If you've been reading Z Recommends for a while you know that we love Britax car seats. We've had Z testing out the Boulevard CS for the last few months and at age 4.5 years old she can still fit in it forward-facing. With a rear-facing shoulder height limit of 16" (seated) and weight limit of 35 pounds and a front facing shoulder height limit of 16" and weight limit of 65 pounds, we consider it an excellent convertible car seat - that is, a car seat that can both rear face and forward face.

Safe Kids USA cited failure to adequately tighten car seat shoulder straps as one of the most common things parents do to undermine the safety of their child's car seat (second to not securely tightening the safety belt restraining the car seat itself). Britax's new "Click & Safe" feature (the "CS" at the end of the name) addresses this issue by adding an audible click that sounds when shoulder straps are pulled tight enough. We were curious to test this feature and found it to be a big help - it's reassuring to hear that you have the straps tight enough without having to second-guess or test it by trying to wiggle your finger in between the straps and your child to check for tightness.

Another big win for the Boulevard CS is the way you adjust the shoulder straps - they're fully adjustable using a twisty dial on the back of the seat. So not only do you not have to unthread and rethread the straps (anyone who has wrestled with this knows what a pain that can be!) but you don't even have to uninstall the seat. Really. It's that easy. We should make a video of this like we did with the Frontier's own nifty strap adjustment method.

Additionally, Jeremiah was able to install this car seat in each of its possible configurations - with LATCH connectors and with the seat belt, forward- and rear-facing (so four configurations in all) in under 15 minutes on the first try. Granted, he's probably getting pretty good at installing car seats by now, since he's in charge of getting them installed and reinstalled properly for Z in four cars (his, mine, and two local grandmothers') and has done test installations for all the car seats we've reviewed. But the Boulevard CS struck him as particularly easy.

Britax seats are also side-impact tested by the company and developed to offer side impact protection commensurate with European safety standards.

In short, we highly recommend this seat, and are naming it a Top Pick for its ease of use in this car seat class as well as Britax's excellent record of safety and its position at the forefront of side impact protection. The Boulevard CS retails for $330 but is on sale until Feb. 15 for $280 on Amazon.com and elsewhere.