Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We bought this convertible car seat for my 8 month old daughter. One of the selling points is that it is convertible, or reversible from rear-facing to forward-facing as the child grows. We bought the first generation of the same model, the Britax Boulevard 70, for my son in 2010 and we've been so happy with the first one that when my second child came along, we decided to get the G3 for her in the "Caitlin" style. THE CAITLIN From the manufacturer's pictures posted above, it appears that the "Caitlin" model is mostly blue. The seat is actually a mixture of lavender and blue-gray leaves, light silver, and dark background with purple bead trim. I posted a few pictures to give better detail. Even though the colors don't match Amazon's picture, they're still very nice, subdued colors for a girl's seat. THE SEAT ITSELF - Newborn (5 lbs) to 70 lbs: I love the versatility the seat offers. It works for children from newborn all the way up to 70 lbs! In my naivety as a new mom, if I would have known that you didn't have to buy a portable infant car seat and upgrade at 1 year to a "toddler" seat, I would have saved my money on the first (Graco) seat and just bought this one. They provide extra padding that can be removed as the child grows to allow a newborn to ride supported in the seat. - Padding: Lots of padding adds to the comfort of the seat. In shopping around, I saw seats that have very little padding and fabric over hard foam. This padding in this seat is much more comfortable for my daughter. The side impact bumpers are even nice as they provide head support for when she sleeps. - Headrest and Straps Adjustment: In other seats I've had, I've had to take the seat apart to adjust the straps, but this seat doesn't require the extra effort. The headrest and straps can be adjusted from a squeeze and pull lever on the top of the seat. As the child grows, it's an easy fix to move the straps and headrest up. The two are one unit as well, so if you move the headrest, the straps are going to move with it. - Recline: The seat is adjustable to 3 recline positions. The recline lever is located on the front of the seat, just behind where the child's feet would hang. I'd suggest reclining the seat to the position you want before you install it, if you are installing it rear-facing. The lever is harder to get to when the seat is backwards. Otherwise, it's fairly simple to adjust. - Rear-facing and forward-facing: Rear-facing is required until the child is 1-year-old and suggested until at least 2-years-old. This seat was designed to work rear-facing until the child is 40 lbs, that's normally about 3-years-old. - Material: The material is polyester and well padded. To give you an idea, it feels soft like a new bed sheet, not crinkly as another reviewer suggested. - Washing: It says it can be hand washed with mild soap, then line dried. I would suggest not machine washing it as the material would probably lose its original shape and shrink. UPGRADES TO THIS MODEL There are a couple upgrades that have been made to the seat since the original Britax Boulevard 70: - The chest pads now have something called SafeCell Technology which is designed to compress and dissipate the energy from a crash. The top of the pad look the same as the previous model, but are noticeably thicker on the underside, about 1/4" thick. - The EZ-Buckle system is supposed to keep the bottom buckle forward so they don't sit on it. However, when putting my daughter in the seat, that was the first thing I had to pull out from under her. SAFETY One of many things I like about Britax are the safety features it incorporates into its car seats. This seat was designed to not only handle the crashes from front and back well, but also from side-to-side. Something often not addressed by some other car seat manufacturers. RECALL There was a recall issued for the plastic HUGS chest pads that affected a few lots of the 2012 model, due to some kids biting off the plastic. I have not had a problem with this happening, but Britax sent out replacements for the chest pads on all affected seats and fixed it in the later models. It should no longer be an issue. You can check the Britax website for the serial numbers of the recalled chest pads. OVERALL I'm very pleased with the purchase of this car seat. It's well designed, versatile, and above all a safe seat that I feel comfortable to trust my child in.