mizgnomer's Full Review: Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat - Microdot Ta...
Even though we're a two car family, ever since my boy outgrew his infant-carrier seat (at 3 months) we've been restricted to using 1 car because his larger seat simply wouldn't fit in my little sports car. That all changed last month when I purchased a new car. The hunt for a 2nd car seat was underway!
Our other car seat is a Britax Roundabout, which we love dearly, but because my son was almost 18 months old we hated to get another car seat that he would outgrow soon. We figured that since we were starting later with this seat, it should last longer. We looked for car seats with higher weight limits, and were very pleased when we found the Britax Marathon.
So, how is the Marathon similar to the Roundabout (and what makes them both so darn good)?
Both the Roundabout and the Marathon are convertible carseats, which means that they can be positioned rear-facing for infants less than 12 months of age, then switched to forward facing when the child is older.
Both seats come with Britax's patented "versa-tether", which secures the top of the car seat and can be used in both the forward and rear-facing configurations. As far as I know, Britax is the only car seat that has a tether that can be used both forward and rear-facing. This top-tether really helps to keep that seat locked into place and secure.
Both seats feature a 5-point polyester harness. The 5-points (where the harness originates from the chair to cover your child) is over each shoulder, across each hip, and up between the legs. Two halves of the harness are buckled together across your child's chest (via a very convenient buckle mechanism, unlike the horrible threaded clip we had on our infant-carrier seat), then the two halves go down your child's body and buckle into the seat between your child's legs.
Both seats are very easy to get your child into and out of. To tighten the harness you simply pull on a strap at the bottom-front of the seat. Loosening the harness is different (so I'll go into that more below), but is still very easy to do in both seats. Both seats have handy velcro on the arm rests so when you want to get your child into or out of the seat you simply velcro the harness straps out of your way (I love this feature).
Both seats have recline features that allow you to easily recline the seat (before you install it, preferably). That being said, we have not used the recline on our Marathon, as our child was already forward-facing and did not need to be reclined. Rear-facing children should always be in the "full recline" position, and children over 33 pounds should be in the "full upright" position.
EPS (Expanded PolyStyrene) foam is used in both seats. This foam, used in sports equipment to reduce injuries, is all over the inside of the Britax seats (unlike most other manufacturers' seats), further protecting children during impacts. Both seats also have a nice amount of "comfort foam", to make your child's ride more snuggly and comfortable.
Both car seats come with excellent instructions for installation and safe use. Our Marathon's instructions include color photos showing the proper installation procedures, which is much easier to understand than the line-drawings you find in most instruction manuals. Both car seats also have places on the car seat itself for storing the instructions, so that you don't misplace them.
The fabric covering on both seats is removable and machine washable. To be honest, we don't really let him eat in his car seat so we have only washed our Roundabout once (and have yet to wash the Marathon). Our Roundabout still looks like new, and we expect the same from our Marathon in years to come.
Both seats include sturdy, built-in locking clips for use when using the car's seat belts to secure the seat. We are using LATCH for our Marathon, so there is more information on that below.
Both seats have been approved for aircraft use.
Okay, now how is it different?
Some differences were very obvious when we saw the seats on display in the store. The display-Marathon was right next to two Roundabouts, and the Marathon is clearly larger by a couple of inches (both taller and wider). I'm figuring this translates into a few more YEARS worth of use for my son.
The Marathon has a whopping 65-pound weight limit, as opposed to the Roundabout's 40 pounds. Specifically, the seat is designed for children who weigh between 5 and 65 pounds and who are between 18 and 49 inches tall. Rear facing children can be between 5 and 33 pounds, forward facing between 22 and 65 pounds!
Our Marathon is LATCH compatible up to 48 pounds (actually the weight is a limitation of the car, not a limitation of the seat -- you should view your car's manual to see if they list a higher weight limit). LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, and consists of metal bars just under the rear seat cushions that you can use to anchor the car seat (so you don't have to use your car's seat belts). I agree that LATCH made the car seat installation go much easier. When your child is 48 to 65 pounds you must switch to using the car's seat belts to secure the seat.
