Review: Britax Marathon 70-G3

At 11 months, Baby E was getting very close to the top of his Snugride 35, so I had to find a convertible seat for him. I am now the proud owner of two Marathon 70's. The Marathon 70-G3 is very similar to the old Marathon 70, with just a few small differences.

Mathon 70-G3 in Onyx

Here are some features of the Marathon 70-G3:

• Rear facing to 40 pounds, forward facing to 70: The seat will most likely be outgrown rear facing by height before your child reaches 40 pounds, but this seat still allows most kids to rear face past age 2. 
• Safety: The Marathon 70-G3 has lots of great safety features including SafeCell technology, versa tether, side impact protection, and HUGS chest pads. You can read about all these features and more on the Britax website.
• Easy adjust harness: I love how easy it is to tighten or loosen the harness, and the seat has Velcro sewn into the sides of the seat to help keep the straps untangled. The height of the harness can also be easily adjusted as your child grows- no re-threading necessary!
• E-Z Buckle System: This is a new feature of the 70-G3 which prevents your child from sitting on the center buckle when placing them in the carseat. I love this feature, and wish I had it on my toddler's seat.
• Super comfy seat: Both my kids are very comfortable in their Marathons. Baby E was much happier as soon as we switched him to the convertible seat. The seat pad is also easily removable and washable. 
• EASY install: This is probably the most important feature to me, and why I keep coming back to Britax. It is so easy to get a good install on this seat using either latch or the seat belt. The seat has built in lock-offs for a quick and smooth seat belt install. 

The seat is pretty big, as most convertible carseats are. We have traveled by air with the Marathon 70, and while it is not pleasant, it is definitely do-able. 

In my opinion, the only major con of this carseat is the relatively short shell height of the seat. I wish it was taller! There are other carseats like the Radian that will give you a couple more inches of shell height.

Overall, I am really happy with our new seat. 

our setup

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Extended Rear Facing

Munchkin (how I will be referring to 2.5 year old A from now on) is still rear facing. I get a lot of comments that make it sound like what I am doing is weird or extreme. He is a big guy - at 2.5, he is 31 pounds and 36 inches. He still fits very well rear facing in his Britax Marathon 70. He has never complained about being uncomfortable, and he loves car rides. After watching the crash test videos that show the differences between a rear and forward facing child, I am honestly afraid to turn him around.

I just came across a blog post about the myths of rear-facing kids, and I think it reflects a lot on how I feel about this subject. I believe that every parent has the right to turn their kids around when they wish, (obviously after the minimum guidelines are passed) but I don't think I should be looked at weirdly for doing whatever I can to protect my children.

After looking at these photos, I got nervous that maybe A had reached the height limits for rear facing. But after measuring, he still has a good 2 inches between his head and the top of the shell, so we should be good for a few more months!

On a related note, we just moved Baby E into the Marathon 70-G3 and I am planning to review it soon, so stay tuned!