Britax Marathon or Boulevard?

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Good luck.

We have the Boulevard for our girls and just love them. They have that extra padded protection around the head which is nice because it will block a rear air bag from hitting the kids directly in the head. We like them so much we have 4, 2 for each car. You can never have too much protection when it comes to your kids in the car.

My son is now 3 and we've been using the Marathon for about 2 years now. First year rear facing and then forward facing. He loves it, we love it. Would definitely buy another one. A friend who originally bought a Boulevard actually returned it because her son couldn't see out the windows.

Hello. As a busy Mom of 3, I opted to spend the extra for the Boulevard so that I didn't have to worry about re-threading the straps, plus...our little one is running in the 95th percentile and she fit better in the Boulevard. Also, I liked that it had the side-impact protection (you can look it up--it has 'wings') that the Marathon didn't offer. (No, she can't see to the side as well as she could if she were in the Marathon, but I am more worried about her protection should we ever get hit in the side, and thus far it hasn't bothered her.) We've been using it for about 5 months now and I love that the straps don't get tangled! We LOVE ours! :)

WE WENT WITH THE BOULEVARD FOR OUR FIRST SON AND ACTUALLY HAD TWO ONE FOR EACH CAR. hE HAS GROWN OUT OF IT AND NOW WE USE THEM FOR OUR TWINS AND WE LOVE THEM. i FEEL THEY ARE VERY SAFE AND STURDY. yES THEY ARE BIG BUT WE LOVE THEM.

We bought the Blvd and love it. It will grow with her until she is 65lbs, so I don't need to buy a new one for quite some time, so we'll be saving money in the long run. Plus I went to www.healthycar.org to look up how "toxic" the carseat was and the Blvd was by far less toxic than the marathon (which is a priority for me) It ranked high in safety and low in toxicity. So you get the best of both worlds.

You can go to www.retailmenot.com they may have some babies r us coupons you can use to get it a tad cheaper.

Good luck!
J.

I have the marathon. We purchased ours three years ago when my oldest daughter turned 1. Now my 2 y/o uses it and loves it. Having never used the Boulevard I cannot give feedback on it. I will have to say that if my girls were unable to see out of the window, it would have caused a problem with their tolerance driving in the car. I love Britax and think that they are worth every penny. The are the most comfortable car seats out. We call it "the lounge chair". Good Luck!

I have 2 girls & I use the Marathon for both of them. I did consider the Boulevard for my younger daughter who just turned one, but I didn't really like the side panels. I was willing to pay the extra money for "extra safety" but I thought those side panels would be too annoying to my little one. We have been very happy with the Marathon in safety, ease of use, comfort, etc. Good luck!

I was having the same debate and we went with the boulevard. you don't have to rethread the straps (which also includes detaching the installed seat from the car when your child grows), it has extra head support for (which is better in a crash and I also like that when my daugher naps, her head isn't as far to the side because of them). I got it online for a great price at albeebaby.com Check it out. Good luck!

you don't need anything bigger than the marathon - they will be in a booster seat way before 65 lbs - trust me. switching to the booster seat is the greatest thing ever!

I chose the Marathon for both kids. The Marathon was the higest-rated convertible car seat, when in the front-facing position, by Consumer Reports. (It wasn't as highly rated for rear-facing, but I figured the kids are only rear-facing for 6-12 months tops.)

Aside from the higher price, I didn't like how big the sides of the headrest were (next to the sides of the head). I knew it would obstruct my childrens' ability to see out the side.

I have the Marathon. The Boulevard is bigger. I don't feel that it is worth the money b/c if you are taking the carseat out much or have just a car (not a van or maybe an SUV), you are not going to have room for something bigger.

We got our Marathon when my DD was 6 mths old. She's now 28 mths. We love it dearly, but am looking forward to when she can switch to a booster now since her legs are getting so long. We have a Galant and a Protege and the only spot she can really fit is in the middle and that's getting tight. So, look at your vehicles and see if you will want to have this carseat until the kid is 8, b/c that's more what the boulevard is set up for. The Marathon will take your child farther than you will need since it goes up to 65 lbs (about the weight of a 5/6 yr old I believe). I know that we will not be using our's that long unless we get a different vehicle.

But definitely go for the Britax! They are wonderful carseats and so worth the money. It's the only thing that we splurged on for our daughter...and we are very glad that we did. :)

Oh, as for the rethreading that everyone has mentioned, in the past almost 2 years we have had to rethread twice and our daughter has been at the top percentile all of the time too. It's not that big of a deal and it is nice to coordinate it with a time to wash the cover since you have to take out all of the straps to do that anyways.

Enjoy!

We had a Boulevard and recently upgraded to a Frontier for my almost 3 year old. I was looking at the same two you were about a year and a half ago. I was lucky enough to have a 4 year old son as well. My husband and I are both average people for height and weight, and my kids are tiny beanpoles (as stated by many), but for some reason my 4 year old (who weighed 35 lbs at the time) was too wide shoulder wise for the Marathon. I would not consider my kids broad by any means, but I guess they are. So, the Boulevard was the only one that fit the older one. My youngest at the time had his shoulders touching the sides of the marathon, so I knew it wouldn't last long width wise for him. So, we bought the Boulevard. I love it (even more than the Frontier) and can't say enough about how great it is. If I were you, I'd go to Babies R Us and try your child in both of them and see how he/she fits. All seats fit children differently. Make sure you check out how much room is left width wise and height wise. And, don't take price into account. Your child's safety is worth any amount of money. Just go with whichever you feel is best, your gut will guide you and you can't go wrong with either of them really.

We bought our first Marathon about 3.5 years ago and have since bought another. They are so nice and they are our favorites among the many car seats we have bought for our 4 kids. If your child is going to have to be riding on the side of the car, it might be worth it to you to buy the Boulevard. But either is going to get you some good side protection, particularly while rear facing. Frame size, they are the same size so if one fits, the other will. (Most Britax seats will fit in most vehicles, even rear facing since you don't have to install them at the 45 degree angle and can go as little as 30 degrees once the baby has good head control). The no rethread harness is a nice feature of the Blvd but from what I have read on car seat boards, it can make it so the child outgrows it height-wise a tad before the MA. Probably not a big deal. My large son got too tall for his MA at about 5.5. and my daughter could still ride rear facing in hers till she was nearly 3. I had turned her forward facing when she hit the min of 1 year and 20lbs but turned her back after learning that it was 4-5 times safer for her to ride rearfacing until she got too big to do so. So she lounged out back there and rode rear facing without complaint for quite a while after being forward facing for many months. All this to say, you can't really go wrong with either. Definitely check out albeebaby.com for good prices. Some of the discounted ones may be a bit older and expire sooner but for many the discount makes up for that.

Two main differences:

1. With the marathon, you have to re-thread the belt manually as your child grows
2. The Boulevard's weird head thing is extra side protection for accidents.

I went with the Boulevard, picking one up online (last week) for the usual cost of a Marathon. It was only a difference of about 60 bucks.