Customer Reviews

Britax Advocate 70 CS Click & Safe Convertible Car Seat (Previous Version), Riviera

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Update 2: As you read below you will see that I think this is a good seat and recommend it for people concerned about safety. That being said I'm hoping Britax engineers will read this and quit building the CS feature into their seats. As I state below the CS feature of the 70 model is much better than the 65 model, however, it's really just a gimmick. It offers ZERO value to the seat other than letting Britax add another feature on the feature list. The click is almost never enough tension (even if you groom the belt and tighten it around your kids legs first). One should always check the tension of the belts with their hand. I'm willing to bet that parents that rely on the click are not properly tightening the straps. The 70 model is still easy to tighten on your kid, but the CS feature needs to go Britax. The 65 model's CS feature/belt path is well below average in terms of usability. I own two Advocate 65's and one Advocate 70 and would pay 50 dollars right now to remove the CS feature on all of them. Don't let this point cause you to buy another seat. This is still a great seat.

Another complaint, and again this is just nit picking as I do honestly recommend this seat: The 65 model had an excellent head rest/upper belt feed-through adjustment drive screw. They replaced this with a pull handle above your kids head in the 70 model claiming it was an upgrade..... Nope. I think this was a cost reduction redesign. You can't adjust the head rest height if your kid is in the seat (unless you push them away from the back of the seat) as any weight at all on the back of the seat renders the mechanism unusable. You could adjust the height on the 65 with your kid in place. Also the drive screw of the 65 has infinite adjustment while the 70 has a set number of positions (not a big deal but still). You only adjust this a handful of times over the life of the seat (unless you are using it with two different size kids back and forth) so it's not a big problem.

The Advocate 70 adds lots of great safety features and it's my seat of choice. For the next model Britax needs to delete any sort of clicking anything and just have a standard cam locking tightening strap. Also go back to the drive screw as implemented on the 65 model but smooth out the belt path like the 70..... That would be a GREAT seat.

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Update: We have had the Advocate 70 three months now and are still very satisfied with the seat. As initially observed, the CS feature is much more viable in this model over the 65. One of the clips that holds the cover on came off, but it doesn't seem to even have been needed anyway. One thing that has become obvious to me is that the 70 model (as opposed to the 65 model and other manufacturers) has a lot of structure on the side and forward of the child's head. This makes it more difficult to get a kid in and out (while facing backwards the gap between the car seat and advocate seat is smaller), but what it boils down to is your kids face is completely protected on the sides. As I stated further in the review, I want maximum safety and am happy to give up a little convenience and view so the kids side is pretty much completely protected. Our kid seems to be perfectly happy with this seat, but it doesn't offer much side viewing. You can't have your cake and eat it too. For every person there is a happy medium. On one extreme you could give your kid a breathing tube and pack them in a foam sphere four feet in diameter, on the other end is no seat at all. I'm very happy with the Advocate 70's safety vs. convenience trade offs.

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I had an Advocate 65 prior to buying this 70 model, but the extra EPP foam lining the shell (the advocate 65 has no foam on the side of the shell...... what gives Britax?), collapsing honeycomb base, smoother belt path to smooth out the CS feature, and stronger/more integral mounting bars convinced me to drop another 300 bucks on the 70. Some guys get a new iphone when a new version is available, I get another car seat. The CS feature is junk on the Advocate 65, but it doesn't get in the way as long as you pay attention and get the straps tight enough (I always just ignored the click and kept on pulling/guiding the straps). My wife was getting very irritated with the CS feature on the 65 and said "the new one is ten times better". The 65 had sharp edges where the belts feed through the back of the seat causing the belt tension between the back of the seat and clicker to be high, but not tight enough around your child. The 70 model has smooth curves though the back of the seat so tension in the clicker area equals tension around your kid.... much better.

I've read countless posts by "certified technicians" saying the air bladders on the Advocate are a waste of money. I've read reviews where people say it's "Twice as safe" with the air bladder. My assessment is that many of these people are making statements beyond their understanding. To become a certified CPS technician you take a 4-day class and pay 75 dollars, not an impulse and momentum physics class. Be careful what you believe in online reviews. It's also well known that companies have departments that talk up their products in online reviews and talk down the products of their competition so you really never know.