The Marathon has 4 different shoulder belt heights, as compared to the 3 available on most other car seats (including our Roundabout). This is understandable, since most other car seats do not accommodate the older, taller children that the Marathon can handle.
The Marathon comes complete with rubber pads on the straps, which they call "Floating HUGS" (Harness Ultra-Guard System). The rubber pads help keep the straps in-place against your child, more evenly distributing the harness load and helping to avoid irritation to your child's neck in the event of a crash. Our seat also came with two velcro-able "comfort pads" for use up around the child's neck (we don't use these, as our boy doesn't seem to like them, however we might have if he were younger/shorter). These extra rubber pads on the straps took a bit of getting used to, but now we like them just fine.
The restraint-loosening mechanism is different. In our Roundabout you can press a button to loosen the straps when you want to remove your child from the seat. In the Marathon the button has been replaced by a lever you must lift up while pulling on the straps. The lever is recessed underneath the seat a bit and covered with a velcro-able flap of fabric. My guess is that they changed this mechanism so the older, rapidly-learning toddlers who ride in the Marathon cannot access the button (via kicking or reaching with their hands) and loosen their own straps. It is just a tad bit more challenging to use than the Roundabout, but not horribly difficult and I understand why they did it this way (and approve wholeheartedly).
The base on the Marathon is smaller than the base on our Roundabout. My husband (who installed both seats) reports that the Marathon was easier to position for installation, even though the seat itself is bigger.
Our Observations:
Well, our toughest car seat critic (my son) loves the Marathon just as much as his Roundabout. He is very picky about his car seats (he HATED the infant-carrier one), so I was very pleased. That is another reason we wanted to stay in the Britax family -- once we find something he likes we tend to stick with it. We let him try it out in the store before we purchased it, and knew we had found a keeper.
The padding around the seat's belt buckle fell off as I was removing my son from the seat at the grocery store. I didn't notice that it had fallen out until I was putting him back in after our shopping was done, and I had to search through the parking lot for the runaway padding (I finally found it, a little grimy but no worse for wear). We haven't put it back on the seat yet, and I doubt we will (well, maybe in the summer, as the pad keeps any hot metal or sharp corners from digging into sensitive skin). We never had this problem with the crotch padding on our Roundabout.
Our (2001) Roundabout has what we call a puzzle-piece buckle. We must fit together the two halves of the buckle like puzzle pieces before it can be snapped into place between the child's legs. We noticed that the 2003 Roundabouts and Marathons no longer have this puzzle-piece section. The two metal tongues can now be put into buckle independently of each other. At first I thought that I might like this, because sometimes it is hard to get the puzzle pieces together (particularly in the dark) on our Roundabout, but since using our new Marathon I think I like the puzzle-buckle better. Now I can indeed put one metal tongue into the buckle without the other, but it won't "click" into place without the other side, meaning that it usually slides right back out again as I'm trying to get the other half into place. Now I must juggle to hold two independent pieces in one hand and get them to snap into the buckle at the same time. It is starting to become easier to do, but I really do miss the puzzle-like buckle from our older Roundabout.
UPDATE! 2/23/2003
I've definitely gotten used to the new Britax buckle system, and now I prefer it over our older Roundabout's buckle. I finally discovered that when you insert the first half of the metal piece into the buckle it doesn't "click" but if you push it in far enough it will stay put, enabling you to hunt down the other half without it falling back out again. The buckle won't make the audible clicking noise until both halves are inserted properly and pushed all the way in together.
end of update
I figured that with a bigger seat comes longer harness-straps, and with longer straps comes more frequent strap-twisting, but I have found the opposite to be true. The "HUGS" system on our Marathon helps to keep our straps from getting twisted (that being said, our Roundabout's straps almost never get twisted anyway).
We don't have this particular problem, but the rubber "HUGS" pads on the harness are long and look like they might get in the way if you are putting a very small infant into the seat. We plan on having another child in a few years, and hope to use this seat rear-facing when our next child is born, so we were on the lookout for any issues that might arise from using this seat with younger children. My current child was older and taller by the time we got this seat, but I could certainly see how the long rubber pads would keep one from being able to get the straps tight enough on a small infant.
