Britax Roundabout G4 Convertible Car Seat, Onyx (Prior Model)

My wife and I purchased two different Britax convertible car seats for our 10 month old, simultaneously. We purchased a  Britax Boulevard 70-G3  for the vehicle we will use most, and then purchased this Roundabout G4 to put in the car that we use less frequently, figuring that it was worth buying a second seat to save the hassle of having to constantly remove and reinstall. My apologies in advance for the VERY lengthy review to follow (you can skip to the bottom for my conclusions), but I always try to include as much detail as possible, especially when talking about items involving child safety.Updates from previous "Roundabout 55" model:Britax updated the Roundabout to the new "G4" version (previous version was called the Roundabout 55) in late 2013. I never personally owned the previous version, but based on quick research, the differences on the new version seem relatively minor. The main differences I can see include a new infant insert that is required to be used for children under than 22 pounds, as well as redesigned labels on the seat that make it easier to see instructions for front facing vs rear facing. In addition, they have added labels to the seat that take the guesswork out of figuring out the max shoulder height of children for rear-facing use, so you'll more easily be able to determine when it's time to turn the seat around to front facing.Installation:Like my other Britax car seat, I found the Roundabout very simple to install, and it fit fine in the back passenger-side seat of my mid-size sedan (a 2012 Hyundai Sonata). Because my child was 10 months old at the time of the install, we installed it rear facing using the LATCH system. It was very simple to connect and tighten the LATCH connectors, and I had them safely installed in a matter of minutes. Although optional, Britax recommends tethering the seat, even while rear-facing. I spoke to many friends who did not install the tether while the seat was rear-facing, but even if the benefit is only minor, I still felt it was prudent to install the tether. The Britax "versa-tether" was simple to install, and only added an additional 5 minutes to my initial installation. I realize that the tether will be of greater benefit when the seat is front-facing in the future, but I feel safer having installed it now. My total initial installation took me about 10 minutes (though, I had spent roughly 30 minutes the evening before, carefully reading the instruction manual and examining the seat and my cars owner's manual). I removed and reinstalled the seat again to test how long it would take, in the event I need to remove it for additional passengers in my car. It is very quick to remove (2 minutes), and can easily be reinstalled in another 2 minutes provided it's going back in the same vehicle and everything is already adjusted. So I am very pleased with this.Real World Use:My son was being moved into this seat from his previous infant seat, a Chicco KeyFit 30. The transition was relatively seamless, which provided us with great peace of mind. My son appears to be very comfortable when sitting in the seat. Because he is only 20 pounds right now, we are still using it with the infant insert as recommended by Britax. It's a comfortable black fabric pad that sits on the base of the seat, and helps to position him so that the 5 point harness fits him more securely. Britax did a great job with this, and my son seems firmly secured yet still comfortable. The shoulder belts have soft black pads that keep the belt from digging into his neck or shoulders when tightened. The seat has three levels of recline that are very easy to adjust via a lever underneath the front side of the seat. However, per their instructions, the seat needs to be kept in the most reclined (#3) position when the child is rear-facing; I believe it's somewhere near a 35-40 degree angle of recline. It's similar to the angle of the Chicco KeyFit seat when installed. I'm sure they have crash tested it and know what is the safest, and my son seems very comfortable at this angle, so no complaints from me.Fabric/Appearance:My main concern in this regard was finding a car seat where the fabric is soft and comfortable enough that it won't bother or irritate my son, but at the same time be a material that is fairly easy to maintain and clean long-term. Britax has done a great job in this regard as well. It has a comfortable feel to the fabric, but is smooth and firm enough that it is able to easily wipe clean. We have only been using this for a short period of time so far, and only had one incident where it needed to be wiped clean (my son unknowingly had a piece of avocado stuck to his pants from lunch which was smeared and rubbed into the seat fabric). We were able to very easily wipe the fabric clean with a damp cloth and it looks good as new. It can also be completely removed from the seat and thrown in a standard washing machine. I haven't tried that yet, but will update this review once I do to say how easy and effective it was. As far as the appearance goes, I'm certainly not very picky in this regard. We chose the "Onyx" design, and I think it looks fine. When comparing to the Onyx color of the previous Roundabout 55 version, I think the new design looks a lot more modern. I didn't factor appearance into my rating, as it wasn't really a factor in a safety restraint device for me, and is a very subjective topic. To each their own though!Conclusion:In conclusion, rating this five stars felt like an easy decision for me. The Roundabout G4 offered us everything we were looking for in a convertible car seat: it is relatively easy to install, it feels sturdy and safe when installed, our child seems secure and comfortable when riding in it, and it seems like it will be easy to maintain and has a build quality high enough to last for years. It's every bit as nice as our more expensive Britax Boulevard 70-G3, and with the exception of the HUGS system found on the more expensive Britax models (which is very nice but not a necessity), I don't feel like anything is sacrificed in this much lower cost seat. The perfect choice for our second vehicle, and it's nice enough that I would have no problems using it as our main car seat either. I'll try to update this review periodically if anything changes throughout our use of the seat in coming years. If you have any questions or would like me to address anything else in this review, please let me know in the comments section and I'll try to update it with the necessary information.

