Feel free to roll your eyes at how long and agonizing I made this decision. I understand if you now feel like throwing up every time I say the words car seat -- I know the whole thing has been a bit of an ordeal.
At the time we got it (about two months ago), Britax had just started rolling out new versions of all their convertibles. But after quite a bit of deliberation, I decided not to wait for the newest version. My kid needed a new seat and I didn't know when the new Boulevard would become available. I also wasn't sure how the price would be affected by the new seats. Would the old ones become cheaper? Would the new ones be more expensive? Were the new, very minor, changes even worth the wait?
More of the new versions (maybe all of them?) are available now, and it looks like the new ones are "full priced" and that the old ones have actually become more expensive since we bought our seat. That makes me happy I purchased what I got, when I got it.
As I see it, here are some of the "challenges" with this seat:
- The shoulder straps tend to fall into the seat when we take out the baby. It's very easy to just pull them out of the way before I put her back in, or I can fish them out from under her after she sits down (it's easy to maneuver them out from under her plump little body).
- We have a Corolla, which is a smaller car. This is a good-sized car seat. We have it behind the passenger seat, which means we have to be careful as we maneuver the baby through the door and into the seat (or vice versa). I have bonked her head a time or two. But if you're slow and careful, it's not a problem. There's enough room to get her in and around. If she were in the middle seat, not problem. When she switches to facing forward, no problem.
- Since the car seat is behind the passenger seat, the passenger seat has to sit a little more upright than "normal". Personally I prefer to sit upright in the car as much as possible, so it doesn't bother me. We had to scoot the seat forward just a little, but not much. Even Nate at 6' tall is reasonably comfortable in the passenger seat. Again, if I moved the seat to the center of the backseat, this would not be an issue. And it won't be an issue when baby faces forward.
- As with ALL convertible car seats, it doesn't have any kind of hood to block out the sun from the windows. So if you do not have tinted windows, you'll need a roller shade (or similar) for the side and back. Even if you put your kid in the middle seat (where it's safer, and where we really should put our seat), then you'd need a shade for your back window.
- When we looked at this car seat in the store, Nate complained that the crotch buckle has a short tether and that it is hard to buckle the straps. This might have been annoying at first, I honestly can't remember because it doesn't bother me at all anymore.
- There is only one thing that actually bugs me about this car seat: To tighten or loosen the straps, you have to wiggle your finger into the little pocket at the "feet" of the car seat, and push a button. My pocket doesn't quite line up with the button, so I have to stick my finger in and fish around. I bet if I just gave the seat cover a couple good yanks, it would align correctly. So the real problem is that I am lazy.
To be honest, I have no real complaints about this seat. It works well. The functions operate smoothly. My kid is comfortable. The cover is VERY easy to remove, so when I need to clean it, no problem. It fits tightly and securely in the car. It is easy to install, and fairly easy to take out (if needed). I am happy with this purchase and would definitely do it all over again.
Now here are a few more notes about the final decision-making process: When I had narrowed the range of seats down to a handful of my favorites, I sat down and made a list of the car seats we liked with the color options and the prices.
I had the opportunity shortly thereafter to test out Peg Perego's convertible car seat, and although it was undoubtedly made of high quality materials and is a very nice car seat, there were a couple of things that I did not like. For instance, adjusting the head/shoulder part required two hands and was a bit "choppy" (i.e. it didn't slide as smoothly as I would like). It was also difficult to tighten shoulder straps, though that might have been because it was tightly fitted into a very small car. At the time I noticed another thing or two, though I can't now remember the problems. Suffice it to say that although the quality was superior the functionality was less than ideal.
I had the opportunity shortly thereafter to test out Peg Perego's convertible car seat, and although it was undoubtedly made of high quality materials and is a very nice car seat, there were a couple of things that I did not like. For instance, adjusting the head/shoulder part required two hands and was a bit "choppy" (i.e. it didn't slide as smoothly as I would like). It was also difficult to tighten shoulder straps, though that might have been because it was tightly fitted into a very small car. At the time I noticed another thing or two, though I can't now remember the problems. Suffice it to say that although the quality was superior the functionality was less than ideal.
So I put the PP on the bottom of my list, noted the pros/cons, and crossed it off. That left me with five Britax models: Roundabout, Marathon, Boulevard, Boulevard CS, and Advocate. The Advocate was out of my price range, so I crossed it off. I wanted the safest seat I could afford, and we had enough for either Boulevard model. (Note that with the roll out of the new models, the Boulevard CS is now called the Pavillion). There was only one differences between the two Boulevards: the "click-safe" feature. At the time, it was going to cost me an extra $20+ to get CS, I couldn't quite justify the cost. I still wish I had the CS just for the convenience of it, but it's not essential and mostly I don't even think about it.
NOW for some pictures!!!
In her old car seat (the last picture before we cleaned, wrapped, boxed, and stored the seat):
In her new car seat, a few minutes after it was delivered:
In the car in her new seat (approx. her second trip out and about):
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