singingpond
New member
Does anyone know how long this design has been out?
I bought a Scenera about a week ago, and was all set to like the seat (who wouldn't like a usable carseat, 35 lb. RF limit, with reasonably high top slots, that might have solved my 3-across problem, for just $40?). As it turns out, it doesn't fit all that well where I need it -- it's narrow enough, but the base is causing trouble in a couple of different ways, depending on where I try to install it in my '96 Corolla.
However, details of install issues aside, it sort of bugs me that the seat feels so flimsy, especially at the top of the shell, where everything just bends around with very little force applied. I had the seat on the living room floor while I was reading the manual, and found myself yelling at the kids to be gentle with the darn thing, so it wouldn't break in case I had to return it. It then struck me that this is not a reasonable worry about a device that is supposed to be able to protect said kids in an automobile accident, LOL.
Then came the thread about the Chicago Tribune (I think that's the right newspaper?) article, and that made me more uncomfortable about the Scenera, and is one more reason I will probably be returning the seat to WalMart today. Not sure what I would have done if it fit perfectly in my car....
Now, I do own two AO's (and plan to continue using them), and I don't necessarily trust any carseat company to look too far past the profit motive, so it's not that I simply think Britax (for example) is wonderful and Dorel is cr*p. However, the article points out long-term willful disregard of known safety issues at Dorel, and that is disturbing. As another example, with the AO's, we got bitten by the unusable-for-harness top headrest position (oldest DS rode that way for over a month before I stumbled across the information), and, as far as I know, Dorel is still selling the same design years later, with the same built-in booby trap. Legally, I guess they're fine, since the warning is there (somewhere) in the manual, and in nearly invisible embossed plastic text on the back of the seat shell . Our first AO expires this year, so that makes at least 6 years of this blatant design flaw.
So, back to the Scenera -- how long has it been out on the market? Has it been long enough for reports of possible problems to filter back, despite Dorel's obvious corporate policy of stonewalling?
Katrin
I bought a Scenera about a week ago, and was all set to like the seat (who wouldn't like a usable carseat, 35 lb. RF limit, with reasonably high top slots, that might have solved my 3-across problem, for just $40?). As it turns out, it doesn't fit all that well where I need it -- it's narrow enough, but the base is causing trouble in a couple of different ways, depending on where I try to install it in my '96 Corolla.
However, details of install issues aside, it sort of bugs me that the seat feels so flimsy, especially at the top of the shell, where everything just bends around with very little force applied. I had the seat on the living room floor while I was reading the manual, and found myself yelling at the kids to be gentle with the darn thing, so it wouldn't break in case I had to return it. It then struck me that this is not a reasonable worry about a device that is supposed to be able to protect said kids in an automobile accident, LOL.
Then came the thread about the Chicago Tribune (I think that's the right newspaper?) article, and that made me more uncomfortable about the Scenera, and is one more reason I will probably be returning the seat to WalMart today. Not sure what I would have done if it fit perfectly in my car....
Now, I do own two AO's (and plan to continue using them), and I don't necessarily trust any carseat company to look too far past the profit motive, so it's not that I simply think Britax (for example) is wonderful and Dorel is cr*p. However, the article points out long-term willful disregard of known safety issues at Dorel, and that is disturbing. As another example, with the AO's, we got bitten by the unusable-for-harness top headrest position (oldest DS rode that way for over a month before I stumbled across the information), and, as far as I know, Dorel is still selling the same design years later, with the same built-in booby trap. Legally, I guess they're fine, since the warning is there (somewhere) in the manual, and in nearly invisible embossed plastic text on the back of the seat shell . Our first AO expires this year, so that makes at least 6 years of this blatant design flaw.
So, back to the Scenera -- how long has it been out on the market? Has it been long enough for reports of possible problems to filter back, despite Dorel's obvious corporate policy of stonewalling?
Katrin