Average Price: $200-300
Availability: Widely available online and off.
Rating:
Product Link: Britax Marathon

Our son surprised us all by outgrowing his Graco Snugride infant car seat when he was just 3 months old, causing us to scour the internet for a convertible car seat model that he couldn’t outgrow so easily. The Britax Marathon with its 65lb weight limit and 49″ height limit was the clear winner, and we chose it for that reason alone. Once we had it home, however, we discovered that there was a lot to like.

SAFETY

Britax car seats are legendary for their safety with hundreds of tales across the internet about how a Britax seat helped save their child’s life. How real and substantiated are these claims?

• The Britax Marathon scores high on all of the government and third party tests. (Although it scores slightly lower than some seats on the rear-facing LATCH installation.)
• Britax keeps on top of recalls by marathonrecall.com
• Britax Marathon allows children to ride rear-facing up until 35lbs. And forward facing it allows up until 65lbs Most convertible seats max out with 30lbs rear-facing and 33lbs forward facing.
• The Britax uses a special configuration of straps and rubber padding in its HUGS system which distribute impact more evenly, and limits the child’s forward head movement in an accident. (Note: Some people hate the HUGS pads, some people love them. I happen to like them.)
• The foam at the top of the seat is the same foam used in bicycle helmets.

Between the first-hand stories, the high weight limits, and the high safety ratings the Britax Marathon seems like quite a safe car seat. It certainly feels safe- it is densely padded and the quality of the buckles and straps seems very high.

THE COVER – CLEANING AND CONVENIENCE

My Marathon is a dark navy blue that feels like velvet. The bad thing about dark seat colors is that they do nothing to camouflage spit up, and textured fabrics such as velvet seem to cling to spit up even after multiple washings. So I was nervous when I realized that the blue fabric I had seen online was not a more durable plasticized fabric like the Graco I had become accustomed to. My fears turned out to be unfounded, as spit up seems to wash easily off of the fabric with spot cleaning. It easily comes off for full machine wash cleaning, and holds up well to repeated washings. If your cover needs to be replaced- or even if you want to swap it out for something with a bit more personality, you can buy a range of replacement covers from the cow-patterned “CowMooFlage”, to patterns brightly adorned with butterflies or flowers.

COMFORT

The marathon is much more cushioned than the Snugride. I remember feeling the snugride in the store and being shocked at how little padding there was. Not the issue with the Marathon, it’s a very comfy seat- as evidenced by the fact that my son, upon being buckled in for the first time, just sat there with a goofy baby smile on his face. The snugride had always elicited screams of outrage. The side guards around the head are very soft and comfortable and made of a similar shock-absorbing foam to that found in bike helmets.

Newborns and smaller infants that can’t yet sit up without support may slouch down a bit much in this carseat as it doesn’t recline nearly as much as an infant seat, which definitely impacts comfort ratings for smaller babies. For older babies and toddlers it seems like the comfort is unbeatable.

THE BUCKLES & STRAPS

The straps are wide and made of a very soft nylon with no rough edges. They have a non-slip rubber segment (HUGS pads) that slide up with the chest clip to hold your baby firmly and distribute impact during an accident. The whole contraption seems quite comfy, right down to the shoulder pads that velcro onto the shoulder straps. The bottom buckle has a triangular pad that sits between your baby and the buckle, keeping any skin from being pinched, and putting something soft between the hard buckle and your baby’s belly. It all looks very comfortable, even if the bottom pad can be a bit of grief to adjust (it tends to slide down under baby’s butt each time you put your child in to the seat.)

The shoulder straps have Velcro on them that attaches to the sides of the carseat, holding the shoulder straps nicely out of the way and preventing you from having to dig for yet another set of straps. This feature is very nice except for the fact that the scratchy part of the Velcro is attached to the straps and thus held closer to your child. The scratchy Velcro would have been better off on the sides of the car seat instead. My son doesn’t seem to mind this, though, and pokes at it with his fingers exploring the different textures; from the soft velvet to the hard prickly Velcro.

The chest buckle has an oddly soft “click” that often doesn’t feel like it is fully locked, so I find myself tugging on them after they’ve clicked together just to make sure they don’t pop open. They never have. The plus side of the way the chest clip latches together is that it’s unlikely to pinch any skin while it’s clicking together.

THE FIT (CHILD)

The marathon supposedly accomodates infants as small as 5lbs to toddlers as large as 65lbs. I can’t imagine putting a small infant in it, as it dwarfed my four month old son when we first put him in it. At 28 inches tall he had outgrown his Graco Snugride, and still looked TINY in this car seat. It also seems to fit into the car in a little bit too much of an upright position which would make it difficult for newborns with poor neck control. As it was I often found myself adjusting my son’s head for the first few months that he was growing into this seat.

