Car Seat Opinion

We have used the Britax Marathon with all three kids. My six year old, who is 53 pounds, still fits in hers (although we often now put her in a booster).

We looked at the Britax, which was really nice and very pricey. After doing some research, we bought the Evenflo Symphony and I would highly recommend it! It is very easy to use and my son loves it. I believe that it also had a higher weight limit than the Britax. At that time it was about $100 less expensive too, which was a nice bonus!

Hi, M.:

I have an almost 9 month old and just bought the Britax Marathon. It's the same car seat I used for my 7 year old and I was very pleased with it.

Have fun!

My brother, a firefighter and father of three, recommends the Britax Marathon. I use it for my daughter and would also recommend it.

I did a LOT of research into this. For the Combo Seats, which are the ones that can go rear-facing and then front facing as they get older, according to the NHTSA ratings (National Highway Safety Admin) and previous Mamasource advice, I found these to be the top 3:

1. Recaro Como ($150-$250) - 35 lbs max rear facing, 70 lbs max front facing, 50" height limit

2. Evenflo Triumph Advance ($130-$160)- 35 lbs max rf, 50 lbs max ff, 50" height limit

3. Britax Roundabout ($280-$310) - 33 lbs max rf, 40 lbs max ff, 40" height limit --- Britax Marathon rated high also.

* I actually bought a Recaro Como. I liked it because it was rated slightly safer and cost slightly less than the Britax, but mainly because my daughter seemed most comfortable in it. I found all of these models are carried by either Schneiders on West 25th, or Babies R Us at Union square, so they are just a few blocks from each other. So, you can just bring your baby along and try them all out to see what works best for her...good luck!

We bought the Britax Marathon too! Glad to hear others liked it as well. I would just beware of the CS new design. Some reviewers online preferred the Britax models before CS came about, so we bought the one without and love it. It has the highest weight limit of all the Britax models.

I have heard many great things about the Britax carseats, but we decided to go with the Graco MyRide 65 for our son. The safety ratings are great, it's good up to 40 lbs. rear facing nd 65lbs forward facing. Plus it's over $100 cheaper than the Britax marathon, which is similar. I wasn't able to see a benefit of the britax over the graco except that the brita fabric options were a little nicer, but that wasn't worth $100 to me.

Britax is a great carseat. I work in a baby store and also have a 27 month old. I personally have the Boulevard, but they have since come out with one step up from that. Britax has high safety ratings and the Boulevard has a great feature that when you need to adjust the straps and head protection, you just turn a nob. Which is much better then having to undo and redo the straps by stringing them through the slots. Another brand which is comparable to Britax as far as features is Recaro. They are new to making carseats, but have made Nascar seats for years. Recaro offers the same turn of the nob adjustments, but isn't quite as expensive as Britax. Take a look at them both.

We have the EvenFlo Triumph Advance and love it. It's much less expensive than the Britax.

We have a Britax Marathon and its great. I think we started using it around 11 months and kept it rear facing until about 14 months. Our 22 month old is still using it as you can use it up to 65 lbs and 49 inches. Well worth the money.

We did a lot of research and went with the Britax Roundabout that we've used for both kids. Our daughter is almost outgrown it (height) at 21 months, but she's really quite big for her age. It's not convertible, but we've gotten a lot of use out of them and would recommend it as you'll have a lot more time in them. Our son was in it until after 2.5 years when his sister was ready to move into it.