Graco has a long history in the car seat industry of providing quality seats, from the Snugride line for infants to the excellent Size4Me seat (which I consider to be the best convertible seat under $200) to their TurboBooster line to their recent all-in-one efforts with seats like the 4Ever All-in-One and Milestone All-in-One. They have other boosters, of course, like the Graco 70 Elite, which is the basis of the upgraded Graco Argos 80 Elite. As a result, when I found out the Nautilus 80 Elite was shipping, I had to get my hands on a copy for a test run. Fortunately, my older kids were willing to try the seat out with dad. What follows is a thorough review of the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite, which you can buy here.

2017 update: Graco updated the Argos 80 and renamed it the Nautilus 80. It remains essentially the same seat, and is still a good choice for a combination seat in 2017.

Graco Nautilus 80 Elite – What’s the big deal?

The Graco Nautilus 80 Elite offers a number of new features that make it a good seat for families interested in a long-lasting forward-facing seat that’s safe, comfortable, and convenient (can you say no-rethread harness? I love those!).

Being a combination seat, it can be used in two modes: as a forward-facing seat with a 5-point harness (which children should be in until 8 if possible), and as a high-back booster to be used in concert with the lap and shoulder seatbelt of a vehicle (which children will typically need until at least 10), and finally as a backless booster. The seat is a bit confusingly named as a 3-in-1 car seat, which is unfortunate, as you can’t use the seat in any rear-facing position. If you’re in the market for a seat that works rear-facing, forward-facing, and as a booster, you’ll want the Diono Rainier, Pacifica, or Olympia, or the Graco 4Ever or Graco Milestone.

Graco Nautilus 80 Elite Limits for Weight and Height

Forward-facing: 20-80 pounds. Children must be at least 1 year old and between 27″ and 52″ in height. The shoulders of the child should be at or below the highest harness slots. Of course, as a reader of The Car Crash Detective, you know that we’re not going to forward face at 1, 2, or even 3. Ideally, we’re going to aim for at least 4, as if we were in Sweden, where nearly no children die per year in car collisions due to the inherent safety of extended rear-facing.

High-back booster: 30-100 pounds. Children must be at least 3 years old and between 38″ and 57″ in height. The tops of the child’s ears need to be below the highest part of the head support. Again, as a Car Crash Detective aficionado, you aren’t going to booster a 3 year old. Rather, we’re going to try to keep our kids forward facing in a harness until they’re at least 5, and ideally until 8, because of the various benefits of doing so.

Backless booster: 40-120 pounds. Children must be between 40″ and 57″ in height and the vehicle must provide head support.

Buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Dimensions of the Graco Argos 80 Elite

The harness height of the Nautilus 80 Elite is adjustable between 12″ and 18″, while the crotch strap can be adjusted to 5.5″, 8″, and 8.5″. When used as a booster, the maximum height limit is 20.” The seat itself weighs approximately 22 pounds per my fancy car seat scale.

Using the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite

The Graco Nautilus 80 Elite is easy to like out of the box, as it’s an attractive seat with well laid-out designs. It comes with 3 recline settings (reclined, semi, and fully upright); if you want to switch between the positions, you’ll need to reinstall the seat, so choose carefully. Children who weigh more than 65 pounds and are harnessed need to use the fully upright position, which must also be used while the seat is used as a booster.

A LATCH installation is straightforward, but keep in mind that the weight limits for the child with LATCH is 42 pounds. These weight limits are why I prefer using seat belt installations; they’ll work throughout the life of the seat and child. Using a tether is recommended throughout the life of the seat but it’s a requirement if the child is harnessed and either is taller than 49″ or weighs more than 65 pounds. See here for why it’s a good idea to use a tether when forward-facing 100% of the time.

A seatbelt installation is quick and makes sense. However, something a lot of parents forget to do is to use the tether while using the seatbelt, and that’s a no-no. Always use the top tether, whether you have a LATCH or seatbelt installation.

There are 5 height settings available through the headrest; you access them by pushing the red button on top of the headrest. Keep in mind that you should only use the highest setting when the seat is being used as a booster; when using the harness, use the lower 4 positions.

You’ve got a no-rethread harness in the seat, which automatically makes me a fan of it since it’s so much easier to adjust harness height when you don’t have to reach into the guts of the seat to do so. The seat works well once you’ve properly installed it. Maintenance-wise, you can machine-wash the cover, but it does take some time to do and you’ll need to remove the harness.

Buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite?

