The best my money could buy!

In 2007, I went into labor at 25wks. After 4 previous full term deliveries, this was a shock. Thankfully, good doctors and medical advancements helped me carry our dear daughter to 37wks. When she was born in April '07, she was much smaller than we expected; even preemie clothes were too big for her. However, despite some minor complications, she was healthy. She got plenty of use from her infant carseat, but when the time came to buy her a convertible seat, I researched relentlessly. There are SO many seats out there and I'm a fanatic when it comes to reading and researching consumer reviews for products that really need to matter. Needless to say, my search for the perfect car seat for our precious cargo was a long one. After such concern over the potential of losing our little girl, I wasn't about to let anything compromise her safety.
Finally, after about a month of research, my husband and I brought our daughter (then about 10mos old) to our local BRU to check out seats. Mind you, we have a small budget to work with, but as fortune would have it we received a sizeable tax refund just a couple of days earlier. Armed with knowledge about seats and a loaded for bear debit card, hubby and I checked out car seats. I'd narrowed our choices to three and tried them out with our little girl. Since BRU has a full size minivan seat on display to allow folks to test out the seats, this made it much easier for us to choose wisely the seat that our daughter would ride in for the next few years.
We put her into an Evenflo that a friend has and swears by; a Graco that is very similar to what our last child had and the Britax Boulevard which I could find nothing, but glowing reviews of. In terms of price, Britax was by far the most expensive. In terms of comfort, our little girl was smiling and kicking her feet while sitting in the Britax where as she fussed in the others. And as for safety, we felt that Britax had the most to offer in terms of security both for our daughter and keeping the seat stable and secure in our vehicle. My husband who is very price concious agreed that Britax was a very smart choice, but was still concerned about the cost. However, after checking out the three seats again, I couldn't help but cry (hormones perhaps?) about thinking of anything bad ever happening to our little girl. And if this car seat could help prevent any injury to her in an accident and we had the ability to "splurge" on it now, how could we not? That's all the justification he needed. Or maybe he just wanted me to stop sobbing LOL Either way, we left that day with the "Cadillac of Car Seats" as my husband calls it.
Our little girl is now 18mos old and has ridden comfortably, but most of all SAFELY in her Britax Boulevard car seat for the last 8mos. She is still quite petite at only 20lbs, but the straps adjust without any problems which keeps her safe and secure. She has ridden in it both in the middle of winter bundled in clothes and coats and in the hottest days of summer wearing a onesie and we've had no issues with her fitting properly into her seat or being comfortable. When she falls asleep in it which is nearly every time we go out, her head stays upright because of the head supports which we think is a great idea. We have had a couple of near misses where we've had to stop short on the highway and she never budges.
This seat has proven itself so far to be an excellent choice for us. We still have two other children in booster seats and if it was in our budget to do so, I would go out tomorrow and replace their current seats with Britax as well. However, I will continue using their current seats at least until winter when we can hopefully let "Uncle Sam" treat them to new seats as well.
As for comfort and style, we purchased the Megan design which is bright pink with daisies. My husband and sons agreed that after three sons in a row, it was time for something "girly."
All in all, if you believe that "you get what you pay for" then you can't go wrong with the Britax Boulevard Convertible Car Seat.