Britax Marathon: A Massively Wonderful Carseat

28. Apr, 2010 0 Comments

When I started shopping for a full sized carseat for my oldest, I wanted something he’d be in a while. The boy was exceptionally tall and it seemed silly to get a seat he’d be out of in just a year or two. Fortunately, I struck gold with the Britax Marathon. Not only is the marathon an award winning carseat, it’s also huge – perfect for long-term use.

The Britax Marathon
The Marathon has a wide selection of seat colors and patterns to choose from – some conservative, some not. We opted for a basic suede cover although I did eye the pretty girl floral covers wistfully for a few minutes. We skipped the cow and camouflage covers that might have been more “boyish” for our little man. Around three months he moved into the Marathon rear-facing as infants are supposed to be. The seat is very large, but fit easily between the front seats rear facing. After he turned one, he stayed in the middle forward facing, and the seat is still very large.

There are four openings for straps on the Marathon unlike most seats that have only two or three. This means that as my baby became a toddler and then became a preschooler the size of a first grader, he could fit in the seat perfectly with the unusually high shoulder strap positions. We even had the option of converting the Marathon to a booster and running the seat belt across through an attached clip if we liked, but we opted for a smaller booster after five years of dedication to the Marathon.

Downside of the Britax Marathon
The only downside to the Marathon is the same thing I love about it – the huge size. The large seat we had for my eldest had been so great we bought another one for our youngest. A few weeks before his birth we went to install the seat in the car and realized that with two giant carseats and some rather tall parents we couldn’t all fit in the car. One emergency trade-in later (the car – not the seat, surprisingly), we were good to go. Be sure to measure the seat in your car before purchase, however, especially if it’s not going in the center of the backseat where there is some additional wiggle room.

The Britax Marathon holds children up to 35 pounds rear facing and 65 pounds forward facing. The carseat costs around $270.

Check out more details on Amazon.

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