Which Britax Is Best?!

As a first time Mama, I wanted the best for my little man and went with the Britax Marathon! I love it. It's comfy and so many of my friends have it and we all adore it.

Good luck!

I only have the marathon and that is all I have ever delt with after the infant carrier (so I may be biased) and I absolutly love it. Both of my girls are in them and they love them too. i picked this one because it was the middle ground. It wasn't the most expensive but it would definately last long enough.

I decided on the marathon so she is more comfortably reclined, and since we plan to have another child, I will get a bigger one for her later and hopefully be using the marathon for the new comer.

I have the Boulevard CS. I love the car seat. I use it for my 5 mo old. The Boulevard CS (click n safe feature) is more expensive than the Boulevard. I purchased the Boulevard w/ the CS feature but honestly I don't think it's worth the extra $20. If I could do it again I would just get the Boulevard w/out the CS feature. The reason for that would be that I have to click it 5-10 times before it's tight enough. So I still have to check it after each click. I'd be doing the same thing on the regular Boulevard.

My sister has the Marathon for her 3 year old and she loves it!

Good luck on your choice!

Just a few weeks ago, someone else posted a very similar thread...here is some info on seats:
http://www.car-safety.org/guide.html

and make sure it fits your CAR as well as your child. :)
http://www.carseatdata.org/

I have Britax Marathons, and love them, but not all cars work well with Britax, look it up first, because if it's not a good fit, no matter what you do, you can't get a tight enough fit to make it safe. :)

We have both a Marathon and a Decathlon (one in each car). To me, they're the same in terms of quality and comfort. I think the Decathlon is slightly more padded but that could just be due to the particular fabric we have on our Decathlon versus our Marathon.

Honestly between the Marathon and Decathlon, just buy whichever one has the best price or prettiest pattern - they're pretty much the same.

P.S. I just googled this and there are quite a few discussions about this on the internet.

Hi-
The Decathlon and Marathon are mostly the same, but the Decathlon has added padding you can remove when your child gets bigger--then it turns into a Marathon, basically! I like the Decathlon b/c I had my son in it at 6 mo rear-facing and there was extra support and padding. We have removed one layer of padding since and still have the extra head/side-impact? padding in it. I totally recommend it.

Anya

My daughter has the decathlon and LOVES it! She was both rear and forward facing in it. We actually kept her rear facing until she was almost 2. She will be 3 in Jan and we have since moved her to the Britax Frontier so my son can use her Decathlon rear facing. The Frontier is great too but kids need to be at least 2 to use it since it is a forward facing/seat belt positioning booster. Good luck. I would recommend having your daughter sit in both carseats at the store before you decide on one to see which one fits her the best. Some stores will also let you take it out to your car to see how it fits in your car.

We have both the marathon and the regent - the regent will last longer as it goes to 80 lbs with 5 point harness, the marathon is 60 lbs. I love the regent for my 2 year old - she is a big girl - weighing 40 lbs at 27 months (solid little lady!!) and she loves it, very spacious and comfortable, my 14 month uses the marathon as she is only 22 lbs and a much smaller build than her sister, but on the few occasions she has ridden in the regent she is very happy! i would say Regent as these seats are expensive and the regent can be used for longer!

We have a Marathon and Decathlon. They are both great seats!

At your daughter's age, I recommend the Boulevard. After the infant seat, we went to the Roundabout for my daughter (don't remember what my logic was). Anyway, she is now 4 & has outgrown it so I did a lot of research too. I narrowed it down between the Boulevard & the Frontier because of it's Side Impact Protection. Since I don't need a convertible seat, I went with the Frontier.

I have the decathalon and I love it. It is easy to use, move, and clean. I don't know that you can make a wrong choice with Britax!

Hi S.,

When my daughter was 10 months old we bought the marathon. Have loved it ever since. It goes up to 60 pounds and is very easy to install. We take it on the plane with us too. When she turned 4 we bought her the regent because my son was turning 1 and needed the marathon. Now I have both. The regent is a lot bigger and a little harder to get in and out of the car but well worth any time it takes. The reason we bought her the regent is because the current law is that a child needs to be in a restraint up to 80LBS, 8 years old and 4' 9". I went on www.nhtsa.gov to check the laws on how long they should be in a booster and then I called them to confirm. This website is a great resource because it talks about the different car seats.

We have a Marathon and I actually do not like it. My son is able to reach down and loosen the straps by himself. Britax has been made aware of the problem, but is not replacing or recalling those models (they say that the parent needs to teach the child not to do that). Anyways, ours is about a year old and I've noticed the style of the Marathon has changed slightly from ours. So if you decide to go with the Marathon, please check it out to make sure your child cannot loosen the straps. You certainly do not want to have to worry about that while you are driving! Best of luck!

We love our Britax Boulevard, which I think is the newest model. It goes rear facing up to 35 lbs. and forward facing up to 65. It has side impact protection---these wings that stick out near the head. Some parents don't like this, but my daughter doesn't seem to have her view blocked at all & it works well for when she is sleeping.

They all have slightlt different height weight requirements as far as I can tell. Why not just go for the Frontier?

S.

You have a lot of great advice so far. All of us Britax owners are very happy with our choice! I do have both the Decathalon and the Marathon. We love both of them. I have found the Decathalon is better for the smaller guys, because of the previously mentioned padding. For bigger babies, take a look and see what you like, they are both great seats! My guys are 2 and 4 and have been in their seats since the older one was 1. We started the younger guy in the Decathalon at 2 months (he just didn't fit in our infant carrier, he was too round).

