Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat Reviews

"The Britax Marathon car seat is the Pike's Peak of car seats in terms of quality, design, and size. Britax has a sterling reputation and I think the reputation is deserved. My overall experience has been a very good one. This is my third car seat purchase in 6 months, so I do have some experience for comparison purposes. My daughter outgrew her Peg Perego Prima Viaggio infant seat before she hit 6 months. I purchased a Britax Roundabout for my small Audi S4 back seat. Finally, I purchased a convertible seat that will last from infant to 65 lbs, the Marathon."

"This is how I feel....There are no safer car seat other than Britax Marathon car seats at this point. We have 4 children and we've tried various models. We've donated the others to Goodwill. We currently own 5 Britax car seats for 4 children. We have 2 Regents, 1 Parkway(used as a spare), 1 Britax Marathon car seat, and 1 Roundabout. I feel as though I'm a walking advertisement for Britax and we've been accused of being uptight about car seats.
In my opinion, these are the main features that we look for in a car seat:

Does the Britax Marathon car seat set securely in our vehicle?

The forward facing Marathon car seat is awesome. Our vehicle does not have the latch, so we never had the opportunity to use the latch belts although I'm sure they work fine. We use the shoulder belt and we've never seen any other seat get as secure as our seat. When we try to move the seat side to side, the van moves instead. The beauty of the system is that after you've tightened the lap part of the belt down as far as you can, you then slide the shoulder part of the belt into a slot that latches down on the side of the seat. Once you've done this, the belt doesn't develop any slack. Then for good measure, you attach the tether to the underside of the rear of the seat (or a tether hook in some cars). This seat doesn't move after that.

In my opinion the rear facing design could be improved. This is why the seat doesn't get 5 stars from me. The side lock down mechanism is tightened more by the thickness of the belt. Unfortunately, it can pop open without much pressure. (As a side note, the lockdown on the side of our older Roundabout works great. It is a different design. I'm not sure if Britax thought they were improving and have changed the design or if they have a different lockdown on this seat.) The annoying thing about this is that you have to continuously check to see if it has released.

The material and design of the straps is important. I haven't seen one manufacturer compare to the quality of the straps. The shoulder straps are thick and wide. They don't fold up on themselves or get tangled. They are also wide across your child's

Comfort for the child. The side guards around the head are great for when they are getting tired and the safety foam is the same as you would find in bike helmets.

Overall, the Marathon car seat is awesome. If I could have given it 4.5 stars, I would have. The rear facing problem was minor to us because we could use our Roundabout rear facing, but for someone who needs to use it rear facing for a while, it might be more of a problem. I'm hoping Britax improves that one thing, but overall, this seat is highly recommended by me."

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