The Product: Car Seat Booster Combo Seat

Recommendation: Britax Frontier Review

I am making an initial recommendation that parents hold off on purchasing the Britax Frontier Booster. When installed properly, there is no doubt that the Frontier offers a very high level of protection. However, it is not an easy seat to install and many parents who purchased it to date have been very frustrated with the process. To be fair, Britax has gone to great lengths to respond to these issues on an individual and group basis and to help parents with installing in their specific car models. They have also posted a new “long path” set of instructions online which helps make the installation process easier.

The bottom line for me is that this seat seems to require a lot of work to figure out and get right which is the opposite of what many loyal Britax buyers had expected based on other Britax seats they owned.  Although the diehard car seat fans love the Britax Frontier (many of who are professional installers), I am getting the sense that maybe the Frontier tried to be too many things. Between the installation difficulty and the many ways you can use it and different restrictions and configurations depending on the make and model of your vehicle and your child’s weight, there is a lot of room for potential user error. Except for the very serious car seat fanatics out there, I don’t think most parents will have the time or the inclination to want to spend the extra effort that the Frontier requires. I also believe that the large number of parents who are likely to install or use this seat incorrectly outweighs the added safely benefit from those who will do so correctly.

For now, I am more inclined to stick with my Britax Boulevard convertible seat and then move my daughter to the new Britax Monarch Booster. Other good options include the Sunshine Kids Radian 65 and the SafeGuard Go Hybrid Booster.

I am going to wait a month or so to see if Britax responds publically with any design changes or recommendations of car models that work better for this seat and then will update my review at that time.