Britax Marathon 70 Convertible Car Seat (Previous Version)
Product Details
- Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 18.5 x 26 inches ; 18 pounds
- Shipping Weight: 22.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
- Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
- ASIN: B003OUWIJY
- UPC: 652182063917
- Item model number: E9LB11A
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: 8,815 in Baby (See Top 100 in Baby)
- 86 inBaby Car Seats Car Seats Convertible
By : Britax USA
Price : $289.99
You Save : $52.51 (18%)
Product Description
Color: - Onyx
Amazon.com Product Description
The BRITAX MARATHON 70 Convertible Car Seat achieves optimum head safety through the combination of BRITAX SafeCell Technology, integrated steel bars, and a Versa-Tether, which work together to minimize head excursion and reduce the risk of head injury during a frontal impact. It also features easy installation, Side Impact Protection, and innovative details for your child's comfort and safety. The seat fits children in the rear-facing position weighing from 5 to 40 pounds, and children in the forward-facing position starting at one year old and 20 pounds, up to 70 pounds.
MARATHON 70 (Onyx)Convertible Car SeatAt a Glance:
- Age/Weight Requirements: In rear-facing position, fits children weighing 5 - 40 pounds; in forward-facing position, fits children 1+ years old weighing 20 - 70 pounds
- Warranty: 1-yearlimited warranty
Available in (from left to right):Onyx, Crimson, Waverly,Cowmooflage, Blueprint, and Allison.
Safety features include SafeCell Technology and True Side Impact Protection..
Comfort features include dual recline positions and high-density comfort foam.(Shown here in Allison.) .BRITAX 360 Degree ProtectionThe BRITAX MARATHON 70 features technologies that work to minimize injury to your child during a crash from any direction, including both frontal and side impact crashes - the most frequent types of crashes. These technologies work together with other features on the car seat to minimize injury to your child during a crash by:
- keeping your child in the vehicle,
- diverting crash forces away from your child,
- helping to slow down your child's body,
- minimizing movement of your child, and
- protecting your child's brain and spinal cord.
The MARATHON 70 also features integrated steel bars, which strengthen the connection to the vehicle seat and reduce the forward flexing of the car seat. In addition, the energy-absorbing Versa-Tether anchors the top of the car seat and minimizes forward rotation of the car seat to reduce the crash forces that can reach your child if an accident occurs. These three features work together as a system to provide revolutionary head safety protection for your child.
Side Impact Protection for Added SecurityTo keep your child safe in the event of a side-impact collision, the MARATHON 70 includes Side Impact Protection. Side Impact Protection is a system composed of a rigid seat shell with deep side walls and energy-absorbing EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) foam lining the seat shell. These combined features work together to protect your child's head and chest from incoming crash forces by distributing the forces over a larger surface area, helping shield your child from vehicle intrusion and contain your child's head and body in the seat.
Premium Fit and Comfort FeaturesWhether children are watching the world go by or snuggling in for a nap, they'll enjoy that the MARATHON 70 reclines in both the forward and rear positions. And thanks to additional features, which include high-density comfort foam and a plush cover set with a matching belly pad, they'll always ride in style and comfort. A 70-pound weight capacity, two buckle positions, and a tangle-free five-point harness with ten harness-height settings provide a snug, custom fit for your growing child. Plus, an optional Infant Positioning Insert (sold separately) allows you to properly and snugly fit smaller infants into the car seat.
Ease-of-Use for Safety and Convenience Packed with perks for parents, the MARATHON 70 makes it easy to secure your child in the proper position without guesswork. Premium lower LATCH connectors make for a quick, simple, and tight installation, while the push-button allows you to easily uninstall the connectors. Easy-to-access built-in lock-offs allow you to install the car seat with ease using your vehicle's lap and shoulder belt. The quick-adjust harness system and buckle allow you to reposition the harness height without disassembling the harness straps.
Additionally, an anti-slip contoured base grips and protects the vehicle seat, ensuring a tight installation in all types of vehicles. Convenient holders keep harness straps out of the way when you're placing your child in the seat, and the plush cover set with matching pads removes easily for cleaning without requiring you to disassemble or uninstall the car seat.
The BRITAX MARATHON 70 Convertible Car Seat is backed by a one-year limited warranty.
What's in the BoxOne BRITAX MARATHON 70 Convertible Car Seat and manual.
