Boulevard Onyx Convertible Car Seat

Protecting your child from a car crash is something you think about even before you give birth because it’s often one of the most expensive items on your “To Buy” list of baby gear. In reviewing various websites and guides, one name repeatedly comes up: Britax.

Britax has a reputation for being one of the best car seat manufacturers, according to many certified car seat safety technicians, baby guides (like Denise and Alan Fields’ Baby Bargains book), and other parents I’ve met both in person and on-line.  You should know that every car seat meets minimum safety standards.  Yet the best seats are the ones that are easy to correct install each and every time you use it.  The safest seat is useless if you incorrectly install it or don't properly buckle your child in.

Before I go further, you should know that the primary drawback to this brand is the expense. At well over $200 for most of their convertible seats, these are among the most expensive car seats on the market. Many parents will tell you that it’s worth every penny. Let me add my voice to theirs and summarize why I’m so happy with spending over $500 on 2 Britax Boulevards (the top of the line that Britax advertises as its Crown Jewel!) for my daughter.

BASIC FEATURES AND MORE
The purpose of a basic carseat is to protect infants and toddlers who are too small to be restrained by the built-in seatbelts adults can use. More advanced seats like the Britax Boulevard offer:

• 5 point harness - Not all seats have this, though more and more do because a 5 point harness prevents your child from slipping underneath the straps, as might happen with a 3 point harness. Imagine a Y, with a strap over each shoulder and one between the legs. A 5 point harness has two additional straps coming across each hip to connect with the other 3 straps.

• Built in lock offs – This is an installation feature, which means you can lock the seatbelt in place so it doesn’t retract or let loose additional strap in an accident.

• Push-button LATCH system – This is another installation feature, where you just push the LATCH tether's "buckle" into the lower anchor to click in.

• Deep side wings for impact protection – These are large shields on either side of your child’s head to help protect from excessive head movement/whiplash if you’re hit on the side. My car has side and curtain airbags, but I still wanted these as I can’t imagine how painful an airbag exploding would be on a baby’s tender skin.

• Comfort foam and HUGS system to secure baby – The HUGS system is on the shoulder part of the straps, which makes sure your child is securely strapped in and limits head movement/whiplash.  The comfort foam is underneath the fabric cover and adds further cushioning so it’s a comfortable chair. Children who are uncomfortable and scream the entire drive make your life miserable. Fortunately, my daughter loves her carseat and has never cried for more than a minute or two while sitting in her carseat and those times were due to hunger.

• Easily adjustable to grow with your child – My daughter has been in her Britax Boulevard for about 11 months now, since she was 8 months old. The headrest/harness system has a very convenient knob to adjust the harness height as she grows. I also found it easy to switch from rear-facing to forward-facing and did it myself.

• Patented VersaTether – This is a tether strap to further secure the carseat to your car. It attaches from the top rear of the carseat to special anchors in cars equipped with them. My 2002 Passat has them on the rear deck behind the seat and when the seat was rearfacing, I secured the tether to a stationery metal part of the front passenger seat.

• For children weighing 5-65 pounds – I would hesitate to use this with a newborn just because I prefer the infant carrier and its convenience. I don’t doubt that this would still be very safe but one sacrifices some convenience when it comes to sleeping infants as opposed to toddlers who don’t sleep as much.

• Children weighing up to 33 pounds should ride rear-facing

• Belly pad for added comfort and protection – This helps prevent the bottom 3 straps from pinching/chafing your child’s thighs/crotch.

• Removable infant body pillow - I never used this as my daughter was too large at 8 months to need it.

• Knobs on either side raise and lower the adjustable side impact protection and the shoulder harness height.

• Sculpted base for a perfect fit – I was surprised that the small base actually means this large carseat has a small footprint. It easily fits in the center position of my VW Passat and my husband’s Honda Pilot. With the bar underneath the front but above the base, you can also adjust the angle of the seat for when you’re rear-facing or forward-facing.

• Aircraft approved – This is a HUGE seat so I imagine it would be awkward to carry it through the airport unless you bought one of those special airport carseat wheeled things.

• Plush, hand-washable seat cover – After my daughter had a messy accident, I took apart the cover and the Styrofoam insert to clean it. I handwashed the cover and it was good as new. I don’t think it’s worth washing it every month as it’s still a hassle to take apart, but at least the option is there for messy accidents.

• Seat width is 14 inches and seat height is 28 inches

• Seat bottom to lowest harness slot: 10.5 inches, Seat bottom to highest slot is 17 inches

• Seat dimensions: 19.5" W x 27" H x 25.5" D

• Car seat weight: 19 pounds

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS
The plush seat cover is black and gray, which hides stains well.  It likely absorbs more heat than the lighter patterns, but since the fabric is plush, not metallic/shiny/vinyl, it doesn’t feel any hotter to me. But please note I had my car professionally tinted to 15% so it’s quite dark already in the back seat.

One of my favorites features is that the two straps that go across your child’s thighs actually have a Velcro strip so you can “connect” them to the side of the seat before you slip your child in. On my Graco SafeSeat, I was constantly pulling the side straps away but as soon as I slipped my daughter in, she would end up sitting on them.

When I had my seat inspected at my local highway patrol office, the officer was actually impressed by all the features and told me I did an excellent job with a rock solid installation. I was pleased as punch, but still grateful I had the inspection because he pointed out that I had tethered the Versatether (while the seat was rear-facing) to a part of the front passenger seat that moves if that seat is adjusted. So he showed me a better place to tether it. I don’t recall the Britax manual providing enough guidance on this, so that sort of tip would have been nice.

FINAL RATING
I continue to be extremely satisfied with my purchase. I know there are now other Britax models and even a much cheaper version made by Britax but sold by Fisher Price that has a less plush cover—the Fisher Price Safe Voyage. At only $150, that sounds like an excellent deal but since it wasn’t available when I needed to move my very large, 90% percentile 8 month old baby into a convertible seat, I don’t regret my purchase.


You might also want to see my reviews of the Britax Regent, the Britax Frontier, and the Britax Frontier 85, which are forward-facing seats for larger children when your child outgrows the Boulevard.