2 Responses to “Britax Marathon 70 Convertible Car Seat, Onyx”

1. Kristen Stewart says:

   June 16, 2011 at 10:50 am

   77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Another Great Britax Carseat!, August 15, 2010

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   Kristen Stewart (Under the Mountain) –
   
     
   
     

   This review is from: Britax Marathon 70 Convertible Car Seat, Onyx (Baby Product)

   Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What’s this?)

   We’ve been using Britax’s older style Marathons for five years so I was anxious to try this latest manifestation to see how it stacked up. It is larger, but it now fits children up to 70 lbs forward facing (and 5-40 rear facing) and still fits easily in our Honda Odyssey and forward facing in our small VW Golf. Like the older Britax models, the new Marathon is often outgrown by height, rather than weight. I sat both of our children in it and found the difference to be slight, if any, over the old model, so if you are in the market for a new seat for child outgrowing the shell, this is probably not the best choice.

   The legendary Britax quality continues with a solid, intuitive build. Some of the newer head protecting technology from other, more expensive Britax seats has been integrated. The new harness adjuster is amazing, making it so simple and easy to change the height of the straps. We often carpool and I’m glad I can quickly and easily customize the seat to every child.

   Britax seats are always soft and comfortable for riders, so much so that my children notice the difference when they ride in other seats! My four year old gave this her seal of approval comfort-wise, declaring the new design even better than her old one.

   There are new spots to store latch clips when they are not in use that I love, most every change is a great improvement with the exception of the locking mechanisms for using a seat belt. They are MUCH harder to use than they were on the older model Marathons. I assume that they are also safer, but I had such a hard time with it, I could imagine parents using it incorrectly (and unsafely.)

   The instructions are clear and easy to follow, but take advantage of seat checks in your area to make sure you install it correctly and as secure as it can be. Britax is an industry leader in safety and innovation, and I am glad my girls (at 4.5 and 6) are still riding safely in 5 point harnesses and protected by their Britax seats in the event of a crash.

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2. Jesse Baynard says:

   June 16, 2011 at 11:47 am

   68 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

   
   A converted skeptic, August 5, 2010

   By 

   Jesse Baynard (Tampa, FL) –
   
     
   
     

   This review is from: Britax Marathon 70 Convertible Car Seat, Onyx (Baby Product)

   Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What’s this?)

   Overall I feel that all car seats properly installed provide an extraordinary level of protection that we never had as children. So I have bought all sorts of car seats between 2 kids and 2 cars from snap-in travel systems to boosters, and from economy models to plush models. This is what I found that separates them convenience and materials.

   The seats that cost less than $100 usually have little padding and are made from just enough plastic and foam as necessary. Pretty much all the adjustments are manual from shoulder height to anchor clips to strap length. The nice thing other than the price is that they are usually dead simple to install and very light.

   The seats that cost more than $100 but less than $200 are usually very well padded and come with a lot of conveniences such as reclining, cup holders, mechanical strap adjustments, extra weight maximums. They’re still usually plastic and foam, but a lot more of it. I do find that they can also be more difficult to work with, because with all their conveniences and padding the rare mechanical adjustments (installation and shoulder adjustments) are harder to perform. Also, I don’t feel that seats I have in this class are any safer than my economy seats just more comfortable.

   Now once we get over $200 we find ourselves in Britax Marathon 70 country… This is a very well appointed car seat in terms of comfortable padding, conveniences, and materials. You notice it’s different once you see the steel beams supporting it, then as you use it and find the shoulder height can be adjusted without rethreading while installed (which is also a breeze), and that the recline doesn’t require great force, and that there’s Velcro to hold the straps back if you want it to and many other small touches… it’s easy to start falling in love. Okay but that just brings me back to… Are we just buying the convenience or is there really something better about these seats? Well perhaps it’s all really good marketing, but I now feel that this construction and these more rigid (yet designed to yield appropriately) materials are providing better safety and that the fact that you do not need to uninstall it to make adjustments also lowers the chance for a bad reinstall. So yes, I think that once you pass the $200 mark you actually can buy a safer seat. On the other hand this one doesn’t come with cup holders .

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