Consumer Reports is apathetic to the Advocate's air bladders. They state they do not test side impacts and subsequently rate the Advocate lower than the Boulevard (same model without air bladders) because it costs more. What this amounts to is they completely ignore the air bladders potential in their rating, don't test for it, reduce it's overall rating because it costs more and then make a small comment about the fact it may help in the small print. A few years back they did some side impact testing and published a worrisome review about American car seats (European seats were better in their test). They retracted the article for some litigious reason I believe (excessive testing or something.... but just the same the European seats were not flying off the base whether or not it was an excessive test). For this reason Consumer Reports will never get another dollar from me. They are being lazy and litigation weary instead of jumping in head first and creating an excellent side impact test that would reveal the value or lack of value of side impact technologies from all the manufacturers. For now people that just look at the rating dots will never know CS is throwing out safety features from the ratings because they don't test for side impact, which they say result in a large percentage of fatalities (***shaking head***). As of Jan 2011 an "Excellent" safety rating from CS is only referring to frontal testing and side impact appears to have zero weight in their rating system.

Here is my opinion based on an engineering background. Because crash dynamics are complicated, I don't want any of these statements to be taken as a God given fact in the application of every car wreck. I'm taking the time to write this because all the one-line negatories from certified technicians. I'll just state the simple laws of physics that apply in these types of situations so you can decide if you want to spring for the air bladders or not. It is very likely that if the OUTSIDE of the advocate impacts another object in a crash be it a caving door panel or the bumper of a jacked up truck, the air bladder will slow down the rate at which your child's head goes from motion to rest because the air bladder functions just like an air bag in your car (a balloon that is not air tight but allows for forces to be dissipated over a longer time (milliseconds longer). The time it takes for your child's head to go from motion to rest is inversely related to the impact force your child's head will experience. In simpler terms the the slower they slow down, the lower the maximum impact force they will experience. This is why air bags are in all cars now, they slow down how fast you come (measured in small factions of a second) to rest greatly reducing maximum force. Maybe any wreck that these features come into play is unsurvivable I don't know.... It makes me go cross eyed when a certified tech says "the air bladders on the advocate don't do anything". I'm not certain they are as valuable as Britax says they are, but geeeezzz. Ask yourself this: If you are wearing a hockey mask (similar to your child's seat shell) and your greatest enemy gets one free swing at your face with an Aluminum baseball bat, would you or would you not opt to place an air bag on the front of your hockey mask?

If your seat is in the center of the car and nothing impacts the air bladder, then it won't help. An example would be a side crash in which the seat was mounted in the middle and the car did not crush and nothing penetrated the interior of the car. In this scenario the base of the seat would hold the upper part of the seat (via the car belt/latch) in place while your child hits the inside reducing their velocity and momentum to zero. In this situation the air bladder does not help.

What my assumptions lead me to believe is that if you are putting your seat right next to the vehicle's door with a good chance of something hitting the side of the seat (or another person), or the seat pivoting and slamming on the interior door panel in a side impact or roll, then the chances the air bladders will be advantageous are high, where as if your seat will be in the center there is less of a chance (but not zero) this feature will lend a helping hand in an accident. I have a minivan with the seat mounted in the middle and I still believe strongly in my extra investment for the air bladders based on the impact and momentum laws of physics and the potential of objects penetrating the cabin space from the side and hitting the car seat. The added cost of the bladders for how much safety they add may be on the expensive side, but I'm willing to pay 20 percent more for a seat that is 10 percent safer (I'm making these numbers up I don't know how much safer it is). I want maximum protection and am willing to pay for it and deal with the extra size.

I've observed that the 70 exhibits less torsional rigidity compared to the 65. I believe this is due to the honeycomb collapsing base. I'm not convinced this is a bad thing, in fact it may be intentional.

Buying a seat is confusing and there seems to be more bad information than good information out there. From what I can tell the people we trust to regulate/test the car seat industry seem to have dropped the ball. I think the Advocate is one of the best choices I have, but I get this feeling that the manufacturers in America have whipped our officials into keeping things easy/cheap for them. There was a good article in the Chicago Tribune a couple years ago in which HALF the American car seats performed poorly in a government study (including Britax). The conclusions of the article/test was basically..... finger pointing and "we need to do something better".

I think Britax should be rewarded for developing and marketing products that exceed the pathetic regulation system. It's a shame they have to ride lower on the ratings because there is no standardized test for the types of impact that hurt more kids.

Good luck!