From the Manufacturer
The Britax Marathon 70 convertible car seat is designed for children rear facing from 5 to 40 pounds and forward facing up to 70 pounds. The Marathon 70 achieves revolutionary head safety through the use of patent-pending Britax SafeCell Technology, integrated steel bars, and versa-tether that work together to minimize head excursion and reduce the risk of head injury during a frontal impact. The Marathon 70 also incorporates Britax Side Impact Protection, offers a no-rethread, five-point harness, a quick-adjust head restraint, multiple buckle and recline adjustments, and an easy access cover and access to belt paths from the front of the seat. A head and body pillow is provided for comfort and infant positioning.
Product Features
- The Britax Marathon 70 convertible car seat is designed for children rear facing from 5 to 40 pounds and forward facing up to 70 pounds
- Safecell technology features safecells designed to compress in a crash, significantly lowering the center of gravity and counteracting the forward rotation of the child seat which normally propels child toward the front seat
- Integrated Steel Bars strengthen the connection to the vehicle and reduce forward flexing of the child seat during a crash
- Side Impact Protection comprised of deep side walls lined with energy-absorbing EPP foam distributes crash forces, shields from vehicle intrusion and contains the head, neck and body
- Quick-adjust harness repositions the harness shoulder height without disassembling the harness straps
Customer Reviews
We've been using Britax's older style Marathons for five years so I was anxious to try this latest manifestation to see how it stacked up. It is larger, but it now fits children up to 70 lbs forward facing (and 5-40 rear facing) and still fits easily in our Honda Odyssey and forward facing in our small VW Golf. Like the older Britax models, the new Marathon is often outgrown by height, rather than weight. I sat both of our children in it and found the difference to be slight, if any, over the old model, so if you are in the market for a new seat for child outgrowing the shell, this is probably not the best choice.
The legendary Britax quality continues with a solid, intuitive build. Some of the newer head protecting technology from other, more expensive Britax seats has been integrated. The new harness adjuster is amazing, making it so simple and easy to change the height of the straps. We often carpool and I'm glad I can quickly and easily customize the seat to every child.
Britax seats are always soft and comfortable for riders, so much so that my children notice the difference when they ride in other seats! My four year old gave this her seal of approval comfort-wise, declaring the new design even better than her old one.
There are new spots to store latch clips when they are not in use that I love, most every change is a great improvement with the exception of the locking mechanisms for using a seat belt. They are MUCH harder to use than they were on the older model Marathons. I assume that they are also safer, but I had such a hard time with it, I could imagine parents using it incorrectly (and unsafely.)
The instructions are clear and easy to follow, but take advantage of seat checks in your area to make sure you install it correctly and as secure as it can be. Britax is an industry leader in safety and innovation, and I am glad my girls (at 4.5 and 6) are still riding safely in 5 point harnesses and protected by their Britax seats in the event of a crash.
Britax is one of the most trusted car seat manufacturer's around. They have been making convertible car seats for the US market since 1997. Never satisfied, Britax continuously improves their products to make them safer, easier to use, and more comfortable. In August of 2010, they released their new line of convertible car seats with many improvements. Having been a Britax customer since 2007, I was excited to see the improvements they made.
My Configuration:
2000 Jetta 4DR
Forward Facing
LATCH Install
PROS:
- Supports up to 70lbs forward-facing, and 5-40lbs rear-facing
- Supports infants with an infant positioning insert (sold separately)
- MUCH improved/easier harness height adjustment
- New integrated steel bars
- Serial number located in easy to find location
- Harness buckle can now be in two positions
- Comfort pads now removable
- Super easy LATCH installation
- Certified for air travel
- Consistently rated Very Good by Consumer Reports (though this model has not yet been tested by CR)
CONS:
- Expensive
On March 21, 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated their recommendations for car seats. They now recommend that children stay in the rear-facing position until the age of 2, rather than their previous recommendation of 20lbs and 1 year of age. You can read the full press release and recommendations HERE. With these new recommendations, getting a car seat with better height and weight ratings become more important. Obviously the AAP recommendations are only recommendations and if your child exceeds the limits of the car seat, it's better to switch them to forward-facing even if not yet 2 years old. Put plainly, keep your child in the rear-facing position for as long as possible and resist the temptation to switch them too soon.
SAFETY
Safety is the most important feature of a car seat that I can think of. Year in and year out, Britax seems to garner very good ratings from professional publications and consumers alike. The Marathon 70 has many safety features that have given previous Marathon's a "Very Good" rating by Consumer Reports. As of this writing, Consumer Reports has not published any crash test results of the current Marathon 70.
