Britax Frontier Combination Car Seat & Booster Review

Britax Frontier is an outstanding car seat in terms of safety, in both harness mode and booster mode. The phenomenal side impact protection, high harness weight limit and very tall booster shell make Frontier a worthwhile choice for long-term use. However, installation can be a little tricky. If you're not committed to carefully reading instructions and taking time to install the car seat correctly, or you're not willing to ask an experienced car seat tech for help, your child might miss out on some of the safety advantages the Britax Frontier offers.

I struggled with how to rate the Britax Frontier for this review. I love this car seat and booster combination. Britax does a wonderful job with side-impact protection, and the Frontier has a great 80 pound harness limit, an 18.25" top harness slot (one of the tallest available) and it's probably the tallest booster on the market. Not only that, the Britax Frontier is extremely easy to use. The harness height adjustment is simple. You just pull the adjuster and slide it to the correct position. I also like that you can use LATCH in booster mode.

Installation is key to car seat safety, though, and the Britax Frontier is not as easy to install as some car seats. If you're used to the incredibly easy installation of some of Britax's convertible seats, be prepared for a totally different experience with Frontier. There are no built-in lock-offs, and the belt paths are set at a completely different angle.

Installing with LATCH isn't difficult, but it's not exactly like other seats, either. In order to pull enough slack out of the LATCH belt, you'll need to feed the ends of the LATCH belt through the seat cover (there are slots made for this) and pull that way. You also may have to work the LATCH connectors around a bit so they slide into the recessed part of the seat. Again, this isn't hard, it just takes a few extra minutes.

Seat belt installation is trickier. With a lap/shoulder belt Frontier can be installed with a long or short belt path, depending on how your vehicle's seat belts are spaced. Feeding the seatbelts through the belt path is awkward and choosing the right belt path can be confusing at first. Inexperienced installers may need help on this.

If you're able to get Frontier installed properly, it's a great seat. You must be willing to make sure the Frontier is installed correctly for it to be a safe choice for your child, though.