Okay, I don't own one, and probably never will. My standpoint as a mother with a rearfacing 23 month old is that the regent/husky is quickly becoming an outdated seat.
Why do I say that? Well first off the seat requires a tether past 50lbs, and always when used with a lapbelt. There are other seats on the market that don't, including other britax seats, the radians, and the safeguards. That alone suggests to me that it may not perform as well for a child who still fits into one of the smaller HWH seats. The other thing is that we've seen an explosion of HWH harness seats in the last couple years, and with the leaks of info on that new recaro seat, it's not stopping anytime soon.
From what I can tell, my tethers work to 60lbs with a seat, and 80 with a vest or harness. I'm not comfortable relying on them past that. Would I tether a product past those limits? Yes, it can only help. Would I use a product that must be tethered past those limits? Nope. At this point I sincerly believe that there are better products available. Of course, if at this momment I had a van with an available belt to tether to, or a special tether installed, and a child that didnt' fit in anyother harness, I'd use a regent in a heartbeat. At this point I'm just going to sit and wait, by the time my son needs something more than his MA, I'm certain better things will be available.
The superelite/husky/regent was really a great seat when it came out, giving parents options that didn't previously exist, but at this point I don't think that it can really compete with the other hwh seats on the market untill a child no longer fits in them for whatever reason(height or weight). I truly think it's time Britax went back to the drawing board and developed a new seat to replace the regent.
Oh, and I want to clarify that I still think it's a good seat, and wonderful for children, budgets, or cars that don't fit anything else, I just really think it's time that Britax either improved it or replaced it. I really, honestly, think they can do better.
I hope that makes sense.
Interesting viewpoint and one I hadn't thought of. However, as the mom of a 10 yo and 8 yo who currently still fit (and use as their primary seats) a Husky and a Regent, respectively, I can tell you that for them, there are *not* other harnessed options I am comfortable with. Ds1 certainly hasn't fit in the MA (or clones) for several years and dd stopped fitting in the MA sometime last year. AFAIK, my van (05 Sienna) does not have tether anchor weight limits, and even if it did, I would still tether. My ds1 is 61 lbs and I have to measure him, but he has somewhere between 1/2" to 1 inch of torso growth left in the Husky. My dd is 8 and 50-51 lbs (again, have to measure her, though) and she just moved up to the top slots.
Maybe Britax
can do better. I don't know. Maybe it's not worth the expense to them right now to invest in design, development, testing, marketing, etc, when they have a seat that works, kwim? They've led the market in HWH seats in the first place, and stepped up with SIP before most others. They've worked on integrating that into boosters before most other manuf., as well. I believe the PW was one of the first (if not the first) that does not have a set top weight limit. That's a lot of "new" stuff in the last few years, so while I have various issues with them on a variety of things, I can say that I am very satisfied with the Husky/Regent. It definitely serves my needs
very well right now.
Yes, the future can bring new and hopefully, better, things. Will my 5yo be in something different when he outgrows his MA? I don't know. The baby? For sure, I don't know! lol I don't necessarily have brand loyalty unto death or anything, but I know all 3 of my older kids would not be harnessed right now (well, maybe the 5yo in something else, since there is more available now) and certainly the 5yo would not have RFed as long as he did w/out the MA.
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/Nikolas.aspx (too tall for his Touriva RF around 32 lbs or so). Now I've rambled and I'm sorry! I'm just saying all of this to hopefully make the point that for those with much younger children, there *are* a lot of other options that we didn't used to have, which might be why there are so many people who still praise Britax, even in the midst of various problems.
Amy
CPST and Mom to 4 great kids, all in seats
(Ds1 - 10 - 61 lbs - Husky; Dd - 8 - 51 lbs - Regent; Ds2 - 5.5 - 40.5 lbs - Marathon; Ds3 - 3.5mos - 17 lbs - Companion, new MA arriving TODAY!)