We bought this because we have cousins and little friends of my son's with us regularly, and we needed a car seat we could just keep in the car that would fit various size children and could rear-face in our small car and also fit three seats across the car. I have a Scion xA which is a very small car. After spending a lot of time looking at good options, this seemed liked the best - it can rear-face until 40 lbs. There does not seem to be a seat that car rear-face until 45 lbs (which is what I wanted) that is upright enough to move the front seat all the way back and narrow enough to have three seats across. I have spent a lot of time researching car seats, and I believe Britax to be one of the strongest and safest if you can get a good fit in your car, and I could with this one. The front seat can be all way way back and this seat can still be fully reclined for the infant. And Britax seats allow for rear-tethering which is safer. The only drawback is that in order to adjust the straps you have to unthread and rethread them, but it isn't that difficult. The three year old and infant that we have regularly both fit well (with strap adjustment) and seem to feel comfortable in the seat. We have had three other Britaxes over the years and I've never had any problem with them. I highly recommend this seat, especially for small cars.

We liked the Britax Roundabout so much that when it came time for our second child to need a car seat, we bought the current version of the Roundabout for him (the sister is still in the original).Installation is pretty simple whether you are using LATCH or seat belts. I found that it needed a pool noodle under it to keep the correct angle, even when reclined all the way to position 3, but that is pretty common, and I didn't mind.What I did mind, however, was that the strap to tighten the harness is pressed into the seat back so much that it is very hard to tighten. So much so, that my wife didn't feel comfortable driving the son in it as she didn't think she had it tight enough. It's just too difficult to get enough leverage/force on the strap.So, I ran to the local hardware store and made a "spacer" of sorts to make it easy to tighten the straps. I bought two 1/2" PVC 90-degree elbows and one 1/2" PVC coupling for under $3 and dropped it in between the car seat and the seat back of the car. (The products were similar to these ones - Spears 429 Series PVC Pipe Fitting, Coupling, Schedule 40, White, SocketSpears PVC Pipe Fitting, 90 Degree Elbow, Schedule 40, Spigot x Socket ).The result is that there is now room in front of the strap to get enough leverage on it to tighten it to satisfaction by both my wife and myself. I uploaded two pictures of this "spacer" in the customer photo section.

Fast delivery on 2nd on ordered through AmazonFirst one ordered from private seller on Amazon took almost a month to arrive, I'd recommend getting it straight from Amazon if you have a choiceLove this seat, it's sturdy and my son appears to be more comfortable now that he's almost 11 months, then he was in his infant car seat, which was a GracoThe only reason I didn't give this five stars was that the belt buckle is down in the crotch area and the strap there is not long enough. This causes the shoulder straps to not be as tight as I would like, without pushing against the crotch area too muchThis might not be an issue if I had a daughter, but as you can imagine it's an issue with a sonOtherwise, it's a great Car seat and we liked it enough that we bought two. It's a good trade-off if you're looking to save a little bit of money and still want to Britax. Not Very many with bells and whistles, but we didn't need thoseI have read other reviews that complain about the cushioning, saying it's not enough, I feel compared to other cheaper car seats it seems more than adequate