The Marathon 70 has good side impact protection, though not the better "True Impact" protection that Britax's higher end convertible car seats have. The only difference between them is described as:
Minimize side to side head movement and literally "trues" the head:
Minimizing movement and keeping the neck and spine aligned limits potential injury. A abrupt, violent change in speed may cause injury to the body. By limiting the movement of your child during a crash, you are limiting potential injury.
The Marathon 70 however, does share the new integrated steel bars with their more expensive seats that "can minimize the risk of your child being violently propelled forward and hitting the back of the vehicle seat in front of the child restraint."
One thing that always stuck with me from the very first Britax we purchased was being told by the car seat techs at the police station and at AAA that they used Britax car seats for their own children. I'm not sure what better endorsement a car seat could get than that!
COMFORT
My children have always been pretty comfortable in Britax car seats. The seat cover material in the older Britax car seats were soft and plush but they changed the material to a more nylon like material on the Marathon 70. It looks much easier to clean but it doesn't have the nice soft feel as the older covers. The design of Britax seats tend to cradle your child and some larger children who prefer to place their arms out of the car seat or on the sides like an arm rest may find it somewhat uncomfortable. One complaint I'd read from a lot of users in the older Britax car seats was the placement of the harness buckle (crotch area). Britax must have been listening because they now provide two different positions to help find the best location for your child. Also, the harness straps have comfort pads for the shoulder area that are now removable. Some older Britax car seats had permanently attached comfort pads, which car seat techs I spoke with, recommended be removed. The pads, while providing additional comfort, can make it harder to determine the correct tightness of the harness, so unless your child is screaming bloody murder, I would probably remove them.
FIT
The Britax Marathon is smaller than the Boulevard and Advocate. We have the Boulevard and Advocate in our SUV but we elected to use the Marathon for our Volkswagen Jetta sedan. We had to remove the head rest but it fit well otherwise. It could be an optical illusion, but the new Marathon 70 seems smaller than the older Marathon. Still, if you own a small car and are considered tall or you like to recline your seat far back, you might want to buy the car seat from a retailer that has a good return/exchange policy, to make sure it will work for you. We now have a Marathon 65 CS and a Marathon 70 in our Jetta and we find the fit works well for us.
EASE OF USE
Though I haven't installed either Marathon with a seat belt, I have with our Advocate and Boulevard; they are a pain in the butt to install. Thankfully, our Jetta has LATCH connectors which made installing the Marathon 70 amazingly simple. Just clip the two LATCH connectors into the anchors in your car until you hear them click, then put all your body weight on the car seat (using your knees) and yank the straps as tight as you can. You can also use the Versa-Tether (the strap in the top rear of the car seat) and hook it to the anchor located in your car (see your automobile's manual). Installation took me no more than 10 minutes and adjusting the buckles and straps took another few minutes. I recommend you read through the entire manual AND watch the installation video. The video for the Marathon 70 can be viewed HERE.
The one major problem I had with the old Marathon was that adjusting the harness height required me to remove the car seat then rethread the straps. I feel like Britax read my review and custom-made the new Marathon just for us! They implemented a new system that allows you to just squeeze the handle located at the top of the car seat and glide it up or down to adjust it; no rethreading required! There is one drawback to this system though. At the highest harness height, the mechanism rises with it so it can potentially obstruct viewing out of the rear window. The best harness height system I've ever seen was from a competitor's car seat that used a rotating knob located on the sides of the seat. Keep in mind that in the forward-facing position, you want the harness to be at or above your child's shoulders. In the rear-facing position, you want the harness to be below your child's shoulders.
MISC
The serial number sticker is easily located on the right side (facing the seat), towards the top. The serial number stickers on some of their older car seats were rather difficult to find so I'm glad Britax addressed this.
I always found washing the cover to be a hassle on our Boulevard seat and I admit that I haven't washed the cover on our Advocate or our first Marathon. The cover on the Marathon 70 is easier to remove than my older Boulevard but it's still recommended that you hand wash the cover with cold water and mild soap, then line dry it. Unfortunately, this means that you have to wash the cover when you know you won't need the car seat for at least a few hours as the cover can take a while to dry. With the new material though, daily or weekly cleanups should be easier with only the biggest messes requiring the removal of the cover. The cover comes in several different colors and designs to match your style preference.
CONCLUSION
Britax convertible car seats have advanced safety features and are consistently rated among the best. The Marathon 70 is a good choice for smaller vehicles. Britax has also made the Marathon 70 easier to use than ever before and increased the forward-facing weight rating to 70lbs. The latest Marathon is a definite improvement over previous generations and I recommend it if you can justify the cost premium.
Review sample courtesy of Britax USA
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