Britax Boulevard

We bought four of these when our twins went from infant to convertible carseats. Given that they were roughly $230 a piece, I think it's safe to say we felt strongly about them.

Pros:
-Safety safety safety. From my research (nothing is black and white), this was the safest seat on the market when we bought it. When we had to replace two 18 months ago, we bought Advocates because they were safer (didn't exist when we bought our Boulevards).
-High five point harness weight limit. Ours were 65 pounds. Now they are 70. I think that's pretty standard
-Easy to get the child in and out and to tighten/loosen straps, and has a click thing to help you figure out when tight enough
-Seems comfy for kids. Mine are five and not complaining.
-This one is odd. Britax seats don't have to be replaced after a minor accident. They are the only seat on the market that says that. I don't know if they are sturdier or what. That said, we did replace ours after a minor accident because the other guy's insurance paid and we wanted complete piece of mind.
-Relatively easy to install.
-Cute patterns
-Super easy to adjust height of straps on shoulder--just twist a knob.

Cons
-They are huge, massive, beasts. But we drive larger vehicles so not an issue
-They are a complete pain to get a toddler in and out of rear facing. You have to kind of lift them over the Latch tether. Don't know if this is a universal issue.
-Hard/impossible for my five year olds to strap/unstrap themselves (again, don't know if that's true for all seats).
-$$$$$$. These are among the most expensive seats on the market, and we had to buy two for each car (they ride in each car every day). But they've lasted almost five years now and still look and work great.

I can't say I'd buy them again because when faced with the need to replace them in my car after an accident, we bought the Advocates, which is a step up from the Boulevards that didn't exist when we bought the Boulevards (and a step up in price at $260). But I have zero regrets about our Boulevards. They have been fabulous seats.

 

We have the Advocates and we love them. We have been using them for almost 2 years and they look like new, they grow with the child, and they seem very comfortable. At the time when we bought them, they were the safest option, the only car seat that had any protection for side impacts. I agree with the pros and cons that Rachael stated above, I think the Advocate is bulkier than the Boulevard.

 

The Advocates are bulkier. Both the Advocate and the Boulevard have side impact protection. The Advocate's is just beefed up.

We should make the title of this one Britax Boulevards/Advocates. I was going to do a separate Advocate review, but it's the same pro/con list really.

 

Being that these are "huge" ... Can they fit side by side or do you have to have a seat in the middle b/t them?

 

I don't know. We always had them installed one on each side with the middle empty. Never tried them side by side.

 

The britax marathon's wouldn't have fit side by side that I had. If these are much bigger than the marathon I'm guessing they wouldn't fit side by side easily. I'm not sure you'd be able to effectively tighten them both down if they were side by side. It's just a guess, again I had marathon's and they were huge enough