If you're not familiar with Britax, I believe they are the BEST car seats you can spend your money on. We own a Marathon for our very long 3.5 year old and now that our also very long 10 month old had outgrown her infant carrier, I knew what brand to turn to. Since last having a child, Britax has added some new safety features to their already super safe car seats. :)! I won't bore you with the logistics of why this is such a safe car seat, you can watch videos and read the research on Britax's website for yourself (I know I did ENDLESS research as I imagine you're doing right now :)). I can tell you that once out of the box, I couldn't believe how the shell (which is now reinforced with steel bars) curved around and literally surrounded where your child sits. I installed pretty quickly rear facing (with seat belt and tether). If you've done this before, it's not different, lock off and pull tight. If you're unfamiliar with Britax, you can watch a quick video and do it easily. Once installed, I put my 10 month old in and noticed immediately how supported her head was, and overall, how her whole body was being cradled. The high density comfort foam and super soft cowmooflage cover also contributed to the whole cradling effect of the seat. The quick adjust harness is INCREDIBLE. I repeat, INCREDIBLE. The mechanism (a wide button) is smooth and easy to pull up or push down. No more uninstalling the car seat and dismantling the whole thing to adjust straps to the perfect height. I am so glad I sprang for this car seat, I went back and forth between the Boulevard and the Advocate but the extra $40ish you'll spend on the side impact technology (the "cushions" on the side of the car seat) is well worth it. In our case, we have an older car with no rear side air bags and I have 2 kids riding outboard (2 car seats behind the driver and passenger seats). I can really see how this would absorb some of the impact in the event of a crash. This seat is a tank that is super padded, will cradle your child (and installed correctly) will keep your child safe. I am in love with the Advocate 70 CS. In this case, you truly get what you pay for. It's super safe, so plush and comfortable and easy to use. It's the most expensive thing I've ever purchased for my children but well worth it. Highly recommended.

When I needed to buy a convertible car seat for my older son, I bought a Britax Boulevard. I felt this was the best car seat available at that time. We've had it for a little over two years and it has been a great seat, although we haven't had to test it in an accident, luckily. Compared to all other seats, I always thought the Boulevard was the best quality. However, now that my younger son is large enough to move into a convertible seat, I ordered him the Britax Advocate 70 CS, as this appeared to be the best seat available at this time. Well, it arrived yesterday and I am extremely impressed. The quality is clearly a few notches above the Boulevard. Not only is the fabric superior, but it seems more sturdy and solid. It is wider, though, due to the side impact protection. It seems even safer, too. So, despite the Boulevard being an excellent seat, I just order another Advocate 70 for my older son. I want him to be in the safety seat available, and I am confidant that this is it.

EDITED AS OF 10/6/10

Unfortunately I have had to return this car seat because the chest buckle became inoperable (it wouldn't completely click shut any longer - the bottom prong would click in but the top prong would not). Hopefully my experience is an isolated incident and not a common manufacturing defect as I am asking for a replacement unit.

Three stars for now - will change back to five if this next unit holds up.

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This latest car seat in the Britax line (released August 2010) features a few new safety enhancements, the combination of which are seemingly not available in any other car seat on the market (e.g. Side Impact Cushion Technology and True Side Impact Protection among others).

These are all discussed in the product description and they certainly helped sell me on the device. Fortunately we haven't had to see how these features perform in practice, hopefully we never will.

What I can attest to is the ease of install in a 2009 Honda CRV with Latch. It will take you about 15 minutes once the box is opened.

While the instructions that come with the car seat are certainly enough, the instructional video describing the install on the Britax USA site made it absolutely simple and straightforward.

Enter the model and manufacture date on the britaxusa website to see the guide and/or video.

The chief criticism/worry I was faced with going from a smaller infant car seat to one of these more permanent models is that it would be too big for my vehicle or preclude an adult from sitting in back if it was installed rear facing in the center seat, which I knew it would be.

Honestly this has a much smaller footprint than I imagined and with it in the center of the rear row, two adults can still fit in back (the passenger side one less comfortably than the driver's side).

I had a great experience with the install and the company reputation for safety is well documented.

Our infant is about to outgrow his Chicco KeyFit30 seat and I read and researched about all the available convertible-type seats and ended up selecting the Britax Advocate 70 CS. The reason why we decided to go with this car seat is that it simply had ALL the features we were looking for - Safety being the top priority, comfort, ease of installation and not to mention stylish!