Yes, the seat is quite large, but it isn't so wide that other passengers cannot sit in the back seat beside it. The back seats fold down individually in my car, and I was a bit worried that the Marathon would be so wide that I could no longer fold the other seats forward (because the car seat would be in the way), but this has proved to not be the case (much to my relief).
Our seat cover is "Colonial Blue", a very plush grayish blue that is extremely soft to the touch. It is fluffier/plusher than the fabric on our Roundabout. We like it a lot, which is good since that is the only color/fabric option available to us at the store we purchased it from. According to Britax's web site, other fabric options include "Fido Fabric" (blue velvety fabric with paw-prints -- I bet my "Blue's Clues" loving son would have liked that), "Maverick Fabric" (brown, looks like weathered leather), "Racer Fabric" (gray and white checkered cover with black sides), and "Stormy Fabric" (a nice fuzzy gray).
Update! 04/07/2004
I can now state unequivocally that I wish we had 2 Marathons rather than a Marathon and a Roundabout. My son, who is only 2½, has officially outgrown his beloved Roundabout, putting us in quite a dilemma. He is uncommonly tall for his age (at his 2 year checkup he was above the 95th percentile on height), and a forward-facing carseat is considered "outgrown" when the tops of the child's ears are even with the top of the carseat's back. My son actually outgrew his Roundabout a while ago, but my husband didn't notice. Now we're faced with a child who, at 33.5 pounds, doesn't weigh enough and isn't mature enough to sit in a conventional booster seat (most booster seats have a low-end weight limit of 40 pounds), so we'll have to go with an interim seat instead. He still has plenty of room to grow in his Marathon, however, so I really couldn't be more thrilled with it. Granted, my child is very tall for his age, so not everyone will be faced with this problem -- but if your child is tall, go with the Marathon!
Update 3/30/2006!
Hello again! Just thought I would mention a couple of things...
We did use our Marathon on an airplane when we took our then 3-year old to Disney World. Lugging it through the airport was no fun, but it fit nicely into the airplane's seat and my son loved being able to look out the window from his comfy chair during the plane ride. I also loved having the seat with us when we reached our destination and got our rental car.
We also had a new baby who uses the Marathon rear-facing in my car (my eldest, who is now 4, rides in his Husky in my car and in a conventional booster seat in my husband's car). My one comment would be that, when rear facing, there is no room between the back of my car's seat and the front of the Marathon. My baby just turned 13 months old and he's run out of room for his feet, but he's old enough for us to turn the seat around now so I guess it really isn't much of a complaint. My baby is following in my super-tall eldest's footsteps, so I know I'll be counting my blessings that we own this larger-than-average seat.
Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) 65 pound weight limit!!
+) Rear facing for children 5 - 33 pounds
+) Versa-tether secures top of seat both forward & rear facing
+) 5-point polyester harness
+) Buckles and latches are all easy to use
+) Harness straps do not twist/tangle
+) HUGS system further protects child in a crash
+) EPS foam
+) Conveniences make getting your child in & out of the seat a breeze
+) 4 shoulder belt heights
+) LATCH compatable (to 48 pounds)
+) Machine washable cover
+) Excellent instructions
Cons:
-) It's quite large
-) Crotch pad comes off easily
-) May be difficult to get straps tight enough on smaller infants
-) Expensive
Final Thoughts:
Although there are some minor differences between the Marathon and the Roundabout, the only major difference appears to be the Marathon's higher weight limit. As much as I love our Roundabout and some of its easier-to-use features, if I could only purchase one carseat I would have to choose the Marathon, because 30 or 40 dollars more will buy you a few years of extended use with this seat.
Seat dimensions:
Marathon: 28"H x 19.5"W x 25"D
Roundabout: 26"H x 18"W x 21.5"D
We are unfortunately out of stock in this fabric.Product Features: • Britax - 2005 Marathon Convertible Car Seat Tan Microdot • Converts from rear-f...More at Albee Baby
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