Help, Undecided on Which Britax Booster Car Seat I Should Buy

We have the Frontier, and we absolutely love it. Things I like:
It's a booster with a five-point harness, so it's MUCH safer than most other, comparable seats.
It has true side-impact protection.
It can be used (in booster mode) up to 100 lbs., so we don't have to worry about buying another seat.
It's a Britax...and their products always rate higher than other brands.

My son sleeps in the car, and the side-impact protection keeps his head from flopping. I HIGHLY recommend this seat!

I would go with the Britax Frontier over the regent, because you want the shell to stay above the top of her head - givin her the most side impact protection. Alot of kids will out grow the Regent for height before they out grow it for weight. Also, since the expiration date on the frontier is 6 years from date of manufacture, you can go ahead and still use that same seat for a belt positioning booster.

We just this weekend decided to go with the Fronmtier ourselves as a replacement seat (we were in an accident in which our car was totaled - and obviously so were the car seats. the brand we were using before, Sunshine Kids Radian 65's, do not install well into teh 3rd row of our new Mazda5.)
for our 4.5 yr old. She is tall - but very lightweight. Only 34lbs. and people often assume she is 6.
Our rear seat is very small, but the Frontier fit into it well, and even with the head shield extended fully upright it did not block anymore of my rearvierw than her current seat, or my friends Graco Nautilus - but gave her 5 more inches of growth before she would ourgrow the Frontier.

We just bought a new car seat for our two year old because she had also outgrown her convertible carseat. I researched on consumer reports and none of the britax are even rated on the top 4 or 5 for safety. Only one of their infant car seats is. If you are looking for safer car seats the ones that scored highest in safety are the Eddie Bauer high back booster, safety first vantage point se, cosco summit high back booster, and the evenflo chase dlx. They all scored excellent in booster belt crash protection and all are reasonably priced. more expensive oesnt necessarily mean more protection. It took me forever to decide on one until i found this on CR. Good luck!!

The one thing I was regretful for it was not thinking of my possible future children when buying a carseat. I know it can make things difficult but if you can think of your future needs it may help out now.

I have had a Britax Marathon: purchased when it was one of the top seats on CR.

a Britax Husky: purchased because my son was 40lbs at 2yrs old and I wasn't ready to put him in a belt positioned booster. I picked it because it allowed my son to stay in a 5pt harness until 60.

We were recently looking at car seats as my 3rd child was going to be growing out of her infant seat. We finally decided on the Britax Frontier. We liked that it wasn't as bulky as the Husky and would allow a 5pt harness until 60lbs. The best part was the 10yr warranty so this maybe the last seat we get.

We have always liked the Britax seats we have had and the kids have been comfortable in them too. I can't remember specifics about their safety rating when I bought the Frontier I don't think there were any yet because it was new.

If you want to get some advice from car-seat techs you can post on: http://www.car-seat.org/

Good Luck.
J.

My little 3 year old daughter is also very tall for her age. (Daddy is over 6'8!) When she was 2.5 we had to move her into a bigger car seat because she had outgrown her Britax Roundabout. We bought the Regent...they didn't have the Frontier yet. I HIGHLY recommend anything Britax. The seats are SOOOOOO comfy and easy to use. My parents (who sometimes watch her) have the Graco Nautalius (sp?) which is a cheaper alternative. It works nicely too. Much better than the Graco Comfort Sports they used to have. The Regent is a very LARGE seat though...so I would go to Babies R Us and ask a sales associate to take one outside with you to try in your car. It will probably take up 1.5 seats in your SUV. We have a minivan...so it just sits in one of the captain chairs right now. I think the Frontier is supposed to be more compact??? I know that the Graco is. GOOD LUCK!

I am not familiar with Briatx car seat but I have a CLEK booster seat for my son.
(I think the company is coming out w/a 5 point harness soon though).
The clek booster attatches to the latch system that all cars have.(i think they are an online purchase only.do a google search and you'll see it.)
Regarding the hanging sleepy child head,
I use a kids travel pillow for my 12 and 7 yr.old kids.They are at Target in the luggage dept. (they have animail designs).
They wear them when we are in the car and they getsleepy. It helps support their necks so they don't have the hanging neck and pain.

We have the Britax Regent and I really like it. We prefer the Britax brand for many reasons. It is large and gives the kiddos plenty of room. It's a little more involved than the Marathon (their smaller version) to install but once it's installed it's great. I prefer only 5 point harness booster's so since we had had great luck with our other Britax we bought Britax again. The Frontier is new since we purchased our Regent but I am sure it is awesome too.

I am not familiar with the booster seats but have a Britax Boulevard. I did a lot of researching and it is the best for side impact. I would again buy anything from Britax. The seat we have is very comfortable, easy to use, and very high quality. I have been impressed. I am sure the booster seats have all the same qualities. I am pretty sure that would be my next purchase when we get to that point. (Again not sure about the booster, but our carseat is very bulky. Might look into the dimensions also)

I just wanted to add to the general consensus here that whatever Britax you buy, you can be assured you are buying a seat that is high quality and safety tested. I don't know where Aileen is getting her info on safety but Britax has long been recognized as extremely safe and reliable and ranks at the top of all reviews conducted. I have a one year old and we bought two Britax seats for our cars and now that we have another on the way, are having to weigh whether we consider buying anything less than a Britax due to the overwhelming cost of another two car seats.......no matter what source I use, it's evident that I'm going to be scrounging our pennies for a few months because we will indeed invest in Britax again :-)

We have a Britax Marathon car seat for our daughter. It is really comfortable and can hold up to 100 pounds. I love it and it is VERY safe. It has a 5 point harness and is easily adjustable. The straps are also easily adjustable so this is great for the winter months when she has a thick jacket. And as far as space, I have a small SUV and I can still fit my daughter and two teenage boys in the backseat. Hope this helps!

Hi! We just purchased the Britax Frontier for my almost 4 year old son and we love it. He is very comfortable, falls asleep easily and the quality is excellent. After reading all the reviews I was very worried about the installation process-but we did not have any trouble at all using the latch system! I feel that he is the safest he could be! I would highly recommend this seat!!! Thanks and Good Luck! :)