Car seat recommendations for a convertible?

[tnt_mom]

Hi, my husband recently bought a 3-series BMW convertible and I need to find the correct car seats/booster(?) for my 2 yr old twin boys - both about 36 inches tall and one weighs 30 lbs and the other 27 lbs. They turned 2 years old in January.

Any suggestions? Are they too young/small for booster seats? If so, are there any relatively inexpensive car seats that people would recommend? Given that I purchased the pricey Britax Marathon convertible car seats for them to use in our main car, I would like to (hopefully) limit the cost of the new seats; however, I understand that safety comes first (esp. given that the other car is a convertible) so would appreciate any and all recommendations. Please keep in mind that we live in the Northeast, so they won't be riding in the convertible for another few months.

Thanks so much!

[JBaxter]

I'd say they were 2 yrs away from using a traditional belt positioning booster.
If you have headrests in the back seat look at the Apex 65 it harness ut 65lbs then you can use the seat belt to 100lbs ($100ish)

A little pricey but I really like the seat is the sunshine radian $179 at albee baby. It gots to 49inches and 65lbs. It has a steel frame and the seat folds in half for storage or travel. They are also narrower seats.

[momtoB]

How are they fitting in their Marathons height wise? What slots are they using?

The Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxe seats are basically stripped down Marathons. They run $140-180 (the $140 price can be found at Albee Baby (specialtybaby.com). Everything is basically the same except they only go to 55# f/fing, no r/fing tether, no HUGS.

4yrs and 40lbs is the bare minimum recommendation for moving up to a bpb. Every step "up" in car seats is a step down in safety, ie r/fing is always safer than f/fing, 5-pt harness is safer than bpb. Most kids are not mature enough to be in a dedicated bpb (at least not full time) until they are actually 5 to 6yrs old, so the longer you can keep them in a harness seat, the better.

The pp mentioned the Apex which has 17" top slots, and cannot be used as a bpb until the child is at least 40lbs. The Marathon & clones & FPSVD all have approx 17" top slots, the Radian has 18" top slots, and the Britax Regent (80# limit) has 20" top slots.

hth!

[tnt_mom]

I'm sorry, but can you tell me what "bpb" stands for?

[tnt_mom]

I'm sorry, but can you tell me what "bpb" stands for?

[JBaxter]

Belt positioning booster. The seats that have the seat belt that crosses over the child.
5pt harness are really the only safe thing for 2 yr old ( or 3 or 4 yr olds really)