be still my heart

Feb 03

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, carseats, i want that, me myself and i, parenting, ramblings

EDIT: Since a link to this post on my blog has obviously been posted on a message board, please see this entry for more up-to-date info and pictures.

Disclaimer: I am not a carseat technician, I do not work for Britax, I do not know anyone that works for Britax, the following information has been gathered from threads that I have read at car-seat.org, and at this point, is all speculation.

The carseat board I frequent is ‘abuzz’ about a possible new Britax seat that may be released later this year. I am trying not to get my hopes up, as this is painfully familiar. I began a 10 month wait on the Recaro Signo at the end of last January, only to be sorely disappointed when it finally came out, 6 months behind schedule. Everything is speculation at this point, there are rumors floating around that stores have been informed of a possible new seat by their Britax reps. A few carseat technicians here and there saying that they’ve sat in on discussions about the seat and even seen a possible sketch or picture of a prototype. This is a foreign seat, I repeat, this is a seat from Finland, thus absolutely not a picture of the seat, only speculation about what it may look similar to. Note European seats are often distinctive from US seats in that they have no chest clip and super long shoulder pads. Another comparison floating around is that the seat looks like a harnessed Monarch (a US Britax booster, notice the similarity in general shape?).

Rumor has it that the new Britax Frontier may harness to 80lbs. and booster to 100lbs. The booster is supposed to be able to LATCH into the car (using lower anchors to keep the seat in place and the seatbelt to keep the child in the seat). Everyone is wondering if this may be replacing the Regent (I heard someone call this the Lazy Boy of carseats, it is huge), as it is rumored to have about the same or perhaps slightly lower top slots (according to fact sheets that have been given to stores by reps…again all of this is word of mouth through several people, take it with a grain of salt). In my opinion, the Kyle Miller Foundation has had a profound effect of Regent sales, thus Britax would not discontinue a now top selling seat and replace it with something “less than” the Regent specs. If this seat were to replace the Regent, I think it would have to be at least equivalent, if not better. The Regent’s top slots have appeared to decrease over the past year. I swear I’ve read that older seats measure more like 20.5in, while the newer seats are measuring around 19in. That is a significant difference in growing room. One of my drawbacks to the Regent, aside from its enormous size, is the lack of side impact wings. This seat might remedy this concern for me. I can’t wait to learn more! As for an ETA… once again, rumors say between April and July (sounds similar to the Recaro rumors of last year, the April release for the seat that finally hit the market in November).