Martahon or Boulevard - I might lose my mind here!

[Beth_in_CT]

I know it really comes down to personal preference at this point, and that both are really safe but I cannot decide!
So here are my questions:

1. I like the headwings in the Boulevard, especially since DD is such a tiny peanut. But BIL said yesterday that although DD might like the headwings now for napping, etc... she will hate them as an older child. DO you agree?

2. He said she'll want to look out the window and of course she will. Do the headwings really block the windows completely?

3. I like the no re-thread adjusting in the Blvd, but then again, how often do you really need to adjust the straps? Once a year? Do you need to completely uninstall the seat to rethread it? Does that mean we have to go back to the police to have them reinstall it every time we adjust it?

I know I will have more questions but thanks for answering these!!

[nofeea]

All 3 of my kids have always used wizards/blvds. They never complained about their views being blocked. It just gives them support on the sides of their heads which is GREAT for napping in the car. Even as they got older and all of their friends switched to boosters my girls never complained about their harnesses or headwings. I think they found them comfy!
Even now that they're older (5 and 7) and I finally bought new seats (Frontiers), headwings are still important to us since they often fall asleep in the car when we are out late.

[KrisM]

DS1 rode in a Boulevard until over 5 years old and he could see just fine. DD is in a Wizard, which had narrower wings, and she can see. She can just put her head forward a bit.

Both kids prefer that seat because it's much more comfortable to sleep in than the Radian (don't have a MA).

[luza]

DD just outgrew her Boulevard at 5 1/2. She has never complained about not being able to see, and napped easily in it. However, we had a Roundabout before the Boulevard and it wasn't hard to rethread the straps to change the strap height on the Roundabout, so I wouldn't worry about that.

[arivecchi]

I know it really comes down to personal preference at this point, and that both are really safe but I cannot decide!
So here are my questions:

1. I like the headwings in the Boulevard, especially since DD is such a tiny peanut. But BIL said yesterday that although DD might like the headwings now for napping, etc... she will hate them as an older child. DO you agree?

2. He said she'll want to look out the window and of course she will. Do the headwings really block the windows completely?

3. I like the no re-thread adjusting in the Blvd, but then again, how often do you really need to adjust the straps? Once a year? Do you need to completely uninstall the seat to rethread it? Does that mean we have to go back to the police to have them reinstall it every time we adjust it?

I know I will have more questions but thanks for answering these!! Definitely the Blvd. My 3 year old loves headwings. They are great for napping because their heads don't flop. You do not need to reinstall the Blvd if you need to re-thread, but would with the Marathon. You just turn a knob in the Blvd, super easy. They can still see outside with the headwings. My 3 year old can see perfectly past the headwings in our Frontier (and used to from our Blvd).

[HIU8]

I will offer another opinion. We have a MA. When RF, you do not need to uninstall to rethread the harness. It is actually very easy to do. When FF, you do need to uninstall, but reinstalling is very simple. You should really learn how to uninstall and reinstall yourselves instead of relying on the police or carseat tech to always do it. You do need to know how to use the carseat -especially if you run into an issue of having to install it in someone elses car in an emergency etc...

Also, MA does not have the headwings and DS and DD don't miss them. Their heads do not flop forward. DD would not mind the headwings. DS would have minded them younger, but now at 5 he would have much less of an issue with it.

[AnnieW625]

My DD was an odd duck and hated her Marathon. We moved her to a Frontier with headwings and has never once complained about her seat. DD's head never flopped forward in the Marathon, but again she just spent 18 mos. from about a year old until around 2/1/2 complaining about her seat for really no apparent reason. Not sure what seat I'll be getting for #2, but right now anything with nice headwings like the BLVD might be at the top of my list.

If you really like the basic style of the Marathon I too would just look at the Roundabout 50.

Good luck!

[Dr C]

My 3 y.o. loves his Blvd and the headwings are a plus, not a minus. They're great for sleeping in the car which is sometimes the only place we can get him to nap, LOL. So we love this seat and if you can find a good deal on one, I'd say go for it!

On the other hand, I agree with PP that you need to become comfortable installing and uninstalling the seat yourself, so rethreading the harness straps should not be a big issue if you do decide to get the marathon or RA50. It's really not that hard to do and britax seats are super-easy to install in most cars. Plus, you don't have to adjust the harness straps very often.

[jjordan]

I love the headwings and neither of my kids seems to have a problem with them (dd is almost 4 and ds is 18 months). DD in particular has, for a while now, been pointing out things that she sees out the windows.

We also have a FPSVD (which is essentially the same shell as a marathon) for a second car and she doesn't seem nearly as cozy in it. We used it on a trip recently and she looked kind of pitiful when she fell asleep. Whereas in the BV, she looks very cozy napping.

The nice thing about the harness is not just that it is no rethread, but that it is infinite adjust. (Many no rethread harnesses still have distinct harness positions, but the BV can go to any height within its range.) The nice part about that is that you can put the harness right exactly at their shoulders (or a touch above if FF) and not have to choose between a slot that seems too low and one that seems too high.

[lorinick]

We have the BV and MA and we love the BV. It was the reason I purchased the seat. My son is 28 mts. old and never complaines when he is in the BV. I think he looks more comfy in his BV than he does in the MA. I really wouldn't care to much if he was harder for him to see. My main concern is his safety. I don't think he can see as well as a ff child. It hasn't changed my mind that it's safer to rf. Either seat would be a great choice. But I'd go with the BV.

[gummibear]

We recently shopped for a car seat and were considering both of these seats. A quick stop at BRU to look at the seats in person made it easy to decide. The BV just looks that much more comfortable to me.

The seat just arrived today so I can't say that DS won't mind the wings later, but personally, I hate having nothing to lean my head on when taking long flights. I like that DS will have something when he inevitably falls asleep in the car. I don't worry about him hating it later because he's so young, he won't know anything else. I just assume he'll be used to it. Plus we tend to use the ipod in the car for videos when he's being fussy.

The harness was another major factor for me. I like that I'll be able to tailor the height to him and move it as needed. The no-rethreading bit is a bonus.

I shopped around a bit and found the best deals on diaper.com and albeebaby.com. If I'd shopped a teeny bit sooner at diapers.com I could have scored a BV for about $200 after their sale price (at $229) plus 10% off discount for new customers - but that item was sold out. As it is, I picked up our BV for $229 from albeebaby.com (there's one for $219, but we chose to splurge $10 more for a different cover). Both are still on sale now at albeebaby. HTH!