Britax Marathon 65 G3

My very first review! 

It took me a while to figure out what to review for my first product. A friend and I were talking last night and knowing how much I love car seats, she suggested that my first review be of my favourite car seat. Including the infant seat, we have owned (and still do own most) four car seats for my daughter, but it was very easy to choose my favourite! [Reviews for the others will be coming in the future.]

Seat Overview

•Rear facing 5-40 lbs and 49 inches or less

•Forward facing 22-65 lbs, walking unassisted and 49 inches or less

I did take all sorts of awesome pictures as soon as the box arrived at my door and through every step of the unboxing but I deleted them all by mistake so that is why there are very few pictures on this post. 

The first thing I noticed upon taking the seat out of the box is how soft it is! Compared to the seat we were using previously, this one has a ton of padding. I played around with it a bit and also fell in love with how easy it is to adjust it. The Quick-Adjust harness makes this seat so easy to adjust! There is no undoing the straps at the back of the car seat, pulling them out, feeding them through the next slot and then, the most annoying part, trying to get them back on the splitter plate. Britax made it really easy for us. All you do is gran the grey handle at the top of the seat, press down, and then move the head rest (the straps move with it) up or down. Easy peasy! While I only have one child, this would be an amazing feature for someone who has more than one child in the seat regularly.

Another feature I love is the SafeCell technology in the base. 

The SafeCell technology compresses and lowers your child's center of gravity in the event of a crash to reduce the chance of forward movement injuries - such as hitting the front seat in front of them.

The two final things that really stood out to me with this car seat were the LATCH connectors and the built-in lock offs. The best way to keep your child safe in the car is to install the car seat correctly and use it correctly at all times, and Britax has made it really easy to do both of those things. 

The seat comes with the premium LATCH connectors which are so easy to use. You just push them on, and simply press a button and pull back to remove them. I also really liked that there is a separate connector on each side of the car seat as opposed to just one. You connect one at a time and then once they're both connected, I pulled both sides tight, and then used all of my strength to pull each one tighter, one at a time. I have used LATCH with other seats before but none have given me an install that was near as tight as this one, and I credit that to the double connectors. 

For those who don't have the option to use LATCH in your vehicle or in the seating position you want the child, or for those who simply don't want to use LATCH or whose children are over the weight limits, Britax has made it easy to install using a seat belt as well. You pull the cover back, open the lock-off on the side where you connect the seat belt (the blue lock-offs are for rear facing and the red are for forward facing), feed the belt through the belt path, and then connect the seat belt. Once it's in, press down on the car seat, I pull on the shoulder portion of the belt to remove all slack from the lap portion. Once I have it as tight as I can get it, I press down on the lock off to lock it while still holding the belt. Once the lock off is closed, I let go of the belt and check for movement at the belt path only, front to back and side to side. You want to look for less than one inch of movement either way (this goes for LATCH install, too!) In my case there was absolutely no movement front to back or side to side using the seat belt or the LATCH, in a rear facing and forward facing position. I can not say that about any other car seat. 

My daughter really likes her seat too. And really, what more could we ask for than for our children to be comfortable and safe!?

Overall, I give this car seat 5 out of 5 stars.

Honestly it takes a lot for me to want to give something a full five stars but if anything deserves it, it's this car seat. It's easy to install, easy to use, comfortable, cute, and safe. There is literally nothing else I could ask for!