Britax Boulevard vs. First Years True Fit--- Which one?

I am loving the TrueFit. I installed a few days ago. It was not the easiest install (3 noodles to get 45 degrees) but it is rock solid now.

The seat is easy to use, I can reach the harness adjuster but I barely have to due to the continuous loop, and my 6 month old baby seems super comfortable. It is a great fit in my car (for now, not sure once she hits 22lbs and I need the headrest on!) and it is nice and low to the seat. My 6 year old also sat in it (in the house HR on) and loved it and had a good inch inch and a half left in the slots and loads of inches in the shell...she wanted it instead of her Radian.

I am not a fan of Britax. I have no problem with them, but they are way overpriced and the hype is mostly remaining from back in the day when they were the only high limit seats IMO. Maybe the Adovocate truly is better, but at $450, I wont be finding out anytime soon!

Of course, I live in a suburb where everyone buys Britax because it is the "best", and do not erf or eh anyways! grrr...

Unregistered said:

On strollers.com they only ship to canada car seat that are allow in canada, i know that because i've try to order a different one that was not for canadian use before, when i call they say that the one that are legal in canada are the only one they will ship and they are mark by the icon '' ship to canada'' , there is only a few but the new tue fit w/rebound bar is one of them.
I' not saying you are wrong but my order is set to come in before july 21th so i'll keep u updated!

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Here I am beating a dead horse....but I did send an email to strollers.com and asked whether the TF Premier was CMVSS approved and they replied telling me that ALL of their car seats are only approved for the U.S. and NONE of them can be shipped to Canada. The "ships to Canada" logo on a few of the seats was an error (which appears they have now removed for the one TF Premier I asked them about). The CS rep also said that if you add it to your cart, you should have got a message that said "does not ship to Canada". I tried, and the TF Premier that no longer has the "ships to Canada" icon, gives me this message. The seats that DO have the "ships to Canada" icon DO appear to allow me to place an order for them.

So, to reiterate, the seat you ordered is NOT CMVSS approved and is illegal to use in Canada. Strollers.com does not ship ANY of their child restraints to Canada, so they should catch their error before they ship the seat to you. If the shipping guys aren't aware of the policy, it's possible it will get shipped out accidentally (since you said you already placed an order) but it could get seized at the border in which case you'll be out your money as CBA does NOT ship them back to the retailer for you to get a refund.

One last thing, on the description page for each True Fit (even the ones with the "ships to Canada" icon) at strollers.com it DOES say

This Car Seat is only approved for use in the United States.

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KeepingItTogether said:

The seat is easy to use, I can reach the harness adjuster but I barely have to due to the continuous loop, and my 6 month old baby seems super comfortable. It is a great fit in my car (for now, not sure once she hits 22lbs and I need the headrest on!) and it is nice and low to the seat.

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It should still fit fine in the car when you start using the headrest, because you will also be able to lose the noodles and install the seat more upright. When the seat is more upright the headrest doesn't really take up any more room back-to-front than the seat itself. You could actually do that now if you wanted - depends on how your little one would be most comfortable. I lean towards keeping them more reclined until 8 or 9 months, but really once they've got good head control and don't fall asleep with their head hanging down all the time you can put them more upright. The True Fit can be as upright as 35 degrees. The harness adjuster will be harder to reach though.

Thanx Sparky. I know she could probably be more upright now...but like you I prefer to wait until later in the first year, and since I can fit the TF at a 45 degree angle, I do. Once she hit 22lbs (or the red line...but I am pretty sure she'll hit 22lbs first) I'll do it!

I am so glad I got it. originally I was going to give the baby ODDs Radian and let ODD use her TB, but I just wasn't ready so I got the TF for the baby instead to keep ODD harnessed longer.

When I moved ODDs Radian recently, I tried and it realized, there is no way I could have fit the Radian with any sort of recline at all!

For anyone dealing with winter and a newborn, I strongly recommend a bucket seat until baby is a bit older. It is way too cold here in Calgary to be taking a baby in and out of a seat, plus they tend to fall asleep!

Thanks for this thread; my one year old daughter is too small for my son's old evenflo, plus I just realized that it doesn't work rearfacing! Argh! Time to buy another carseat and I'm going to go with the true fit partially for cost but it seems to be a good seat

Jen

Hi There,
I am a little confused by some of the posts since it sounds like some people are able to use the Britax for a really long time in Canada. Our three month old son is currently in a Chicco Keyfit seat and I am doing some advance research into convertible seats but probably won't need one until about November. I was really leaning towards a Britax because they seem to have a good reputation but the Canadian instruction manual on the Marathon and BV (online and in store) say that it can only be RFing until 32 inches. My son is in the 97th percentile so he should reach 32 inches by 12 months. I really want to keep him RFing as long as possible and the same manuals for the US counterparts don't have this height limit (just the one inch below the seat limit) and I'm not sure why. I called Britax this morning and they said the US seats are different and the Canadian seats cannot be used with a child over 32 inches. Is this correct?
What seat would you recommend for a tall baby? It will primarily be used in a 2009 CRV and price is not an object.
Thank you for your help!
Susan

Grayden09 said:

Hi There,
I am a little confused by some of the posts since it sounds like some people are able to use the Britax for a really long time in Canada. Our three month old son is currently in a Chicco Keyfit seat and I am doing some advance research into convertible seats but probably won't need one until about November. I was really leaning towards a Britax because they seem to have a good reputation but the Canadian instruction manual on the Marathon and BV (online and in store) say that it can only be RFing until 32 inches. My son is in the 97th percentile so he should reach 32 inches by 12 months. I really want to keep him RFing as long as possible and the same manuals for the US counterparts don't have this height limit (just the one inch below the seat limit) and I'm not sure why. I called Britax this morning and they said the US seats are different and the Canadian seats cannot be used with a child over 32 inches. Is this correct?
What seat would you recommend for a tall baby? It will primarily be used in a 2009 CRV and price is not an object.
Thank you for your help!
Susan

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I'm going to copy your question in to a new thread so that we can address it further. It's quite a common question and one that unfortunately isn't really easy to answer. Thankfully some of the newer Britax seats are coming without the 32" rf'ing limit in the manual - but there are other nice choices that don't have any numerical height limit at all - and for a kid who is tall they may be a better choice anyways. :thumbsup:

Is there a link available to the new thread?

Never mind, here it is: http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=94200.