Britax Boulevard Review

As my daughters one-year birthday approached, we started looking into convertible car seats. Our number one concern was safety. We wanted the best. After thorough research, we decided that Britax Boulevard would be the one to provide our daughter the best protection.  It came very highly rated by consumer groups, and feedback from other parents who had this seat was excellent.

One feature we liked is it's capability to rear-face up to 35 lbs. My daughter is a petit little girl and at 18 months is still only 20 lbs, which is the minimal weight to forward face them. However, our research showed that rear facing was better so we are glad that the Britax allows this capability. Even better than that....it allows tethering with the rear-facing, unlke many which tether only forward facing. When my daugher reaches the 35-lb rear facing limit, we will turn the Boulevard around and it will accomodate her up to 65 pounds. So we look forward to getting a lot of use out of this carseat for quite a few years.

The carseat is a bit bigger than other seats, but it fit easily into the back seat of my Chevy Impala. We have it in the rear center of the seat. Installation was very simple! Actually easier then the infant car seat. The tethering aspect was a bit more involved because I couldn't find a good place to tether for rear facing, but was able to finally get this setup properly with the help of a few car seat techs online.

My daughter is very comfortable in the car seat. She had been starting to get fussy on trips and we had heard that it could be that she was uncomfortable in the infant seat. I was pleased that this seemed to be the issue, as once we got her in the Britax Boulevard, the fussiness stopped. She can see much more now and it is definitely very cushy! I also love the head rest...more comfortable for her and it provides extra side impact protection.

The only thing I have come across that I am not too crazy about is the process of tightening the harness. Whereas in the infant carseat I could do one quick, smooth pull to tighten the harness, I have to use a Pull-Pull-Pull motion several times to get it tightened. Not really an issue, but sometimes just a pain in the butt!

As for maintenance, it is pretty easy to wipe down. Although I had to remove the cover and give it a good cleaning, that was a little more complicated, but it went back together with only a little effort.

I would highly recommend the Britax Boulevard. It provides great peace of mind knowing my daughter is riding in a safe carseat, but one that also is very comfortable for her. Although it is a bit pricey, it will last a long time so in the long run it will pay off, since we won't have to buy another seat for quite some time.