THE FIT (CAR)

The Marathon is one huge car seat- especially for rear-facing. You might need to go with a smaller convertible model (Roundabout) and purchase this seat for when your child outgrows the Roundabout and is already facing forward. If you still feel this seat is too big, there are plenty of other car seats out there. Although I believe that the Britax is truly worth the money and larger size.

To find out more about whether this seat will fit comfortably in your car, you can look for your model/car seat here: CarSeatData.org

THE MANUAL

The manual is excellent. One of the few manuals that actually uses photographic images so that you can see things rather than try to interpret a small, grainy, black and white illustrations. It provides clear visuals and descriptive text that ensure you understand exactly how to install the car seat. I’ll never forget the dismal Graco snugride manual and how half a dozen people at the hospital all struggled to figure it out. This seat is so straightforward that it doesn’t even need a manual, yet Britax provides one of the most excellent manuals I’ve had the pleasure of encountering.

The manual affixes to the underside of the carseat and can be tucked under the cover easily. We leave ours in place in case we have to adjust it on the fly or install it using a new method in a different vehicle.

INSTALLATION- LAP/SHOULDER BELT

The pathway for the shoulder belt makes it slightly difficult to pass some buckles through it, as it is narrow. When we first installed this carseat in a latch-less car, we had to twist and fiddle with the buckle in order to get it through. Once it was finally through, the carseat still moved around more than the 1″ that it was supposed to. This seems to be an issue with back seats that have a deep curve to them. This is common, however, I’ve never met a car seat that installs very well rear-facing with the lap belt system. The lockdown mechanism on the side doesn’t work very well and pops open far too easily (and sometimes randomly) definitely not a great thing to have happen with a lockdown mechanism. I find myself carrying an extra locking clip for the times when I may need to use this seat with the belt system.

This car seat installs very well forward-facing with the lap belt, once you’ve tightened the lap portion of the belt, the shoulder strap slides into a slot that latches down on the side of the seat. This holds everything very securely.

INSTALLATION- LATCH

The latch connectors are my favorite aspect of this carseat. After fighting with the Graco latch system which requires you to thread a hook around the latch bars blindly while trying to pry apart the cushions of the car’s back seat.. I was amazed at the ease of the Britax latch connectors. Basically they have a hook which retracts when you press down on a seatbelt-style button. You press the connector up against the latch bar, and release the button and the hook slides into place. Once you’ve done that, you simply pull on the straps to tighten them. It takes about a minute to install the Britax using the latch system. It never took me less than 10 minutes to finagle the LATCH connectors on the Graco seat into place. As a NYC cab user-I would frequently opt to use the belt installation method, despite it being less secure. With the Britax, LATCH takes less time than threading a seatbelt. That’s how it should be.

RECLINE

At its most-reclined position this car seat is so large that it will still be mostly upright in most cars. Even if allowed to fully recline, it is still far more “upright” than infant car seats. This is not an issue for an older infant with better head control but you may find your baby’s head rocking forward a bit. Unfortunately adding third party head supports is not recommended by Britax and may decrease the safety of the car seat as they can’t possibly crash-test the car seat with every offered third party support. If you plan on using the car seat from a younger age you may want to invest extra in the Decathalon car seat which is very similar to the Marathon but which comes with an infant head support.

ACCESSORIES

This car seat does not come with many accessories. There is no infant head support and no weather boot. You can purchase these as third party accessories, but keep in mind that these have not been tested with your car seat and are considered dangerous to use. The lack of an infant head support means that I’d opt to not use this car seat with a smaller infant, and would most likely choose to purchase a Graco Snugride or a Britax Companion (or another infant car seat with a head support) first, and transition to the Marathon at a later point.

The Marathon does come with a very comfy belly pad and shoulder pads. You can also buy replacement covers for the Marathon (as mentioned earlier in the review) which can be a lot of fun as well as a major convenience when your first cover becomes stained.

COST

One of the main gripes that people list about the Britax car seats is the cost. The Marathon is one of the more pricey convertible seats available, however at 3 months of usage of the Snugride at the $80 price point, I figure it cost us about $27/month for use. If my son manages to stay under 65lbs until the age of just two- the Marathon will end up costing us just about $10.95/month. So in theory the Marathon will work out to being more cost effective than his “inexpensive” infant seat ever was.

CONCLUSION

I gave the Marathon a 4-star rating primarily due to the half dozen smallish nuisances mentioned in this review, plus the slightly lower rear-LATCH safety ratings. Despite these issues the Marathon is a great car seat.

I absolutely love this seat for forward facing infants, and even for a lot of older rear-facing infants. For a younger infant I’d definitely go with an infant seat and transition to the Marathon as the child outgrows the height and weight limits of the infant seat. This car seat is very safe, very comfortable, and of very high quality with some excellent features such as the push-button LATCH connectors. Its large size may discourage some people from purchasing the seat. As city dwellers we don’t own a car but frequently rent, and we haven’t met a single rental car that didn’t accommodate the Marathon with ample room. (Note: we rent primarily budget/compact cars)