Britax info from the listserv

Judi

CPST/Firefighter
NEW BRITAX CAR SEAT LINE OFFERS 360 DEGREE PROTECTION AND REVOLUTIONARY HEAD SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

- New technology on convertible car seat range addresses no. 1 cause of death for children in vehicle crashes -

CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 28, 2010 - Britax today announced a full redesign and relaunch of its line of best-selling convertible car seats. The new line offers Superior 360 Degree Protection with Revolutionary Head Safety Technology that dramatically reduces the risk of head injury and provides complete protection from all sides in the event of a vehicle crash.

Head safety is critical because even tiny increases in head excursion - the distance the head travels forward during the crash - can exponentially increase the risk of head injury. Head injury is the leading cause of death for children up to 12 years old involved vehicle crashes and comprises 65 percent of injuries in both frontal and side impact crashes, according to Child Injury Led Design and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. With this in mind, Britax designed its new line to help prevent real world injury for children and make it that much easier for parents and caregivers to use their children's car seats correctly each and every time.

Unprecedented Head Safety
Britax Revolutionary Head Safety Technology incorporates features that lower the child's center of gravity, strengthen the child seat and manage crash energy. Together, they reduce head excursion and offer the most advanced protection to children. These include:

* A re-engineered lower center of gravity that allows the child to sit lower and creates stability in the event of a crash.
* Integrated steel bars that strengthen the connection to the vehicle and reduce forward flexing of the child seat during a crash.
* Patent-pending Britax SafeCell(tm) Technology with SafeCells that are designed to compress in a crash. This significantly lowers the center of gravity and counteracts the forward rotation of the child seat, which normally propels the child toward the front seat.
* Energy-Absorbing Versa-Tether(r) with a two-point attachment and staged-release tether webbing to anchor the top of the car seat. This minimizes forward-rotation and reduces crash forces reaching the child.

Enhanced side impact protection, extended weight capacities
Britax designed its new line to improve upon its Side Impact Protection (SIP) and True Side Impact Protection(r) (TSIP). The car seats feature deeper side walls lined with energy-absorbing EPP foam that distribute crash forces, shield from vehicle intrusion, and contain the head, neck and body. Britax TSIP car seats also offer a head restraint that creates an extra layer of energy-absorbing EPP foam, keeping the head, neck and spine "in true" or aligned. This protection is imperative, as approximately one in four of all motor vehicle crashes that involve children occur from the side, and these result in a significantly higher injury rate than frontal or rear impacts, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
In addition to enhanced side impact protection, the new line offers higher weight capacities to keep children rear facing longer and to allow for extended use of a five-point harness. The convertible car seats can accommodate children from between 5 and 40 pounds rear facing and up to 70 pounds forward facing, and the mid-capacity convertible allows children to sit forward facing up to 55 pounds. The new seats offer a harness position that helps position the harness at or below baby's shoulder, and an infant insert is available separately to properly position the infant and protect the airway.

Installation and Ease of Use Features
The new convertibles also include features that make them easier to install and use properly and consistently.
Non-handed premium LATCH connectors allow the seats to easily transition from rear to forward facing, while an easy access cover and access to belt paths from the front of the seat reduce the time needed for installation. Built-in lock-offs ensure a tight lap and shoulder seat belt installation with minimal effort.
Ease-of-use features include: a quick-adjust head restraint, a no-rethread harness (available on all convertibles except for the line's mid-capacity convertible), buckle adjustments and multiple recline adjustments.
The revamped line includes the Roundabout 55 (SRP: $199.99), Marathon 70 (SRP: $279.99), Boulevard 70 (SRP: $309.99), Boulevard 70 CS (SRP: $329.99) and Advocate 70 CS (SRP: $369.99). They will be available in a variety of fashions at independent and mass retailers in August 2010.
Additional information including product pages, video clips and user guides will be available on www.BritaxUSA.com<http://www.BritaxUSA.com> starting July 1, 2010.
About Britax Child Safety Inc.

Child car seat and stroller manufacturer Britax(r) Child Safety Inc. is the leader in developing cutting edge technologies that absorb crash forces and manage energy away from the child in a crash. Britax has pioneered features such as side impact protection, True Side Impact Protection(r), and Side Impact Cushion(tm) Technology to minimize the risk of injury in side impact crashes, which are the most severe vehicle collisions. The Britax range includes a car seat for every stage of a child's life from "birth to belt" and offers higher weight capacities to keep children rear facing and in a five-point harness longer.

From Sarah Tilton
 
ADS

Maedze

New member
i wish they would make them cheaper for us people that cant afford to pay 200-300 dollars for a carseat no matter how much we save.



