Customer Reviews

Britax Boulevard 70 CS Convertible Car Seat Previous Version, Silver Birch

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

after being rear-ended with my infant and toddler in their old car seats, I was adamant about getting the best car seats available. We were lucky in the accident, if the truck hit us just slightly differently the results would have been very different. I can't even think about what would have happened to my kids in their cheap-old car seats.

So, I bought two of these to replace the old ones. I could not have anticipated the difference in quality and safety of these over the others. they are built bigger, stronger and more resistant to crashes. I have much more peace of mind with them in these.

The adjusting headrest is great for the toddler so her head doesn't get cranked as she sleeps. the 3 month old fits very well in his seat. I was surprised, but it fit him perfectly. The only problem with the young one is that we can no longer pull him out and carry him in the car seat, letting him sleep, like we used to. It is a small price to pay and isn't nearly as bothersome as i thought it would be.

I am a big fan of Britax seats. I have a big gap between my oldest and youngest. So I have used many different car seats and am totally sold on Britax. When I found out the new seats had even more added safety features as well as THIS IS THE BIG NEWS....a cover that is removable without completely uninstalling the seat from the car.......I HAD TO HAVE IT. We moved the other Britax to the other car....the Boulevard CS model from the previous year....and this one went in my car. I liked the old one, but this one is even better. It feels less bulky and feels nice on the bottom with the new added rubber features. I love that you do not have to unthread anything. You just squeeze the handle on the top of the seat and pull or push to make it fit your child.

The most magical part is that when your child makes a huge mess in the seat....all you have to do is pull the cover off and throw it in the washer. I just take a wet wash cloth and wipe down the straps, and just pop the cover right back on without taking the seat out of the car. It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier!!! And less stressful when something happens.....because with kids...something will always happen.

The only issues I've had, and I decided they are not really issues..... is that my 2 year old found it fun to remove the strap covers....since they now come off with velcro instead of being threaded through. So I just left them off. You don't have to have them on it anyway. Fantastic seat..... I highly recommend it.

The Britax CS 70 Convertible Car seat has better safety features than the CS 65. It is narrower than the CS 65, so if your kid is on the chubby side this car seat may not be the best option. I purchased the CS 70 due to a car accident. I was rear ended on a red light and my baby was with me at the time. The CS 65 protected my baby and she barely felt the impact. Now with the CS 70 I feel even more secure because of its new safety features, plus my baby seems to like it too; she falls asleep 2 minutes after I seat her on the CS 70. I highly recommend this item

My baby outgrew her Graco Snugride 32 Infant carseat. For a replacement, I chose this product over the Graco equivalent because of the Britax additional safety equipment such as side impact protection and steel frame. I was thoroughly disappointed because of the difficulty of using this car seat. Granted, adjusting the height of the shoulder straps is easier, but that is not something you have to do every day. What I have to do every day is take her in an out of the car seat. That takes a full five minutes each time because the straps keep getting twisted. They're so narrow and thin they never settle down in the right position, and the velcro straps on the side to assist are not enough. The button for the releasing the harness is very hard to push, and releases only one strap at a time. The infant pillow is completely detached, nothing to hold it in place. The belly pad keeps coming out.

Putting a baby in a car seat should be a snap. This car seat makes it so difficult. Safety is compromised because if I don't pay attention every time, the straps will be twisted, and I have driven with them twisted several times. It is impossible to get it right when it's dark outside. Next time, for my wife's car, I am getting the Graco seat.

This car seat is still getting 3 stars because (a) it does its job as a car seat; (b) it is relatively easy to install in the car; and (c) it is small enough it fits in the back seat of a prius, rear-facing, and still leaves plenty of room for the front seat to move around.

I did a lot of research before purchasing a Car Seat. My baby is 4 months old but already 26 inches and getting too small for her infant carseat (which she hated). We have gone out 4 times using this carseat and she has not cried yet. It has velcro on the sides so when you take the baby out of the carseat you can pull the straps to the side. It also has padding at the side that folds in to snug a slimmer baby. I have a very small Pontiac Sunfire 2 door and this seat fits perfectly in it.

This was pretty easy to install. I watched the video on the Britax website, which helped me. I am using it rear facing and with the "Swedish" style tether connected to the floor below the seat. Sometimes it seems as though the harness is tight without hearing the clicking sound. There is no slack and when I do the pinch test, it is fine. My husband always pulls it until he hears the clicking, but I sometimes loosen it a bit because it seems too tight. I have a 2008 Subaru Outback and this seat provides a couple more inches of leg room for the front passenger than my previous Snugride infant seat. I'm very happy with it and my 14 month old daughter really likes it. She had no problems with the Snugride, but this seat has a lot more cushion and she easily falls asleep in it when we are driving. The only downside that I can think of is that I can't see her in the back seat because the side impact wings are so large (which is a good thing). I will just get a mirror to attach to the rear seat.

I waited all summer to purchase the new Boulevard 70 line (Emily) instead of the original due to the new safety features I had read about. I also want to keep my daughter rear facing as long as possible. I originally had a Chicco KeyFit 30 that my daughter was growing out of (which by the way is a great carseat in itself).

