They include side impact testing and NHTSA doesn't. Going forward, I'd say that testing would be important to me too. I'd just like to see all the seat manufacturers test and adhere to both standards. If Transport Canada started requiring the Euro SIP test, then that might push more voluntary testing here in the USA because we share so many of the seats across the border.
They have a 'proposed' SIP standard that has not yet been adopted by ECE... so it's not really a standard they are meeting.
EU standards would include belt lockoffs (which I gather the Recaro's lockoffs don't actually lock, so they aren't meeting THAT), head protecting foam of some variety (which most seats in the US have now), no chest clip (they think they are dangerous if it takes more than one click to get a kid out of the seat), no top tether (uh... we totally kick their butts there!)... and head excursion limits similar to ours. I just don't think their standards are really all that special (and they don't encourage extended RF in most countries...).
So just basing it on it's own merits...yeah, it's a fine seat..I bet that head is going to stay contained in a side crash, for sure! But it can't be tethered RF (no biggie if you aren't RF'ing it...), and it's just kind of bulky (no biggie if it doesn't bother you).
(and sorry I quoted you W and am answering the OP at the same time!).
If you like it and it works for you, it's fantastic...but there's really nothing special about ECE safety standards that we don't have here (and ours are better in some respects... like top tethers and anti-flammable seat covers...) (Like my Start boosters? I would never use the EU version that doesn't have a top tether, the crash tests are really way scarier... the US version is way better
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