Car Seat Best

I will never buy anything but Britax anymore. This seat is great. My son likes it and the straps don’t get tangled like the cheaper car seats. One warning: It can be a little tricky to install rear-facing. A floor anchor to keep the top of the seat stable is a must (it’s recommended in the manual, but I can never get the seats to stop moving within the 1″ without it). If you are using rear-facing, you may want to check your vehicle for a FLOOR anchor- not the LATCH system, or the tethers at the back of the seat of the car- FLOOR anchor. It does come with an adapter, which I used to anchor it to the rail on the floor under the passenger seat of my Camry.
We also own a Marathon and the older Roundabout. I do like the push button release of the old Roundabout. This release mechanism is the same as the Marathon. It’s a little cumbersome to locate in comparison to the push button, but not a deal breaker.

When our son was ready to transition from his infant carrier to a convertible (“big boy”) car seat, we read all the Consumer Reports, asked friends and relatives, and then went to BRU to “test drive” all of them with our son. Suffice to say, we selected this seat, no question– it was absolutely the best, hands-down. We wanted something that could keep him harnessed longer, and accomodate a higher height than most of the other convertibles. AND, it had to be able to fit in my compact car. Remember that the weight limit is not as useful a measure of the lifespan of the seat as the height limit is– unless you have a really rotund kid, they are going to hit 48 inches well before they hit the 50 lb. weight limit.

Unlike other seats on the market, the buckles on the Britax models are SO much sturdier and clip securely. With other seats, I found myself squeezing and squeezing the buckles just to get it “snapped” in properly– and this without even inserting the wiggling 7 month old! (And we confirmed this was not just the floor models at BRU by trying the same models out in other stores as well– we continued to experience the same phenomena)

Many pinched fingers later, we were delighted to try out the Roundabout 50. Although the Britax brand is slightly more expensive, there are some things that are just worth the money. Those things being: crib, car seat, and stroller– no sense in “cheaping out” on these three necessities, since you will be using them every single day.

In addition to the obviously higher-quality construction, I also appreciated the ease of installation (and so did the firefighters who initially installed it– I have since done it myself once), and the ease of removing and “reapplying” the cover (for those inevitable baby messes). Best part is that the Roundabout 50 fits in my car, a 2007 Toyota Corolla, easily, while still having ample room for our son to grow– this can not be said about many other brands.

I think this is an excellent choice for children 15-50 lbs. We have since purchased another Britax model– Decathlon (to 65 lbs)– for my husband’s car, and I can actually say that after using them both for some time, I actually prefer this model, though it lacks some of the pillows and “plushness” of the Decathlon. We expect that both of these seats will make it through to our son’s 5th birthday at the least. We have had this seat for two months now, and I highly recommend it.