October 15, 2015 Julie Salvatoriello

Britax ClickTight Convertible Car Seats: What’s the difference?

Shop the newest and updated Britax Convertible Car Seats

If you’re reading this blog then it’s likely that you’ve decided that you want to buy a Britax ClickTight convertible car seat. The question is: which one?

The 3 Britax Car Seats we carry at Magic Beans are: the Britax Marathon ClickTight Convertible Car Seat, the Britax Boulevard ClickTight Convertible Car Seat, and the Britax Advocate ClickTight Convertible Car Seat. ClickTight models are the latest innovation from Britax: they’re a little heavier than previous models, but it’s worth it for the delightfully simple ClickTight installation system. ClickTight makes it much easier for those who don’t want to have to deal with the brute shoving and pulling usually involved in installing a car seat, and easier to switch the seat between cars if you need to.

But how does one choose between the 3 convertible options? The 3 seats are quite similar in basic size and function, so choosing between them involves looking at the finer details.

ClickTight is so easy to use! Just open this panel, thread through the seat belt, and click it closed, and you’re DONE.

Generally, the Marathon is our most popular as it is the cheapest (on sale for $264), but I always learn more toward the Boulevard (sale for $296), since I think of the Advocate (sale for $336) as being too big. I’ll explain why in a minute.

The 3 seats have the same weight limitations (5-40 pounds rear-facing and 20-65 pounds forward-facing), but the Britax Clicktight Boulevard and the Advocate have an extra 2 inches for height limits. This slight difference does not often come up often as an issue because the straps on a Britax car seat are notoriously shorter than other strap lengths available, although Britax will send you longer straps for free if you contact their customer service.

The Marathon is the minimalist of the group. It doesn’t have the “click-safe” function, where the strap tightening mechanism will make a small click when it is the proper tightness. I don’t think “click-safe” is strictly essential, because this function can give false positives if the strap is caught anywhere or if the child is wearing a very puffy coat. So I don’t think that should be a main deciding factor for you.

The main feature that elevates the Britax Clicktight Boulevard over the Marathon is the secondary Side Impact Protection. One of the reasons why the Marathon doesn’t have those last 2 inches of height allowance is because its secondary side impact protectors are these little pillow wings with no structure, so once the pillow wings start getting past the top of the car seat frame, I don’t think they offer much support. With the Boulevard (and the Advocate), the adjustable side impact protection that is attached to the raising and lowering of the shoulder straps is more rigid, offering its own structure, as well as having a pillow. I consider the Boulevard to be a better buy because of this.

Basically the only difference between the Britax Clicktight Boulevard and the Advocate is that the Advocate adds side impact plastic to the outside of the car seat, which provides a third layer of side-impact protection. That’s it. This third layer of side impact protection is a great feature, but it adds onto the width of the car seat, so if there’s multiple car seats or people needing to share the back seat, this can make the Advocate a less than ideal fit for some families. The Marathon and the Boulevard are already 18 inches wide, which is fairly standard, but if there’s 2 standard size car seats in the back seat, there’s not enough room for an additional person, or for a seat to be installed in the middle.

Still not sure which Britax seat is right for you (or, want to explore the other great car seat brands we have in our selection)? We’re here to help! Come chat with us at the store, live-chat with one of our customer service reps at mbeans.com, or sign up for a FREE one-on-one consultation. Every family is different, and as you can see from the above, there are so many factors to evaluate when you’re deciding which seat is right for you, so let us do the heavy lifting!

Check out our YouTube video where Eli shows them all to you!