Hello Moms,
Our 4 1/2 year old daughter needs a new carseat BAD! I've looked and looked. We're leaning towards the Britax Regent because it's on sale right now. IF you own it can you tell me what you think???? I need some opinions. We have no stores nearby that carry it so I'll have to order it online.
The cheapest place I found it is the site Albee Baby OR HIP MONKEY. If you used either sites to purchase anything PLEASE tell me about your experience too!
We WANT a 5 point harness and this is the carseat that has that for kids up to 85 (or maybe it was 80) pounds. The others I found went to a max of 65. Our daughter is small for her age but I don't want to have to purchase ANOTHER carseat. Plus our son who is 2 1/2 is catching up in size to her so we may just purchase 2 of these seats right away.....
PLEASE, I need help before we make this decision. ANYTHING you can tell me about this carseat would be greatly appreciated. Likes AND dislikes.......
FYI: We drive a Plymouth Voyager Van with bench row seats right now. (We are not planning on getting a new vehicle any time soon but when we do we are planning on purchasing another van but hopefully with bucket seats next time....)
We purchased the Britax Regent through Albee Baby. It took about a week and a half to get it. It is large, but not any bigger than the Evenflo carseat she was using. She LOVES the Britax Regent. She even fell asleep in it COMFORTABLY! She is on the 2nd slot and this carseat should last her easily till she turns 8, which is the law here now. Thanks for the advice ladies!
We don't have the Regent, we have the Boulevard, but it has been great and I would reccommend them as a company. We did also buy that seat from Albee baby - and they were great - free shipping, the seat was on sale for $50 off because the fabric pattern was discontinued, and they got it to us in just 5 days!
Albee Baby is a great online store. Diapers.com does price match, so if you are more comfortable with them, you can call with the better price. Sunshine Kids Radian 80 or XT is another great carseat. It is much narrrower than Britax. I don't personally have experience with them, as my oldest (14 months) is still rear facing. One resource that I have foudn indespensible for carseat help is http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f705-car-seat-safety/ It is a forum, but the women there have experience with almost every carseat out there. Seriously. Even if you don't want to join, you can find a wealth of information by going through past threads.
Don't know about the carseat, but we bought a crib from Albee Baby and were very pleased. The price was excellent, shipping time was good, and the product was well made and is comparable to cribs costing much more.
Check out amazon right now there's one for 154. That seems extremely cheap for Britax
http://www.amazon.com/Britax-Regent-Youth-Seat-Sahara/dp/...
I have a Britax Regent it is a great seat. It is BIG and takes up 1 1/2 seats in the back. So if you have a regular backseat with 3 seatbelts you could fit easily fit 2 Regent's back there and that is it. It doesn't fit nicely next to other seats either. If you only have 1 or 2 kids it's perfect.
My daughter is 8 years old and has so much room left in hers she's not even using the top harness slot yet. She loves her seat, very roomy and comfortable.
I have a very small 2dr. hatchback and can easily fit 2 Regents in my backseat.
We bought the Britax Frontiers for our two. It has a five-point harness and will harness up to 85 pounds. It has the true side-impact protection and is more compact than the Regent. I have a 4 door sedan and the Regent didn't sit as nicely in my car as did the Frontiers. I am very, very happy with them and the car seat tech opined that this is, in her opinion, the best carseat available in its class.
Good luck.
You may want to look into the Britax Frontier as well if you are not interested in purchasing another car seat in the future. With all of the new laws, this car seat accomodates children in a 5 pt. harness up to 80 lbs and then in a seatbelt up to 100 lbs or 60 inches. My son has it and absolutely loves sitting in it. Definitely the best purchase I have made for him. I also really love the side impact protection by his head...another great selling point. Whatever you decide...you will never regret a Britax.
I have ordered several times from Albee Baby. Good company, never have had any problems. I have had to do a return once and it was easy peasy! :) Good luck!
We have a Regent, and we love it! We got it when our oldest was almost 5. He is now 7.5 and just moved to a high back booster at his request, and my now 4yr old is in the Regent. Its a big seat, and it takes some getting used to install, but you can't beat the price its at right now ,and the length of time you can use it.
I have a Ford Freestar with a bench middle seat, and I had our Regent and the Britax Marathon side by side with no problems at all. RIght now the Regent is sitting next to a Sunshine Kids Monterey high back booster (which is a pretty wide booster) with no problems at all.
Its a GREAT car seat, you can't beat the price its at right now. If you are looking at it, I would suggest buying it. You own't regret it!
We bought our carseat from the Albee Baby website and had no problems. It arrived as scheduled too. Good luck!
We have the Regent. My husband thinks it is ridiculous, but I think it's great. It is large, but fits fine in our minivan. The only downside would be if you needed to switch it between vehicles regularly, since it was kind of hard to get it in the car tightly.
My son is 4 1/2, and he has plenty of room to grow, and he's pretty tall. SInce I have 3 kids that will all use it (they are close in age) I figured it was worth investing in the bigger more expensive one.
Good luck!
Jessica
I've ordered from Albee Baby and they were great. I always check them out when I'm looking for something toddler/baby.
