Really extra geeky Marathon question about covers and SIP

oursonend · Dec 4, 2008

Confused here about a very subtle difference between two Marathons depicted on the Britax USA site.

If you look on the Britax USA website and go to the Marathon, then click the Demo, and then to the "Fashions" tab, look at grey herringbone. On the cover, it has the little shield emblem with "Side Impact Protection" on it underneath the Britax label. Then if you go to "More Fashions" and look at Onyx, there is no SIP emblem.

WHy?

Are there any differences in the seats themselves, or just the covers?

ETA sorry I can't link directly to them, but all the flash stuff is making it not work. But I'm sure y'all know where to find what I'm talking about.

crunchierthanthou · Dec 4, 2008

I think it's basically a change in marketing. TSIP is a trademarked term. The new label started showing up with the Diplomat and now most (all?) Britax seats have it. Although their convertibles went through a few changes this year, I don't believe any were directly related to side impact performance. In those terms, that new seats have the label doesn't mean that older seats don't provide it.

Side impact protection and testing are sort of industry buzz words right now. There are no testing standards for SIP, so even though Britax does do it, it's somewhat arbitrary. That's not to say they don't provide SIP, just that you can't compare it to any other seat on the market. All 5 point harnesses provide some degree of SIP just by nature of how they work. That some seats are labeled as such is like I said- marketing.

oursonend · Dec 5, 2008

Great answer, thanks.

Good to know that it's just the older vs newer covers and not a difference in the seat or its performance between different editions of the same model.