Britax gives a response on FB

[Athena]

No-

Depending how you measure, it is about the same to slightly higher than the previous models. There are some photos on the blog and in the Reviews forum post.

Except for the RA55. Isn't that right? It is just a little shorter now? Or am I remembering incorrectly?

 

[SafeDad]

Except for the RA55. Isn't that right? It is just a little shorter now? Or am I remembering incorrectly?

Right I have no idea how the RA55 compares to the RA50.

I have only compare the Marathon 70 to a Marathon/Boulevard 65

 

[DahliaRW]

Thanks. I couldn't remember what the height ffing was on the new ones (or the old for that matter). And didn't have time to look.

So the new seats flaws are mostly for rfing then...

 

[SafeDad]

Thanks. I couldn't remember what the height ffing was on the new ones (or the old for that matter). And didn't have time to look.

So the new seats flaws are mostly for rfing then...

It's a mixed bag. The outer shell is one half inch to an inch shorter than before. It's probably not going to fit too many kids who are above average in height rear-facing to their 4th birthday. It should fit many kids to their 3rd birthday and most all kids to their 2nd birthday. If rear-facing to 4 years old and beyond is what you want to do, the Sunshine Kids Radian is still the best bet.

The plus side is that between that and the lower base, the new Britax convertibles take up an inch or two less room from the front seat. That's certainly an advantage in some situations as others have mentioned.

 

[DahliaRW]

It's a mixed bag. The outer shell is one half inch to an inch shorter than before. It's probably not going to fit too many kids who are above average in height rear-facing to their 4th birthday. It should fit many kids to their 3rd birthday and most all kids to their 2nd birthday. If rear-facing to 4 years old and beyond is what you want to do, the Sunshine Kids Radian is still the best bet.

The plus side is that between that and the lower base, the new Britax convertibles take up an inch or two less room from the front seat. That's certainly an advantage in some situations as others have mentioned.

For sure these would have been outgrown early by my boys. My ds's both outgrew the old MA rfing (by height) before 3, so even earlier in these ones. I briefly thought about the newer MA for dd (she's much smaller), but couldn't stomach the price when seats like the MR and TF would last just as long for a whole lot less!

 

[Austins-mama]

Well my DS is over 90th percentile in height and weight

and yes in terms of weight he would have made it close to 3 Rfing he would have outgrown this seat in height WAY before ever hitting 40lbs.

It just makes no sense to me - to LOWER the shell height - they could have made such an awesome seat but instead the height just makes it impratical for us to buy - when we can get a Radian or a Complete Air to keep him rearfacing longer.

I like what they did with it forward facing - but the rearfacing is such a let down.

 

[sb518]

Good to know. I'll cross the BV70 off of my wishlist now.

 

[SafeDad]

Well my DS is over 90th percentile in height and weight

and yes in terms of weight he would have made it close to 3 Rfing he would have outgrown this seat in height WAY before ever hitting 40lbs.

It just makes no sense to me - to LOWER the shell height - they could have made such an awesome seat but instead the height just makes it impratical for us to buy - when we can get a Radian or a Complete Air to keep him rearfacing longer.

I like what they did with it forward facing - but the rearfacing is such a let down.

Yup. There is no getting around that it is shorter and won't keep a kid rear-facing as long as its predecessor. In that regard, at least as it stands now, it is a step backward. Whether or not all the other improvements outweigh that depends completely on the buyer and their priorities.

 

[joolsplus3]

Yup. There is no getting around that it is shorter and won't keep a kid rear-facing as long as its predecessor. In that regard, at least as it stands now, it is a step backward. Whether or not all the other improvements outweigh that depends completely on the buyer and their priorities.

It's going to fly off shelves and make Britax rich, is my guess
Ok, maybe not FLY... but people will see these seats, and see the other gigantic seats on the shelf next to it, and it will be more popular. I think it will make rearfacing convertibles a lot more palatable to the general public (most kids go from infant seats to FF convertibles...as long as the mantra is 1 and 20, people will absolutely stick to that and FF as soon as their kids is even close to that, and giant convertibles aren't helping the cause of RF longer than a year :twocents:). I'll still lobby Britax for a specialized ERF seat...I don't see why they can't have small convertibles for big box stores and a Multi Tech for the rest of us