Installation..geez..well I'm glad once it's in I'll never be moving it again. It wasn't fun. The Chicco was a snap to install - the Britax Boulevard 70 was a job. If you are like me you do the double deal of using both LATCH and the seatbelts. The LATCH connect was easy and took me a whole 30 seconds. The seatbelts took me a half hour! The main issue is the bright blue safety clasps used to lock the seatbelt in place. They are HARD to snap back together even with plenty of belt slack. Maybe my seatbelts are much thicker than normal. Anyways the blue clips are deep in the carseat so you can only use one or possibly two fingers to push them down to snap (no fist/palm of hand). So you are going to be busting your index finger/thumb as you put all your weight on it trying to get the blue clasps to snap together. The metal frame the latch belts are attached to seem very strong.

I like the tether design used to hold the back of the seat to the floor. It has two belts. One belt you loop around something (in my case a front seat rail) and it has a nice metal clasp that easily connects to the second belt which is connected to the carseat. This second belt can be tightened easily. Nice and simple! After installing the tether the car seat didn't move a millimeter. It is surprisingly stiff - even more solid than the Chicco.

My daughter is happy with her new pink car seat. At 22 months and very petite she fits snugly. Actually maybe I bit too snugly as I'm now scratching my head trying to figure out how you can possibly fit a good size kid in it.

The harness is your typical one. No shockers. You can adjust the shoulder height by moving the back of the unit up and down instead of playing the fish-the-belts-through-the-holes game (like in the Chicco). That's very nice. I think the seat padding isn't anywhere near as thick as I'd like. This is disappointing. They give you an infant insert that she is now using as a seat cushion.

But after all is done it is a great car seat.

I have seen this posted also on other Boulvard reviews. The wings of the headrest insert are made out of Styrofoam and break off once you apply more pressure. This is more likely to happen while the headrest is pulled out and sticks slightly out of the base - when your kid grows. Or just when the baby puls on them while seated - you see that screaming toddler that does not want to sit down ;)
It breaks right in the corner - on the sides of the plastic support. The fabric may keep it more or less in place so you may not notice right away.
This is not safe. And for the money you pay I would expect better stuff.
I had it for just over a year now, not sure how long is the warranty, will post what Britax says in reply.

Otherwise I like it, although the bottom strap is quite short and it is difficult to get your kid in rear facing for up to two years.
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Update on Britax reply.
They were very helpful and shipped the foam part to replace the broken part within a few days. I hope this one will hold up longer.

I debated long and hard whether it was truly necessary to spend the extra money and buy a Britax rather than the First Year's True Fit carseat which is rated a little better in Baby Bargains and on NHTSA. I bought this seat and a True Fit. I installed the True Fit first thinking we would just buy a second if we like it well enough and return the Boulevard. For a week, I drove around with the True Fit thinking it was good enough and worth it to save the extra $125. I even ordered a second. However, all of a sudden I started thinking about the aspects that I didn't like and figured I'd check out the Boulevard and compare.

First of all, ease of installation. True Fit was rated slightly better for ease of use with NHTSA, but I don't understand why. It took considerably longer for my husband and I to install the True Fit than for me to install the Boulevard myself. In order to install rear facing, all one had to do was position the seat to the 3rd position and unclip the latch connectors and securely fasten according to the instructions. So easy and installed great! (True Fit took several steps, including preparing the latch connectors by fastening to the seat properly.) I was very pleased how simply this was to install the Boulevard myself!

Secondly, everyone says the Britax seats are huge. To be honest, it is considerably smaller than the True Fit. The True Fit just barely fit behind the driver's seat in my Outback with enough space for my 5'10 husband to drive comfortably whereas the Boulevard fits with about 4-5" extra space behind the driver seat. The Boulevard also fits in the passenger seat alone, where as the True Fit encroaches the middle seat considerably. It's much more comfortable to fit two passengers with the Boulevard than with the True Fit. The safety belts are very comfortable and seem securely fastened with my 10 month old in the seat. I also like that it is very easy to access the strap and lever to tighten or loosen the safety straps.

I like the side wings, which I know make it harder for her to see around, but so much more comfortable to take a little nap. The fabric is a little warmer than I'd like, but it doesn't seem any different than other carseat materials. There's no place to attach toys in a convertible carseat like in the infant seat, but I actually used the toy rings and clipped to the end of the strap that tightens the saftey belt which works great for my daughter to reach and play! The base is nice and flat so it won't cause the seat of the car to have permanent indentations. I am so glad we decided to purchase and keep this carseat - it is so easy to use on a daily basis and my daughter seems to love it so far!

We bought this seat for our 4 month old daughter since the infant seat was becoming too cumbersome and heavy to deal with. We first purchased the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite only to find that it didn't fit in our 2010 Nissan Altima. At first I balked at the price of this seat, since it was over 3 times the price of many of the seats out there. After researching the seats which were recommended by Nissan to fit in our car, I decided to order the seat to see what everyone is raving about.

This seat is definitely worth the money. Comparing it side by side with the Safety 1st seat, the difference is unbelievable. There are far too many advantages to list, but the major one being that it is compact enough to be used rear-facing in a mid-sized car. It is also far easier to install, than the other seat was and it did not require a wedge under the seat to level it. We were actually able to move our front passenger seat back an inch or two further than where it had to be with the infant seat installed!

The quality and craftsmanship of the Britax seat is apparent as soon as you open the box. These seats are also certified to continued use after a minor accident, while most other seats must be trashed after even a slight fender bender. I feel that my daughter is very safe in this seat and I'm very happy with the purchase.