Customer Reviews

Britax Frontier Booster Car Seat, Rushmore

5 star:		(121)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I am a certified passenger safety seat technician as well as a police officer who works in the field of traffic enforcement/safety. There a couple of things I want you to know when/if you purchase this new product so that you can have a far easier time installing it- and so you can install it correctly.

First, the instruction booklet is permanantly attached to the seat w/ a cord. Simply tuck it behind the cover to stow it. Britax has the manual available online in a PDF if you would like to sit and review it without having to crouch down and read the book attached to your seat.

Second, when you go to tighten the LATCH straps at each lower anchor, the seat is designed for you to pull these tight through the spaces in the seat shell itself (simply move the cover to the side and you will see where the back of the seat shell has a hole on each side so you can EASILY pull the LATCH webbing tight on each side). If you try to tighten these LATCH straps outside and behind the shell of the seat- YOU WILL NEVER GET IT TIGHT AND THEREFORE IT WILL NOT BE OPTIMALLY INSTALLED.

Please contact your local hospital, poice department, fire department, or Safe Kids Coalition (www.safekidsworldwide.org) for a referral to a free child passenger seat fitting station in your community if you have concerns or questions. Even if you don't have questions, it is a good idea to take your car, seat, and kiddo to one of these fitting stations to make sure you have a good installation AND good use/fit for your kids.

Finally, this seat is remarkable becuase the 5-point harnes straps are rated to a child of 80 pounds AND it converts to a booster seat for kids heavier or who otherwise won't fit in the harness. The seat is rated for 9 years (the longest manufacturer rating I have seen). And, unlike other Britax products, it is more narrow and therefore can fit in more applications than other Britax products (known for being BIG).

My kids had their first run in the seats today (I installed them last night) and we have thumbs up from both on the comfort and the fashion while I give it a thumbs up for safety/design and installation!!

I am a certified passenger safety seat technician as well as a police officer who works in the field of traffic enforcement/safety. There a couple of things I want you to know when/if you purchase this new product so that you can have a far easier time installing it- and so you can install it correctly.

First, the instruction booklet is permanantly attached to the seat w/ a cord. Simply tuck it behind the cover to stow it. Britax has the manual available online in a PDF if you would like to sit and review it without having to crouch down and read the book attached to your seat.

Second, when you go to tighten the LATCH straps at each lower anchor, the seat is designed for you to pull these tight through the spaces in the seat shell itself (simply move the cover to the side and you will see where the back of the seat shell has a hole on each side so you can EASILY pull the LATCH webbing tight on each side). If you try to tighten these LATCH straps outside and behind the shell of the seat- YOU WILL NEVER GET IT TIGHT AND THEREFORE IT WILL NOT BE OPTIMALLY INSTALLED.

Please contact your local hospital, poice department, fire department, or Safe Kids Coalition (www.safekidsworldwide.org) for a referral to a free child passenger seat fitting station in your community if you have concerns or questions. Even if you don't have questions, it is a good idea to take your car, seat, and kiddo to one of these fitting stations to make sure you have a good installation AND good use/fit for your kids.

Finally, this seat is remarkable becuase the 5-point harnes straps are rated to a child of 80 pounds AND it converts to a booster seat for kids heavier or who otherwise won't fit in the harness. The seat is rated for 9 years (the longest manufacturer rating I have seen). And, unlike other Britax products, it is more narrow and therefore can fit in more applications than other Britax products (known for being BIG).

My kids had their first run in the seats today (I installed them last night) and we have thumbs up from both on the comfort and the fashion while I give it a thumbs up for safety/design and installation!!

We bought this car seat two weeks ago after reading all the reviews. We did have to teether the car seat (using the long way, not short), as our daughter is over 40 pounds, and therefore LATCH is not recommended. Well, my husband didn't think it was necessary to purchase such an expensive carseat, especially when you can buy a $20 booster seat instead. I insisted that we keep our daughter in a 5 point harness until she is 80 pounds. The frontier is one of the few carseats that can do that. Well, just last weekend we were in a terrible, violent car crash. Her britex frontier car seat did not budge from its location. She was safe and secure, and no harm came to her. The necks guards were great as they kept her head from being slammed around. Since the accident, we have had to get rid of all of our car seats (due to the accident guidelines). We bought three new carseats (ALL BRITAX FRONTIER) for all our kids. This car seat is absolutely worth every penny. It saved our daughter's life!