The critical part of any good car seat review, in my opinion, is information about why you should buy a particular seat. It’s nice to have things like no-rethread harnesses and machine-washable covers, but that’s not what’s most important in the end. For a seat like the Nautilus 80 Elite, I like the fact that the height and weight limits are on the generous end; 80 pounds forward-facing and 52″ in height means the majority of children will be able to use the harness until at least 8 years of age, per CDC growth charts, which puts them in a good range for transition into a booster.

Other features that I like are that the seat is FAA certified, which means it can be used on airplanes, and that it has a 10 year lifespan. Graco stipulates that the seat needs to be replaced whenever it is involved in a crash, and that the seat cannot be installed in harness mode with a car with inflateable seatbelts. I also like in general how thick the harness straps are, as this reduces the likelihood of their twisting.

In general, remember that you want to keep your children forward-facing as long as possible once you’re done rear-facing if you start forward-facing before 4. Each transition from one mode to the next represents a drop in safety, so don’t rush from one phase to the next.

The only features I’m not a fan of in the Nautilus 80 Elite are the fact that it doesn’t give as much harness height as the Frontier or Pinnacle; these are the seats to use if you are interested in Extended Harnessing, or forward-facing your children as long as possible. The Frontier and Pinnacle also offer higher weight limits when forward facing and higher seat belt height limits when in booster mode, making them superior booster seats.  That said, if you don’t need the additional features, it’s hard to argue with the Nautilus 80 Elite.

I recommend the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite wholheartedly. It’s a good, solid combination seat that will let you forward-face your children for several years and potentially serve as the last car seat your child needs before s/he is ready for an adult seat belt. You can buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite here. Canadians can buy the Argos here.

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.

A few years ago, Britax announced the oncoming debut of their ClickTight seats, which featured the same ClickTight technology first found in the Frontier G1.1 and Pinnacle G1.1. This was great news, but what made it even better was to learn that Britax also planned on refreshing the Advocate, Boulevard, and Marathon with the ClickTight technology. I made it my goal to review the Britax Advocate ClickTight, and did, and then picked up a Marathon ClickTight, which I also reviewed, and now I’m sitting in front of a Boulevard ClickTight and ready for another review!

2018 update: Nothing significant has changed with the Boulevard ClickTight. It’s still a great seat at the 40-pound convertible mark with enough headroom to keep almost all kids rear-facing until they hit the weight limit.

Britax Boulevard ClickTight – What’s the big deal?

The Britax Boulevard ClickTight is basically a hybrid of the ClickTight technology in seats like the Frontier 90 or Advocate ClickTight and the features of the Britax Marathon G4, along with greater height limits and safety features thrown in. What does this all mean? Well, for starters, we’re dealing with a convertible car seat, so you can set it up to both rear-face for infants and forward-face for older children.

The Boulevard ClickTight joins the Boulevard ClickTight and the Advocate ClickTight as one of the three newest car seats in general and convertibles in particular from Britax. According to Britax engineers and designers, the goal was to make it possible for every parent to install the car seat safely and securely in a variety of circumstances. Frankly, I think they did a great job in achieving this goal, and read on to see why.

Buy the Britax Boulevard ClickTight on Sale at Amazon.

Britax Boulevard ClickTight Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5-40 pounds. The 1″ rule applies for your child’s head; it shouldn’t get past 1″ below the inner shell’s top. Previous Britax seats made use of the outer shell, but now that the inner shell is used, the height limits of Britax seats are going to be a lot more impressive. You essentially have around 27″ of maximum seated height, which is about as good as it gets right now for rear-facing in the industry, even when compared to seats like the Fllo, 4Ever, NextFit, and Size4Me!

Forward-facing: 20-65 pounds with a 54″ height limit. The top harness height limit is 19.4″ while the lowest is 8.35″, and the height can be adjusted in 14 positions .85″ increments. This equals the top harness height of the Advocate.

The shoulder height of the Boulevard ClickTight can stretch up to 18.65″ while rear or forward-facing, and your child’s ear tips need to be beneath the shell’s top end. Britax recommends that your child be at least two, but I’d recommend remaining rear-facing until 4 if at all possible, and longer if your seat and child permit. The research backs this up, and in Sweden, where the fewest children per capita die in car crashes, the average time spent rear-facing is  years. Similarly, after rear-facing for as long as possible, your child should forward-face for as long as possible before switching into a booster seat.

Dimensions of the Britax Boulevard ClickTight

The Boulevard ClickTight is 18.5″ wide, 23.5″ tall, and 23″ deep. It weighs 29.4 pounds, which is significantly less than the Advocate ClickTight, though still heavier than the previous edition of the Britax Boulevard. The ClickTight technology is a big part of why it weighs more, and that weight is worth it in my opinion.

