
- Britax Boulevard Convertible Car Seat
- Britax Parkway
- Britax Parkway SG