Reviews for Britax Frontier toddler car seat

The Frontier is an incredible seat. We are basically a Britax family (other than owning the Graco Snugride), and have the Roundabout and Marathon. When my 2 year old daughter (who is very tall) needed a bigger carseat, we considered buying outside the Britax family for the first time to save a few pennies. We actually bought (on the recommendation of a big, popular store) the Graco Nautilus. However, my daugher didn't really look comfortable in it because the back of the seat is narrow. Even though she is tall, she has a medium-small frame, and her shoulders were pushed slightly forward by the back & sides of the Graco seat. So, I decided to take it back and purchase the Froniter which seemed to have a wider back and be more comfortable in general. The end result? My daughter LOVES this seat. She really likes being able to climb up into it herself (she's almost 3 now), which she can easily do by pushing the folding arm rests out of the way. She also loves the double cup holders and uses them for toys and snacks. We take two hour and six hours trips all the time, and she very comfortably falls asleep quickly. The installation was different from the other two Britax seats we own, but once we figured out how to do it, the seat was very worth the money. When our son needs a booster seat, this will be the only one we buy.

Bought this on line. Never would have gotten it had I seen the seat prior to purchase. The nylon seat cover looks like a cheap running shoe mesh & my son sweats in it. (Never has that problem before with the Britax Boulevard,) Also the velcro on the sides of his sandals rubs against the lower part of of seat. Thus nylon cover is all damaged. I will now invest another $80 into a dececent cover to protect this piece of crap. Britax, your staff really cheaped out on the material of this one. The only reason I'm keeping it is becasue of your high saftey rating.

I hesitantly bought this booster for my 3 yo son because of the previous reviews about how hard they are to install. I previously had the Marathon and had no trouble with it, so I took the leap with the booster. Contrary to other opinions on this site, I found it very easy to install into my Honda Pilot with the latch system. It took me about 10 minutes and most of the time was in taking it out of the package. It is large, but my son finds it very comfortable. I do find that this would be too large to fit in an ordinary sedan, but my car is quite spacious, so it works well. I highly recommend it. I would've given it 5 stars, but I feel that Britax should attempt to streamline the design in order to make it fit readily into all cars.

Was Looking for a replacement for my Safeguard Go booster that my almost 60lb daughter was outgrowing -I wanted to keep her in a 5 point as long as possible - even though she is 6 1/2. I love that this seat will convert to a comfy latch/tethered booster seat when she outgrows the harness mode. While my daughter may only be in 5 pt mode for another year as she is at the top harness slot, it is worth it to me to be able to keep her in the 5 point for as long as possible. Installed in Honda Pilot passenger row middle seat no problem - long route method - took me under 20 mins from box to car. (I did read all the suggestions here before I installed) My installation trick was having daughter hold on to extended seatbelt until it was installed. Still have room for my "guest" compass booster on either side. Daughter loves the comfy seat, cup holders and "big" kid look to the seat, and its easy for her to buckle the harness. The Frontier was not available several years ago when I bought the Safeguard Go - (which I am fond of for traveling with - its a lightweight 5 pt that can be used up to 60lbs in any car with tether). At that time it was Britax Parkway booster w/ side impact which seamed claustrophobic or the Regent which didn't have much side protection. This is thoughtful combination of the two seats which truly will grow with your child.

I have always put my 4 year old son in Britax because I will not compromise his safety with any other brand. The Frontier is big and bulky, and like others have mentioned, difficult to put in. I have the latch system in my car, and it's easiest to hook the latch, and then pull the straps through the opening on the sides of the seats to tighten. My mother has the same seat for her car and she uses the lap/shoulder belt. (She doesn't have the latch system.) It seems that regardless of how tight I pull the shoulder belt, I can not get it tight enough. I think it has to do with the angle of the buckle in the car. I brought it on an airplane for a flight to Florida and it barely fit in the seat. I had to keep the arm rest up between my seat and my sons. My son loves the cup holder, and I love the fact that it turns into a booster seat once he outgrows the 5 point restraint. Kudos to Britax for another quality product.