Fortunately, there is a really wide selection of very safe seats priced under 200 dollars, and some even under 100 dollars. Britax makes a nice product, but not necessarily safer than seats half their price ;)
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
I have the impression that with the somewhat lower bottom slots plus the optional insert, the intention was to fit a typical newborn or at least very close. It may not fit a small newborn or preemie, though. I have not actually seen or tried a newborn or an infant sized doll in one, however.
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
And on the flip side, it's nice to see a model get substantial improvements without any increase to suggested retail price. Whether or not those improvements are worth the cost for any particular parent is totally up to them, of course. If the actual product is as good as it looks on paper, I'm sure a lot of parents will find it to be worth every penny.
 

Maedze

New member
I suppose it would be foolish to buy one specifically for the purpose of cutting it in half with a sawzall and taking a look-see at the safe-cell stuff, yeah?
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
I suppose it would be foolish to buy one specifically for the purpose of cutting it in half with a sawzall and taking a look-see at the safe-cell stuff, yeah?

Maybe we can start a co-op to do it. I'd be in! From what I understand, the frontal excursion results are very impressive because of that, the lower center of gravity and some other design features that affect the rotation of the seat in a crash.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
I posted this in the Marathon 70 thread, but what the heck, it's got pictures of the safecell... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX1fkkHx0Zo&feature=player_embedded#"]YouTube- New BRITAX Car Seats Featuring Revolutionary Head Safety Technologies[/ame]
 

tweetykl

New member
Is it too much to ask Britax for the specs on that girl? She looks decent size. The technology looks cool. Now I just want to see it in person.
 

Shanora

Well-known member
OK, is it sad that I now want this seat for my kid....

From what I've heard too is that the lowest harness slot will be a full 1 inch lower than the current models...which excites me!! Mean more babies should fit this seat properly
 

mish

New member
All I can think is with this whole 360 Degree protection they are bragging about, people will really think their kid is in a "Britax Bubble." Like, My kid isn't just in a Britax, which is the best, safets, whatever, it protects him all around!! Dude! Who needs to learn to install it or tighten it properly?
 

Mae

Well-known member
All I can think is with this whole 360 Degree protection they are bragging about, people will really think their kid is in a "Britax Bubble." Like, My kid isn't just in a Britax, which is the best, safets, whatever, it protects him all around!! Dude! Who needs to learn to install it or tighten it properly?

Yeah, I agree. :rolleyes:


And this --

* A re-engineered lower center of gravity that allows the child to sit lower and creates stability in the event of a crash.
* Integrated steel bars that strengthen the connection to the vehicle and reduce forward flexing of the child seat during a crash.
* Patent-pending Britax SafeCell(tm) Technology with SafeCells that are designed to compress in a crash. This significantly lowers the center of gravity and counteracts the forward rotation of the child seat, which normally propels the child toward the front seat.
* Energy-Absorbing Versa-Tether(r) with a two-point attachment and staged-release tether webbing to anchor the top of the car seat. This minimizes forward-rotation and reduces crash forces reaching the child.

Makes me think of the Radian. :whistle:

It's low profile.
Steel bars.
Ok, so no SafeCells, but -- whatever.
Tether is kind of like the SafeStop?
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Tether is kind of like the SafeStop?

Not really, they've had that tether for a couple years already, maybe since before the safestop? And in all seats for even kids heavier than 40 lbs FF.

But anyway, if something's proven to work and not patented, might as well run with it. Radian copied the velcro on the harness thing, Graco copied the Starriser comfy with the Turbo, Radian has a steel frame, like, um, the 2000-genre Fisher Prices, nothing new with metal bars (FP probably copied them from the 1982 seats, lol), Radian copied the Versa-tether...
:)
 

Mae

Well-known member
But anyway, if something's proven to work and not patented, might as well run with it.

Oh, yes, I completely agree.

I kind of like this seat. I've never like Britax much. I told myself that I would hate this seat, just so I could save myself the money. :eek:
 

HappyMommy

New member
The only thing that is truly new/different is the SafeCell technology, the rest already exists on other seats like the radian. I am kind of disappointed, I expected more.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
Hey, it sounds like they listened to some of the criticism and problems people/we had with them, and are addressing some of them. Good for them.

I still find their customer service terrible to deal with for the most part, and don't see myself spending that much money for a seat just for convenience features when I think they are addressing some of the concerns that made their seats not perform as well as other seats, but not necessarily making them BETTER than those other seats. So...

But cool. Now if only they'd come up with new names so parents wouldn't be so confused. We'll now have floating around Roundabouts, Roundabout 50s, and Roundabout 55s, for instance. Yikes.
 

Evolily

New member
It will be the third (?) seat(s) on the market to be steel reinforced. When you look at the NHTSA's head excursion numbers that steel reinforcement seems important- both the nautilus and radian have very low numbers. Other seats have lower numbers, too, though, so it doesn't appear to be the entire issues, but seems like a logical fix.

I'm glad they've spent some time re-engineering their seats. I still have to wonder about why they need 5 different variants of the same seat, though. Does the Advocate 70 really provide that much more protection than the Roundabout 50? Or just make the parent feel better. I wonder.

I do fear the britax bubble effect, though. Or the "you can ONLY put your dear little sweetie pie in a britax" mantra being reborn.
 

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