Buy Britax Advocate 70-G3 Convertible Car Seat

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List Price: $379.99
Sale Price: $264.69
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I was recently in a serious collision where my son and I were tboned by a semi truck that ran a red light going about 45mph. After being cut out of our SUV, the firefighters and medics were amazed that my son was not more seriously injured and attributed it to this excellent car seat from what I hear they highly praised it (I was being airlifted to the hospital so didn't actually hear their comments myself) and they felt that it saved his life. It is extremely well built, large, solid and worth every penny. Yes, these are expensive car seats but isn't your child's life worth it? It fit well in my mid sized SUV and my son never complained about getting into it. Nice, plush fabric. A bit of a pain to clean, but that was a very minor annoyance in my book.

I will never buy another brand of car seat I am buying a new one now to replace the one that was in the crash.

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I did a lot of research before I got this car seat and this is our first Britax/convertible car seat. When we received it, it was in a box with holes in it for easy carrying. We did open everything and left it "air out" for about a week in our breezeway. It did not have a strong smell, even though it was manufactured only the month before (July), but we did it to try and "burn off" some of the toxins. The Opus Gray is scaled at "Medium" for toxins, which there aren't many of Britax car seats that are lower unless you get an infant car seat.STRAPS:

I was happy to see how easy it was to make it "fit" your child. We have a 8 month old (about 20lbs and 29in long), and he fits in it just fine. Now we did have to remove the padding on the straps because they don't bend well and made it impossible to strap him in correctly. I agree with another reviewer, when they said that they would not recommend a child smaller than this. I really don't see how any child smaller than 20lbs would fit in this car seat properly with the HUGS and padding. Britax recommends having the HUGS left on unless 12lbs or under. Again I don't see how that would be possible since they are pretty big. Other than that, the straps are nice and my husband LOVES the Click & Safe feature! He now feels confident that our son is in correctly. It does take him a bit longer to put him in this car seat vs the infant but with the infant, you had the straps set at a length and kept it there until you couldn't squeeze your child in it any longer.

I did read on other reviews about their child chewing on the HUGS. Ours hasn't done that...YET. But I think that I will call Britax and ask them about the HUGS that are with harder plastic and see if I can get a pair (since apparently they know it's an issue), so that when he does start to chew on them, I can switch them out.

SIDE IMPACT:

My son does not seem to mind the "wings" (as I would call them) beside his head at all. He has quite a bit of room as of right now on both sides, so that could change later on. They are nice when he falls asleep though because it gives him a place for his head to go and not end up in an awkward position. The outer side impact are, basically, big soft plastic "bubbles" (can't think of any other word right now) that are filled with air and you can make "breath" just by pushing on them.

RECLINE:

The Britax has 3 positions. The lowest you use for rear facing, which isn't as low as the infant car seat, so my son is happy with that. Once you place it forward facing you have 2 other positions to choose from. I'm sure we will stick with the middle position, as long as our car corporates, until he is bigger and want to sit fully up and down.

INSTALLING:

The seat is quite heavy and would not want to have to move it from one car to the next. But I guess that is to be expected with how solid it is. I definitely feel better with our son in this car seat vs the infant. We used the LATCH system and it does not move an INCH! (unlike our infant car seat) Britax does recommend, for rear facing, to use the 2nd tether up at the top, but we did not see how we would be able to get our son in and out without undoing it EVERY time. Now, we did have to roll up a small towel to put under the car seat where the crack of the seat is to make the car seat level (Britax does recommend using either a rolled up towel or a pool noodle) since our car seats slope a little towards the back of the car. We were able to install the car seat in the middle rear facing with it reclined all the way down, as recommended by Britax for rear facing, even with my husband's seat where it needs to be (he is 6'1"). When we tested it out at Baby R Us, it will fit perfectly when it is forward facing in the middle also. We tested a Graco My Ride 65 along with the Britax models and the My Ride did not fit at all in out '08 Civic (Sedan) rear facing or forward facing unless you want your seat ALL the way up.

