Frontier mini review

crunchierthanthou

New member
I played with it for 30-40 minutes today. This certainly won't be anything like Darren's review (comprehensive and fabulous, such as that is), but I wanted to share my thoughts on the Frontier.

Ds fit in it well (age 3.5, 39", 29 lbs), but I don't think I'd want to use it on much smaller of a child. It seemed fairly wide overall- likely not conducive to many three across situations. I can't see the armrests being much use for a couple more years, though they're a nice touch for older children. He was on the second harness position when uninstalled in the store (for comparison he is still well below the lowest slot on the Regent, also when uninstalled). I really liked the look and the feel of the covers. I think the Red Rock was my favorite, but the others looked nice as well. I was surprised to see that the pink version has green piping. It was a nice contrast.

0515081755-1.jpg


LATCH- the belts are nearly impossible to tighten sufficiently unless you thread the tails through the slots in the cover to the front of the seat. I wish I had read Darren's full review to know that before playing with the seat today. However, I was able to get a rock solid install in my Subaru. The 60 lb LATCH limit in that vehicle makes it a possibility for LATCH to be used the full lifespan of this seat with lighter children.

seatbelt- I was also able to get a SBP install in the outboard position. I had to twist the buckle stalk two full twists and the latchplate was almost completely within the beltpath. I couldn't get it any closer to the seatback due to the angle of the seatbelt, but it was solid. I didn't try LBP in the outboard position.

0515081815.jpg


center- it didn't work in the center of my vehicle, but that's a hard fit. LATCH is not allowed and the seatbelt isn't user friendly (not to mention the contour of the seat). I couldn't get an acceptable install SBP and the seabelt was at least 6" too short for LBP. admittedly, ds wasn't that much help and I wasn't exactly hopping up and down on it, but I doubt I would have found another foot of webbing to make up the difference.

0515081820.jpg


adjusting the harness- I like that there are so many heights. It makes getting a good fit easy. However, I don't love that it can't be accessed when the seat is installed. I guess I associate a sliding harness adjust with being accessible from the front (BLVD/Diplomat, Signo, TF, EFTA).

storing the tether- the hook to store the tether is on the back of the recline block. The recline block has to be flipped forward for harnessed mode. If you are by chance not using the tether in harnessed mode, there is nowhere to store it. That's not a big deal really, but I thought it was kind of silly design. I probably wouldn't have even realized it was any sort of issue if I had thought to unhook the tether before attempting to rotate the recline block.

cup holders- They are nicely sized, but do take up a lot of room when open. I can't see them being very useful in tight three across configurations.

I think the 9 year expiration is great and love that it's printed right on the sticker. :)

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Overall, I'm still not completely sold on it. I'd love to get my hands on one to try in a few different vehicles. It has the feel and quality that Britax seats are known for, but there were enough install quirks to give me pause. It has some great features, but the GN has met them in almost every way and at a significantly lower price.

So, that's my informal opinion and experience with the Britax Frontier. :)

I apologize for the picture quality. Usually when I use my phone it's out of laziness, but I would have used my camera for this had I been able. Unfortunately, it didn't survive our last vacation.
 
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mommytotwo

New member
Thanks for this!:D

My DS is almost 32 months but almost the same size, 30 lb and 39-40", so seeing the "groucho" pic helped me a lot!:thumbsup:
 

crunchierthanthou

New member
so, I think I've got a problem. I'm still thinking about this seat. :eek: Last night I dreamt that I got it installed with LBP in the center. In my dream I didn't do the secondary buckle until last. I pulled the seatbelt down from the ceiling, routed it LBP, buckled the main buckle and then fed the smaller buckle back through keeping it taut the whole way. I don't think it will actually help gain a foot of webbing, but it may help in vehicles setups like that where the seatbelt seems to be a tiny bit too short.
 

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