Pleae check the height of the shoulder straps before buying this item!
it will hold your child in a 5 point harness up to 80 lbs, but your child will outgrow the short straps 18 inch max from rump to shoulder (2 inches shorter then the Regent!) way before they hit 80 lbs! my 2 40 lb kids are already at 17, and 18 inches so they would have to use is as a booster.

NEW REVISED long belt route installation method works much better
UPDATE from earlier review
Please note: I am installing the frontier with SEAT BELT installation (NOT LATCH) as my son is over 40LB.
It is stated on the chair that unless your car manual states otherwise, you should assume that the latch anchor limit is for a 40LB child.

As I reported before, I was unable to get a good secure fit using the belt method printed in the manual. After several failed attempts, (by me, a CPS certified Highway Patrol officer, and CPS certified technicians at a local store) I was mystified!

I was obviously not alone. The only good fixes reported on this site were all using the latch.

[...]

I have finally got the good fix that I have been looking for! But believe me it was hard - practically impossible if you are alone. You need one or two heavy people pushing the chair down with all their might and one person ready to latch the seat belt. In fact on my first attempt I thought my seat belt was too short. It was REALLY hard to get it to reach. But once we did, it felt very stable. And then with the additional top tether, it's fantastic!

One note, this should be considered as the chair that never moves. If you want a chair to move from car to car, this may not be the best bet. It's really awkward and hard to install as I have explained.

One thing that concerned me was that the car belt straps get quite buckled and folded when they go through the holes. I have always read that the belt should always be as flat as possible when using car seats. However. When I asked Britax about this, they just said there was nothing to be done about it. It's impossible not to have bucked belts with this routing method.

4 stars now - I have taken one star off because of the trouble I have had to go through to get a good safe installation. But other than that, I am very happy with the look, comfort and safety features. Of course the best is that the 5 point harness goes up to 80LB!!

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I had high hopes for this seat. I have done a LOT of research on chairs and this one seemed to have all the elements that I've been looking for (e.g. 5 point harness for heavier child, side impact protection, head protection etc.).
I have been trying to install it and have found it impossible to get a tight fit in either of our two cars (Outback and Prius).
I have to use the car seat belt to attach it as my child is too heavy to use the latch system. The fit is awful and the seat slides around all over the place...much more than the specified 1". By the way, I am also using the top tether. Even though my child is too heavy for us to use the latch anymore, I tried it just to see whether it would work better. But it really wasn't great either. The holes that are meant for the latch straps (and seat belt) are very awkward to access and not at a good angle for tightening.
Other than that, when my child is sat in it (not in the car) he looks very comfortable. I am quite happy with the head impact protection, although the wings could have been a bit deeper. Also, I doubt if the arm rest will provide any protection in a crash. I'd be interested to see some side impact testing results...if there are any.
Today I am plannig to go to a trained car installer to see if they can get a better fit for me. If not, I'll have to return it and probably get another Recaro Signo that I'm happy with (but the 5 point harness does not have such a high weight limit).

Lives up to the hype. This is Britax's high-end booster. Of course, the best thing about it is the 5 point harness that can be used until a much later age and weight than other car seats. If you want top-notch safety, there's probably nothing better. Padding is very comfy and the seat is very wide. Very easy to adjust the strap height with a lift of a lever in the back. Also, with the 5 point harness in place, you have to recline the whole seat, which is great for sleeping kids, unlike alot of other car boosters that can only sit up straight. Has very convenient slots for the LATCH anchors so they don't flop around when not in use. Since this is built so solid, it does weigh a ton. Reasonable sacrifice for the benefits.

Car: 1998 VW Jetta
Kid: "almost 3"year old boy

It was time to do the car seat tango and upgrade the oldest kid, and hand down to the youngest. Our son had been riding in the Britax Roundabout for the last (almost) 3 years, and we loved the seat - clearly superior to anything else we've seen out there. We decided on the Britax Frontier because it should be the last car seat he needs and can go from a 5-point harness style to a booster style when he is ready. Very cool. Little man is also into the gadgets - cup holder and arm rests, and apparently it is quite comfortable as he seems to fall asleep in it every time he rides in it. The quality of construction is obvious and it is definitely on par, if not exceeding, our faithful Roundabout.

However, I was concerned about the reviews about the difficult installation, and I was not let down. It was a pain in the...