The ONLY problem that I have found with installing the car seat in the middle is that, you really don't have room to fit in the back on either side. Now, I did for a ride or 2 to make sure that he was ok in his new seat (and I'm short BUT lets just say I'm not quite that skinny anymore). It was a tight squeeze and was uncomfortable for me to sit back there. I'm sure a skinny person would be ok, but if you wanted to put another child in that likes to move or that needed a car seat also, you would have to remove it from the middle so that they could fit. But I'm sure if you had a bigger car (not a compact car like us) you would have more room. Once we decide to have #2 and all, this car seat will be moved to the side, but I feel A LOT better doing it with this car seat (with 3x the side impact protection) vs any other car seat when that time comes.

SIDE NOTE:

The car seat does come with a little "insert" for smaller children (is shown in picture), like our son, BUT if your child is smaller than that; Britax recommends another/different insert which does NOT come with the car seat. If our son was smaller, I would definitely look into getting it when ordering the car seat itself.

UPDATE 11/10/12:

I received an e-mail from Amazon stating that Britax was VOLUNTARILY recalling their HUGS pads on this model, along with others, because of children being able to chew pieces off making them a choking hazard. When we called Britax to get our harder HUGS pads FREE IF CHARGE, they said that ours were already being mailed out to us since we had registered our car seat. It is nice to know that Britax is on top of things when it comes to our child's safety.

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We bought this seat after doing some research in Consumer Reports and reading other Amazon reviews. I wish I could give it 5 stars. The rear-facing installation was slightly difficult, but nothing too bad. However, we immediately had problems buckling our 10 month child into the seat. Our child is 27 inches tall and less than 22 pounds. The harness is let out all the way, but our child cries every time we go to buckle him in--it is just too tight. I thought this was very strange given all the rave reviews of this product, and the fact that it is designed to hold up to a 70 pound child.

I scheduled an appointment with our Secretary of State's office to have the seat inspected. The inspector said this is an EXCELLENT seat, but she has heard the same complaint about this particular seat recently from eight other families. She told me to call Britax, noting they have great customer service, and to tell them I needed a bigger harness. The inspector said she did not know why two sizes of harnesses existed, or why only the smaller size came with the product. She is concerned enough that she is in the process of writing an official letter of complaint to the company.

I left the appointment this morning and immediately called the Britax 800 number. They took down my seat's serial #, batch #, and date and said they would send me a larger harness for free right away. They did not seem to be surprised by my call and they did not give me any sort of explanation.

We also have a Britax Roundabout and have not had any of these issues. I'm looking forward to getting the new harness so I can buckle my child properly.

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So first off, I own 3 of the older models, and this newer one. I also own a new Marathon by Britax.

I like the newer model overall, but when I started to use it with my 3.5 year old, I wasn't so much of a fan. First of all, the newer one seems to sit my little one deeper into the seat, which I am sure is better for protection, it does compromise his ability to view the world and to interact with his siblings. This of course is not the most important thing and the difference is marginal, but a little extra 1/2 inch goes a long way for little faces.

Also the new "hugs" system keeps the shoulder pads at a fixed height. When I first noticed this improvement, my first thought was "cool", but when I actually started to use it, it was obviously uncomfortable for the little guy. We ended up switching back to the older version. Being winter, the kids have coats on, and not matter how much I know that they shouldn't wear coats in their seats, in reality, I am simply not going to undress the kids every time they go into their car seat.

I really like some of the other advancements, like the rubberized bottom and the easy to adjust headrest.

So my verdict is simple: great seat for little kids (toddlers), but when they begin to get bigger, the confined area and the rigidity with the hugs system makes me enjoy my older version. So if you have an older kiddo and are looking for a great seat (and have a larger car), I would go with an older version. If you have a smaller version of little ones, then this version may be the better choice in warmer climates.

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We took the leap and spent more for the Britax Advocate 70-G3 as we wanted the BEST protection for our little guy. He is now 2 years old and let's just say this. We were going 45 mph and were hit broadside by someone going 30 mph and it flipped us over and we slid on our roof for 200 feet then hit the curb and flipped over back onto our wheels. Our 2 year old was scared to death and screaming at the top of his lungs, BUT was 100% safe and protected... Beause of the extra head support/cushion he didn't even have whiplash. Car seat was only held in by middle waist strap seat belt and it didn't budge. It held him so tight and snug. What a blessing. We were made fun of by several people becasue the thing looks like a lazy boy. NOBODY IS LAUGHING NOW! I belive their next car seat will be the Britax Advocate 70-G3