My 4th Britax & my 1st disappointment with the company

The Regent is the 4th Britax seat I have owned following 2 Roundabouts & a Marathon. Friends would call me an unpaid spokesman for Britax, so it came as a shock to me when I was disappointed in the Regent. While Britax is tops when it comes to safety I'm most disappointed in what appears to a "cheapening" of the materials Britax uses on their seats.

That said, here's a run-down of my negatives & positives having used this seat for about a month.

STRAPS

In comparison to my 2003 Marathon, the 2008 Regent's 5 point harness straps are flimsy & twist easily and frequently all the way down into the non-visible portion of the seat - it takes me double or triple the time to get my son seated properly. AWFUL!!!

CHEST CLIP

The chest clip is made from much less durable plastic than either my Marathon or 2 Roundabout's & has already broken (I installed a chest clip from an older Roundabout that we use as a spare). BAD!!!

FABRIC (Sahara model)

We have had our Regent less than a month & already it has pilling on the material by the belts, which could be from all that extra fumbling we do to straighten them. While the fabric is more suede-like & cozy I'm not sure how it will hold up to the stains I know it will inevitably encounter.

SIZE

I'm 5'8" tall & I can sit in this seat installed in my Honda Odyssey. It's really big! Don't think that this is the seat you are going to take on an airplane & if you have a small car, try to find a store where they have it in stock so you can see just how large it would be in your own car. I went to the Babies R Us superstore before purchasing.

LATCH

This is truly the reason I have bought all my Britax seats. Their latch system is the simplest & easiest I have found. Ironically, I can now get my car seat installed faster than I can get my son strapped into it - thanks to those hideous straps.

COMFORT

This seat is roomy (deeper & wider than a Marathon) & nicely padded. The lack of a true base makes is sit about 3 inches lower, which my son likes because he says "his legs don't get tired". There are also mesh pockets on either side which are perfect for sunglasses or a favorite small toy.

SAFETY

I was in a rear end collision while my children were in the car. While I sustained a slight neck injury in the accident, both of my children were sleeping & neither even woke up.

Ultimately, while I'm disappointed in the features, the bones are why I bought this seat. The thing that gets me is that if Britax is going to sell a seat for $280 (which is way more than their competition), why can't they maintain the standards they have already set with their other models. The Regent's 5 point harness straps are TERRIBLE & I've written a letter to the company I've found them to be so bad. I'm hoping their response is that I've gotten a bad set, but in the interim I'm going to see if my old Roundabouts straps will work on the new seat.