The safety features are simply the best (I won't bore you with all the details since you can read it on the Britax website) - every part of the car seat is well thought out and designed! The car seat is solid (steel frame- nothing feels or looks flimsy!) and well made. When I took it out of the box to prep for installation, I read through the instructions, familiarized myself with all the parts, visited the website to look at the how-to videos. Once equipped with the information, it was a cinch to install. It took me less than 15 mins to get the carseat installed and secured. We bought the Cowmooflage design which is whimsical and the fabric is soft and comfortable to the touch. The features like the belly pad, the additional cushions/chest pads, chest clip, etc. to help ensure a snug and comfortable fit for my child were clever and practical. We love the velcro on either side of the seat that holds the straps in place so that you can put your child in the seat easily. The height adjusting mechanism is a brilliant idea and a great time saver. Also, you can easily remove the seat cover for washing, without having to uninstall the seat itself! Another excellent time saving idea! In my opinion, the attention to these types of details is what makes Britax stands out.

Since this is only month 1 owning this, we'll have to reserve comment on its durability and ease of care until a later date. I was skeptical that it will not live up to all the hype, but so far, the item has not only met but has exceeded our expectations... We would buy this again in a heartbeat!

My son is about to out grown his infant seat and I researched more than a few car seats. I have a small Toyota Yaris 2 door hatchback and always wondered about his safety. I can't afford a bigger car right now so it was this car seat that I thought would suit us best. First off this seat is very big, well concidering my size car but it fits perfectly. He can even now look outside the window where as before he couldn't and cry everytime we put him in his infant seat. Secondly, my Yaris has anchors and has made this seat super easy to install. I can even take this seat from car to car with out any hassle. Great quality and easy to use.

I originally bought the Saftey First Air Protect when my 9 month old outgrew her infant car seat about a month ago. I ended up returning the Air Protect for the following reasons:
1) It did not fit well in the rear-facing position in the back middle seat in our 2005 Nissan Pathfinder. The front seats had to be scooted up concomfortably close to the dash and the car seat was still not 100% level to ground due to the length of the car seat. It was also very difficult to tighten properly even when I kneeled on the seat and yanked with all my might.
2) the straps were CONSTANTLY getting twisted. Probably every other time I put her in our took her out I was untwisting those *!*# straps. A safety issue--no. But a real pain in the butt when errand running is already inconvenient enough--yes.
3) in the beginning, my daughter cried every time I put her in it. She just did not seem to be entirely comfortable in it.

When I received the Advocate CS and opened the (smashed) box, my heart sank because it is a huge seat and I did not think it would fit any better than the Air Protect. Fortunately, I was wrong and the Advocate installed very easily and with plenty of room to spare. I was able to tighten the seat VERY tightly, I think due to having tightening straps on both sides. (I did have to use a towel underneath to make the base level which was also the case with the Air Protect). The straps have yet to twist and my daughter's head rests in a comfortable position. The seat is very cushy yet supportive and the adjustable straps are definitely a plus.

This car seat is simply a cut above the rest. It has all of the best safety features with little extras (belly pad, recline lever, easy-remove seat cover, etc) that make it an easy seat to use and own. Yes, it is heavy (21 pounds), but it weighs less than my daughter so that is not an issue for me. And yes, it is expensive but in my opinion a car seat is not an area to look for a bargain. I am very happy with this seat and am relieved that the stress of trying to find the perfect car seat for our daughter is over.

When I was installing the car seat, I heard a loud crack, and sure enough one side of the head rest foam was fractured at its joint with the back side of the foam. I went to the local Babies & Us and found that the this model and another 70 CS car seat by Britax demo's have this same area broken. I compared the design of this latest model to last year's. The last year's head rest has a hard plastic outer layer protecting the foam and prevents the foam from being bend towards the midline of the car seat. Be careful not to push on to the side of the headrest towards the middle on this latest design. I consider this a huge safety issue.

We have a previous generation Britax Diplomat, and purchased this model for our second car. The new Advocate 70 CS is a nice update to the Britax line. The base, which used to be white plastic on the previous generation Diplomat at least, is now black plastic and steel. The base is smaller and feels more stable, and the overall build quality is better.

We ordered this seat because our 9 month-old had out grown her infant car seat. I was hesitant to order it online because I didn't know if it would fit in my car. I have a 2001 VW Jetta and it fits great. (actually even better than the infant car seat we had). I actually called Britax to find out the dimensions fully reclined since we are using the seat rear-facing. The customer service people at Britax were very helpful. Our daughter likes the new seat and is very comfortable. The head rest supported her head when she fell asleep.