Since we have an older car, LATCH was not an option so we were left with the shoulder belt method. I spent a couple hours trying to get that to work to no avail. Short way, long way, and other "creative" solutions. I could get it tight, but it could just wiggle loose with no effort. Until a little research unearthed the trick - pull your seatbelt all the way out. The belt should then go into a "retract only" mode so it can't wiggle loose! Exactly what this seat needs. Between that and the tether on top, the seat stays reasonably secure. I am mechanical engineer by profession, which doesn't mean I'm smart, but it does mean I am pretty up on how things fit together/work, and this was a wholly non-obvious installation.

I do feel like the Roundabout has a vastly superior installation and belt retention setup, so why they went away from that is beyond me. Assuming I never need to move the seat again, it is great. We all know you always need to move them eventually, so hopefully next time I need to install it, it will be much easier.

And finally, Britax has amazing customer service. When I called about the difficulty of my installation, the woman I was talking to, grabbed a Frontier and walked out to the parking lot to install in a co-workers car fairly similar to mine. A big thumbs up to Britax customer service!

I had been waiting for this seat to come out. My daughter was graduating up to a "big girl" seat from her Marathon (which we also loved). I really wanted to have her stay in a five point harness as long as possible. This seat has it all- five point harness, true side impact head protection, cup holders (all important for her!), ability to convert to a booster and the trusted Britax name. We are overall very happy with this seat. I did have to use the long belt path (which is not in the manual, but online). They way the belt comes out of the shell on the short path would not work in our Durango, but it is snug as can be with the long belt path. I think that for people that have used other Britax products with the built in lock offs, this is a more difficult installation, but it works fine, just a little more effort. Make sure you read all of the manual before installing as it IS different that other Britax products. I am very happy to have this seat for my precious cargo!

We were recently in a car accident and needed to replace our Evenflo Triumph. Since my son is 2 1/2 (and we don't plan to have another child) we decided to get a Forward facing/booster seat. I tried the Nautilus for several days and returned it for the following reasons:
1. Head slump - my son is an excellent car sleeper, however the Nautilus pushed his head forward and made it impossible for him to sleep.
2. The buckle was VERY difficult for me to get undone, to the point that I was worried I wouldn't be able to get him out in an emergency.

We decided to pay the extra money and get the Frontier instead and I couldn't be happier! It installed very easily with the LATCH in both our Civic and our VUE. My son sleeps well in the seat and seems very comfortable over all. I also appreciate that my son can remain harnessed up to 80lbs (provided he doesn't outgrow it by height before then).

This is the 4th Britax seat I have purchased. I bought the Frontier to replace an Advantage (glorified Roundabout) that my 3 year old daughter outgrew (95% height and weight). I also replaced a Marathon from another car even though she could still use that but I liked how the Frontier was a littler lower to the seat and thought it would be easier for her to get in herself. My 5 year old has the Britax Parkway booster which is my least favorite of the Britax seats and that is probably why they discontinued it. I was pleased when they came out with the Frontier with the 5 point harness.

I installed the Frontier in my Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan last night. Because she is just shy of the 40 lb limit for LATCH I had to use the seatbelt. The short belt path was too loose. Had to use the long belt path and it was very secure. It was a bit harder to install because the seatbelt only comes out so far and I had to bounce on the seat with my weight to get it to buckle.

The next morning when my daughter rode in it for the first time, I analyzed it and realized the van seatback was reclined too much. She needed to be more upright like her brother in the parkway.

Well, that was a lot harder to install with the seat not as reclined. It was a REAL challenge to get it buckled. I tried the short belt path again for giggles but it was just too loose. I was sweating by the time I finally got it buckled. Then, being a bit of a worrier, I wondered if it wasn't as safe with the buckle stretched to its limits. So I easily attached the LATCH anchors as a "back-up". Peace of mind is really all it was. I only gave it 4 stars because the long belt path is much harder to install than the short belt path. It seems like the long belt path was an "afterthought" after so many people were having difficulties with the original short belt path.

I still have to install my second seat into a Cadillac DTS when my husband returns from out-of-town. I am guessing because it is a car it will be much easier to install.

Overall, you can't beat Britax's quality. When we bought our first Britax (The Advantage) I had to do the sales pitch on my husband. He chose to purchase a much cheaper brand (Cosco) for his car. Needless to say he had it in our garage sale no more than 6 months later and I purchased a second seat (the Marathon) and never looked back!

The Frontier is nice and roomy and the side "wings" are not too big as in the Parkway booster. My daughter says it was more comfortable but then again she is only 3 and she thinks unicorns are real.