This is a great and solid seat. This is our 4th Britax and we've always been pleased with them. However to install this seat (as compared to the Roundabout & Marathon) is very difficult. I consider myself a very good installer, if you will, but this one I could not get tight to save my life. Like previous reviewers recommended, I was able to pull the LATCH straps through the carseat to tighten, but because of the seat angle in my car, the seat was still not able to tighten enough. If you read the directions too, it does tell you to pull the straps through the seat. I finally ended up taking it to our county police who do installs and when they saw it, they said they always cringe when people bring the Frontier or the Regent b/c of the difficulties installing it. The guy there (who is really good) finally got it tight, but honestly it took him a while of him wrestling it in the seat. We have a Saab 9-5 so maybe the angle our seats made it harder. We also used the LATCH attachment...perhaps with the belt attachment it is easier to install. Another thing too....I guess b/c the seat is wide, we cannot use the cupholders b/c they won't open due the to the seat width. Not a big deal for us, but worth mentioning. One thing too that I wish it had was the velcro on the straps that hold the buckles up to the sides of the seat (the marathon and roundabout both have this). This may sound silly but digging for the buckles with a tanrum throwing toddler is getting a bit old. Still I do like this seat a lot. My daughter is very comfortable. I just am not looking forward to when I have to reinstall it when I have to raise the straps up....

My wife and I are car seat fanatics - that is to say we are fanatical about safe car seats and a secure install. We love our convertible Roundabout, and so were similarly attracted to the Frontier for its features. We were concerned about the install after reading some of the other reviews, but were convinced to learn from the wisdom of others. Installation went very smooth using the shoulder belt in our 2000 4Runner. I pulled the belt all the way out, and placed a spring clamp (metal spring-loaded clamp with rubber tips, like a really big clothes pin) on the belt so it could not retract, leaving me all the slack to work with, which I needed for the long-belt method. The other secret to my success, was rather than trying to cinch the entire car seat tight with one pull, I buckled the seat in (loosely), got the side where the belt first crosses the car seat to be tight, and held pressure against the seat and lap belt there, then pulled the slack through and got the lap belt tight where it hooks into the buckler to get the other side cinched down, and then pulled the slack out with the shoulder strap. I'll admit it took 2 tries, but 1st time install from start to finish in about 15 minutes, including the rear tether (my skeptical wife timed me, and verified the installation). Because installing the Frontier really took both hands, while other car seats I could use one hand to keep the belt from retracting, I feel the clamp really made the Frontier install a relative breeze (my wife is so convinced in its merit, that we are now keeping the clamp in the car). Also, because of the serpentine path of the belt, focusing on getting just one side tight at a time also helped. Only 4 stars because though it's a great seat and I can install it confidently, others in the family who may take my daughter in their vehicle may have a heck-of-a time.

After extensive research I bought this seat because I love Britax products and consider myself a car seat installation expert. I figured if I carefully read the manual and with my extensive experience installing many car seats over the years as well as teaching others how to properly do so that I could easily handle this one. I was wrong. My car's latch weight limit is to low for my 45 lb. son, so I have to use the belts and would like to use the harness, since this is why I bought this seat. My car, a Toyotal Highlander, has seat belts that are too short to use the long path method with. I cannot get a tight enough fit with the short belt path method (which is quite straightforward). I insist on a tight fit for car seats with little or no movement -- I can't get this anywhere near to what I consider tight enough without using a 'mighty tight' which I don't want to use with this seat due to where it would end up being (too close to my son's head). The missing link is that all other Britax products I have bought (4 different models total) have a seat belt lock-off feature which allows a perfectly tight fit. This model does not have that. If it works in your car, go for it -- I think it is a great seat and my son turned down all others in comparison to it due to its Britax level of comfort, to which he has become accustomed. But it doesn't work in my car, so back it goes and we'll settle for something else. I hope Britax improves the seatbelt installation issue. When they do, I will be first in line.