Using the Britax Boulevard ClickTight

Britax is hanging the entire reputation of their ClickTight technology on ease of use and installation, and it makes sense that they’d prioritize this to such a degree when research shows that most car seats in the United States aren’t installed correctly. Tackling this would make a significant difference in our child mortality rates, and I’m always happy to see a company going after something to benefit children this way, especially since it’s the kind of technology that can save lives on a daily basis.

The entire point of the ClickTight system is to make it easy for anyone to install a convertible seat in a range of conditions and with limited experience. The process is rather straightforward: You open the ClickTight release, route the seat belt of the vehicle through the lower rear-facing slots, attach the seat belt, and then push the ClickTight system into its closed position. The graphic below from Britax summarizes the process nicely; it’s pretty much fool-proof in my experience.

As I’ve said in the Advocate ClickTight review, the process will be highly welcome by most parents, as it takes a lot of the guesswork out of a good install. For me, this reason alone is big enough to seriously consider the Britax Boulevard ClickTight. You don’t need any more room than you would for a seat belt install, and it’s probably easier than a LATCH install, which means you get the space-saving benefits of a seat belt with the ease of use of LATCH, all in one convenient package. Not bad, right?

The seat itself is shipped securely with protective padding and fits its box well. I purchase pretty much of all of my seats online through Amazon, and it always makes me happy to see my seats arrive in good condition. You have a number of recline points available on the seat to help you choose the right recline level for your child whether rear- or forward-facing; I counted 7 on the seat, and there’s an automatic color-coded level indicator that lets you know if your recline is good or not.

You have a no-rethread harness built into the seat, which is something that should be standard on every car seat, in my opinion, since it just makes life so much easier when using the same car seat with multiple children or when adjusting to quickly-growing kids. You have 14 positions for the harness and 2 positions for the crotch buckle.  This is equal to the 14 harness heights available on the Advocate ClickTight, which again shows that Britax isn’t cutting corners even though this isn’t their flagship convertible seat.

Buy the Britax Boulevard ClickTight on Sale at Amazon.

Why Buy the Britax Boulevard ClickTight?

This is the most important and relevant part of any car seat review, in my opinion. Yes, it’s nice to have the no-rethread harness and this and that, but why exactly should you buy a seat like the Boulevard ClickTight? Well, first of all, it lets you rear-face until 40 pounds, which is a big thing in the United States, since most children are turned around far too early. The more height and weight room you have in a car seat, the longer you can rear-face, and the longer you can rear-face, the better your child’s odds are of surviving a serious car accident if you’re unlucky enough to get into one.

Keep in mind that children in Sweden typically aren’t turned forward-facing until they’re 4; this makes them much more likely to survive the very car accidents that claim so many children’s lives in the United States. Buying a car seat like the Boulevard ClickTight and using it to its rear-facing limits can save your child’s life; it’s as simple–and essential–as that. There are a number of seats that allow you to rear-face past 40 pounds, but 40 is still good.

Beyond the safety benefits of rear-facing, however, I am also a huge fan of the ClickTight system, since it makes it that much easier to get a secure and correct installation whether forward- or rear-facing. Since most seats in the United States simply aren’t going to be installed correctly, it’s a great thing when you come across a system that makes it nearly impossible to achieve an incorrect installation.

For additional safety, you get a number of Britax technologies, including the SafeCell Impact Protection system and the SafeCell Complete Side Impact Protection system. Essentially, these are systems that are designed to work together to protect kids beyond what’s required through current federal safety standards. Britax designed a number of components to absorb impacts, including the base, tether, harness, steel frame, and sides.

Essentially, the goal is to slow the deceleration of a child in a crash, which leads to lower forces experienced by the child, which leads to lower risks of serious injuries in collisions. These features aren’t tested by anyone other than Britax, but given Britax’s historical commitment to safety, I’d wager they’ve spent enough time testing them to verify they’re worth using in their seats, and I wouldn’t hesitate to put my child in one of them.

In conclusion, while the Boulevard ClickTight doesn’t have quite as many safety features as those the Advocate ClickTight, it’s also a much cheaper seat and quite frankly, a great deal if you’re simply looking for unparalleled ease of use through the ClickTight feature. It gets you almost all the way to the Advocate ClickTight while costing much less, which makes it a much more affordable and practical seat for a number of parents.

I recommend the Britax Boulevard ClickTight wholeheartedly. You can buy the Britax Boulevard ClickTight in a range of colors here, including Kaleidescope, Splash, Cerca, and Metro. Canadians can buy it here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Join us in the forums!