Hi S., Check out Britax.com and you can compare all the chairs side by side to see what features you are most interested in...not to throw another model your way, but the Boulevard is my preference, and Babies r Us now carries the Boulevard CS which just adds another safety measure. Good Luck and happy shopping.

HI althought I down have a britax, I did buy the eddie bauer five point harness, which my baby loves and because his father is six foot ten, he's continually growing, so it grows with him. It has a weight capacity of 100 pounds. You might want to look into that too... I LOVED the britax but it was so expensive and as a poor single mom in economic times, I had to go with what was practical, YET safe... I highly recommend it. He had the BEST naps of his life in it.. and he loved having the sippy cups on the side, although half the time they ended up inthe front of the car since he learned how to throw. *grins* Hope you find the perfect one for you. Just make sure that you have a professional install it, because now cops can ticket if the carseat isn't installed properly, and the thing with both britax and eddie bauer is that there's SO many odds and ends, that half the time you're like"Where theHECK is that supposed to go???" Good luck,i'm sure youll find one you love!!!
S.

I have a marathon and a decathlon, and find that there are very few differences between the two. However, I SLIGHTLY like the decathlon better. The seat buckle is slightly different: the decathlon's has a quieter sound for latching and unlatching and when unlatching, the decathlon ejects both sides of the buckle evenly... no need to pull them out. The marathon has those stabilizing bars on the sides, which get a little in the way when putting the seat in the car, but I assume it makes the seat stronger. The locking mechanism for the baby seat belt (or belt tensioner) is easier to use on the decathlon. Also, with my marathon (the only thing I like better about it) the seat cover comes off completely and easily.

Other than those few features I haven't found any differences.

Hi, We bought the Marathon for our son when he was 7 months old and we love it. He is now 3 and the seat still fits him comfortably. We bought the same seat (with a different pattern) for his baby sister who has been using her seat for nearly a year now (she is now 17 mos old. I have never tried the Decathlon to know if I would like it better than the Marathon.

We chose the Marathon over the Decathlon for a few reasons:

•The marathon has more choices in seat cover patterns. (We have the baseball pattern for my son and the pink butterfly pattern for our daughter)
•The only difference we saw between the 2 was that the Decathlon has a removable head and body position pillow, and our children had outgrown the need for one.
•The Decathlon is a little more pricey (probably because of the added removable padding for young infants, which we did not need).

Hope this helps!

I love our Marathon! My son is 10 months old and 23 pounds. He grew out of the carrier pretty early on... he's a big boy! So we needed a rear facing car seat that could accommodate his growing size. We also wanted something that would work great once he turned one and could face forward. After a lot of research and recommendations we came up with the Marathon. Britax is top of the line in safety and provides our son with a comfortable ride. Our friend is still using hers for her 4 year old daughter. So you get your money's worth!

I don't remember what the name of ours is-but, I have 2 models, one goes to 65 lbs, and my 7 year old is still using it. 100 lbs sounds like more than you'll need. My son is small though, so, probably most 7 yr olds wouldn't still be in it. One thing I would check for, can you take the cover off and wash it? That is something I wish I could do, it comes off the back, but, not off the buckle. they are all good car seats!

I have the marathon and love it. I looked at the consumer reports and safest and it was in the top two...along with the boulevard. I think you may be happy with any of them.

Good luck,
B.

Hey S.. We have a Marathon in my car and a Boulevard in my husband's. They are both great, but I actually like the Boulevard just a little more because the seat is tilted back enough that if our son falls asleep his head doesn't fall forward at every red light :)
But you can't go wrong either way, they are really great seats.

We LOVE our Marathon. My son is nearly 5 and he would STILL be using it except that his little sister came along and needed it. I don't have one bad thing to say about it!

We have the Regent and like it very much. My 4 year old has no problem sleeping in it.

I went directly to the Britax website and they have a cool feature that you can select the car seats you are intersted in and then compare them and they bring up a list of the differences. I bought the Roundabout. I also used the baby bargains book to help be decide.

Hello S.!!

I am so glad you asked! I work at a baby boutique AND have an 18-month old baby so I have done ALL THE RESEARCH!!! Britax is an excellent brand and one I recommend the MOST. Now, I completely agree with your thought process of keeping your baby rear-facing longer... It is recommended that babies are kept rear--facing for was long as the convertible car seat will allow. Having said that I strongly recommend the Britax Boulevard. You didn't mention it in your post, but I wanted to make sure you are aware of the safety features it has the the Decathlon and Marathon do not. Britax have begun making seats with a reinforced side impact protection and the Boulevard has that extra safety feature. If you're looking for a convertible car-seat with a high forward weight limit, than I suggest you go with that - It too has a forward facing weight capacity of 65lbs. AND You can extend rear-facing if you wish up to 33lbs! :-)

Now, just to clarify, the Regent does NOT have the HIGHEST weight limit. Britax has come out with a new seat called The Frontier. It too is a 5pt. harness seat up to 80lbs, BUT after that you have the option of removing the straps and making it a seat belt positioning booster until 100lbs!!! AND It also has their reinforced side impact protection. The ONLY thing is it does have a weight MINIMUM Of 25lbs AND an age minimum of 2 years old.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions or concerns! Like I said... I have done ALL the research and selling car seats is my job!

Good luck!

A.~

I'm on my third Marathon with my third child.
Good luck