So were going to buy a convertible seat for our son and i've been reading reviews and looking at several. I really like the Britax marathon seat but I have a few questions about it. Does anyone have one of these or know someone who has one? Or can suggest any other convertible car seats. I have a chevy malibu so I don't want anything extremely bulky. I know the britax is kind of big but it seems worth the money & space.

schro006,
We have a Britax Marathon and love it. Once you get it in your car, it will not move. We have a Santa Fe and it fits fine. One of the good things about this car seat is that it will hold up to 65 lbs. IMO it was well worth the $$. Hope this helps.

We have two marathons and love them. I don't think they are very bulky at all compared to other convertibles. We have an envenflow triumph in our other vehicle, and I also love that carseat, but that one is way bulkier than the britax.

I definitely think it's worth the investment.

We have both a Marathon and a Roundabout (both Britax). I strongly prefer the Roundabout, which is smaller and is just all around more user-friendly. However, the Roundabout only goes up to 40 pounds, which has not been a problem with my 50th percentile sized kids. My son moved out of the Roundabout into a booster seat sometime between age 4 1/2 and 5, and my daughter, who is 3 1/2 and 33 pounds still easily fits in it. I still think the Marathon is worth the extra $ over other car seats, but I don't love it like I do the Roundabout.

thanks for all the suggestions. One question I have about the marathon is when you install it into the car does it use a buckle on each side of it. From the picture on the website it looks like you use a buckle on each side which would mean that you could only have 1 other person in the backseat cause the other person wouldn't have a buckle. Is this correct?

Hi, we have the Boulevard (a Britax). We LOVE ours. Well worth the extra money. We fit 2 people + the car seat fine in our car. Do you have the latch system? That is how we install ours.

Hey, great question! When we were in this market back in December, we were gung-ho on the Britax, and then someone mentioned to us that the "crotch" strap is not adjustable, which means that it ended up pinching her son. Sure enough, that seemed to be a common complaint ... and the research said that the Evenflo was just as safe. We put our daughter in both at the Babies-R-Us we went to, and we got the sense that we would end up in a similar pickle. We went with the evenflo for that reason and also -- important to us, but maybe not to you -- because we travel to the Northeast a good bit, and the evenflo has SUPER-easy-to-adjust shoulder straps, which meant we wouldn't have to fight that monstrous battle everytime we changed "thickness" of coats! In the Boston area, it can be -19 one day, and 25 the next, and 60 the next!

However, the Evenflo is HUGE. I drive a Tahoe, and in the center of the back seat it is definitely a beast to try to see around -- I can't imagine trying to put it in a smaller car.

On the other hand, Babies-R-Us said that if we were to buy the carseat and decide that we didn't like it, it was 100% returnable, even after we'd used it for a few days, so long as we kept the box. So, keep that in mind as well!

To answer your question about the seat belts and the Roundabout, it's installed just like any other carsesat, with one seat belt. I'm not sure what picture you saw, but maybe it just looked that way? We bought ours before all seats had LATCH, which is going on 6 years now, so we actually need to get a new one so it isn't "expired" or whatever they say about old car seats.

Oops, I just realized you asked about the Marathon and not the Roundabout! My bad...I'm a little sleep deprived at the moment. But as I also have a marathon, my answer is the same, although we've always used the LATCH system on the Marathon, since it's newer.

Thanks for all the help! My husband and I are actually going to go to Baby Bundles in Northport tomorrow cause they have the Britax there in the store so we can try it out w/ our son and try it out in the car! Hopefully we'll get something that works well! Again thanks for all the wonderful suggestions

We purchased our car seat at Baby Bundles, too. FYI...they usually have a $25 coupon in Kids Life magazine.

The gals at Baby Bundles talked us into a Recarro carseat, which is comparable to the Britax. It is slightly more expensive. It has not been out long enough to have as many safety measures and ratings as the others, but preliminary tests were very strong. The base is a titanium rather than plastic, for what that's worth. It is designed by the same company that designs racecar seats, which appealed to my husband. We have been very pleased with it with one exception...it's huge!!! Not as user friendly as the Marathon.

We ended up getting the recaro como from baby bundles. Its stainless steel and has such deeper sides than the martahon. we were sold on the marathon but then when we went into the store we decided on the como. Its actaully cheaper than the marathon too. It also goes to 59" in height and 70 lbs so he'll be able to stay in it longer. Yea I had a coupon for 25 dollars off from the phone book but totally forgot about it when we went into the store. We should get our seat in about a week so yea! Again thanks for all the help.

My cousin gave us an Evenflo in great condition with the book and all.
But it turns out you can only keep them rear facing up to 30 pounds and Jack is almost 27 pounds. So I want to find a seat that I can keep him rear facing in for longer.

Anyone have a recommendation? I'd like to find something this week before we drive to TN. The Evenflo is in our car right now and you are right, Boston Girl, it is a beast! Very big.

Also, BG, I'm always flying northeast too and need a seat that's easy to travel with.

Kristi - I just wanted to say you might not need to rush into a new one as fast as you are thinking.

It might be different for Jack, but their weight gain slows waaay down around this point. He might not make it those extra 3 pounds for quite some time.

Kristi,

We have the Maxi Cosi (bought it at Target). It is rear facing to 35 pounds and 36 inches. I can't say that it's great for traveling. I'm not sure anything is after the infant seat. We always use the Sit 'N Stroll so we don't have to mess with taking our Maxi Cosi in and out of our cars.