Renaissance a new beginning. (Britax Renaissance Si)

Member Name: wishywalshy

Product:	Britax Renaissance Si
Date:	10/02/03 (2310 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Higher up positioning, Adjustafit harness and unique tension foot, It fits a Toyota Townace, and Harmony can no longer escape.

Disadvantages: Costly, Heavy, No harness strap holders

As the name implies a New Birth in the design of child carseats.
Designed for the 9kg-18kg weight range, approximately 9 months to around 4 years.
Offering One handed multi recline facility, five point harness with unique adjust a fit system ensuring safe travel on every journey.
Seat belt tensioning foot with 2 lock off clasps.
Will fit securely into many cars with both lap and lap and diagonal seat belts. (Universal)
Deep padded comfortable seat with fitted headrest, chest and tummy pads.
Conforming to ECE R44/03 regulations, this seat retails for around 140 pounds in baby and toy shops, and many high streets stores.

Seeking a new child seat can be more difficult than you would expect when searching for the perfect fit.
Our now elderly Club class child seat had certainly seen better days I discovered to my horror.
Now anyone would think that buying a new seat to fit a car would be easy!!, hmmm not so.
Thinking that all carseats stating ?Suitable for lap strap? would indeed be the case.

Before we start Here is a vital fact

***************DO NOT USE CHILD SEATS IN THE FRONT OF CARS WHERE AN AIRBAG IS FITTED, IT IS POTENTIALLY FATAL)*************
You should not buy a secondhand seat unless you know the history of it.
You childs straps need checking and adjusting on every journey, remember to take into account your childs clothing.
You are in the car through choice, your child isn't, make it as safe and pleasant as you can for everyone

Now that is out of the way on with the opinion.

We have an imported Toyota Townace which is only fitted with lap belts.(All six back seats).
My tester was my very nearly 3 year old daughter, who had perfected the art of removing both arms from the shoulder harness, rendering the seat totally useless.
Her weight dictated that she still needed to be in a full seat.
With a younger sister hot on her heels I was quite happy to look at
the entire range of seats available knowing that I will be getting my moneys worth out of it.

I didn?t really want to buy another Clubclass so I scanned the entire market and whittled it down to around 8 different seats.

The Club class actually fit perfectly but was in shocking condition, and due to the tubular frame could only sit on the rear seats without the bars sliding down the gap between seats.
Harmony also seemed too tall for the shoulder straps.

Harmony and I headed off to Halfords for their advertised specialist Car Seat fitter to do battle with my trusty Townace.
Choosing from their depleted range didn?t take long. Honestly I was not impressed with the selection in store, I had expected far more to be on show than there were, again if I ordered a seat from their extensive catalogue I would be faced a problem, would it fit securely?.

The young gent was extremely helpful and happily trundled out to the car, seats in hand.
After a strenuous 15 minute battle with the first two(Concorde and Graco) we headed back into the shop.
Deciding that this was actually going a little more complicated than I first imagined, we tried the next two.(Another concorde and a Britax Eclipse).
This time the Eclipse nearly fit. There was just the littlest movement, but to my thinking it was too much.
Having seen a great deal at Tescos we headed off to try the Maxi cosi seat. Unfortunately that one didn?t fit either, pity really because it was a really nice seat.
Now dejected wondering if I would ever find one that really fit, we contacted Britax who replied ?Toyota what ace, no sorry don?t have any records of that?.

Plymouths Mothercare is badly situated so parking the car nearby to fit seats is a no no, however Toys`r`us have a large carpark and a wide selection of seats, including a few that I hadn?t tried.
Although the staff were a bit sparse, after a little persuasion I managed to con
vince the one and only baby advisor to accompany me out with another Britax, this time a Freeway.
She had worked there for 4 years and no-one had asked to fit a seat before buying it before(Huh!!)
Nope not a chance of the Freeway fitting in any of the seats.
My choices were becoming fewer and fewer.
Lurking on the shelf was another Britax, this time the top of the range all singing all dancing multi reclining adjust a fit harnessed Renaissance.
Reduced from 140 to 114 pounds it was certainly worth a look.

This carseat was certainly the most substantial seat I had tried all day, it weighed a ton.
To my utter amazement after a few minor adjustments here and there it started to look promising.
The seat has a unique pair of lock off clips and a seatbelt tensioning foot which removes all slack from the seatbelt. by depressing itself deep into the cushion of the cars own seat and pulling the belt tight.
The lever is easy to operate and uncomplicated.
This done the seat was incredibly stable and more secure than any seat I had managed to install in the car.

Now how did Harmony fit in the thing?
Really well, with the adjust a fit harness system; the height of the straps is fully adjustable at the slide of a catch on the back of the back of the seat.
The straps have an integral headrest which adjusts with the belt height.
The 5 point harness is easy for an adult to use but difficult for a toddler to undo.
The Straps are tightened by the pull of a single strap between Harmonys legs, and loosened by depressing a button just above the single strap.
The deep padded side wings give additional side impact protection.

Harmonys head is not quite level with the top of the seat and there is a fair bit of space left for growing room both upwards and outwards.(She will need transferring to the next stage seat when her eyes are level with the top of the seat or she reaches 19 kgs)

Now came the r
eal test, could Harmony wriggle her arms out of the harness?
Nope not a hope in h*ll.

How easy was the seat to recline?
Very very easy, much easier than the Club class had been and that was easy.
It is simply a matter of reaching under the seat and pulling the lever which is nicely grip shaped and sliding the seat either forwards or backwards into the desired position.

How many positions could I recline it into.
5 through from upright to fully recline(Which does look a tad comfy, wouldn?t it be nice if they made these for adults too!!!)

Now that we had a fit we removed the seat and went back into the store to buy one.
To my utter disbelief they didn?t have any more in stock, only the display model.
I was caught in a quandary did I push for a further reduction due to it being the floor sample or did I head off to Mothercare, pay to park the car and spend another thirty quid on it to boot.
Now offered for sale at a ridiculous ninetynine pounds how could I resist, we shortly became the proud owners of seat.
It was just as easy to install it the second time.
Quick painless and secure.

So now that I?ve had it for a week do I still think it is as good?
Absolutely, although there are a couple of things that I would like to see, on a couple of other brands of seat there are seat belt holders for the child?s harness when not in use, allowing easy fitting without having to search behind the child for the respective straps.
It is incredibly heavy to carry and would be probably suited to use in a single car rather than transporting this seat from car to car.

Harmony has still not been able to release herself from the seat, however it is interesting to note that her 4 year old sister is quite capable and strong to undo Harmonys clip.

She fits into it perfectly with or without outer heavy coats and her belts are easily adjusted with the minimal amount of fuss.

What I really
like about this seat

It actually fits into our car very well.
It has a special belt tensioning foot ensuring a tight fit.
Two lock off clasps preventing slack in the car seat belt(Anchor)
The seat cover and pads which are removable for washing at 30o, it is not however suitable for tumbling. (Ours is navy blue check)
It sits up higher than most other seats allowing a better view for smaller occupants.
The single one handed belt adjuster.
The intergral headrest which moves along with the height.
The deep side wings for extra protection.
The 5 positions that it can be set at.
Not having to unthread the whole belt system to move the shoulder belts height(The adjust a fit system)to suit smaller travelers.
There are no visible metal fittings for sunlight to heat up.
Ability to replace worn covers through seat stockists.
And Harmony cannot escape YAY!!!

All in all a thoroughly brilliant seat, although originally a little expensive for my taste, I feel that we certainly got our moneys worth from it.

An added tip, if you have any seat with a single adjust strap??. before undoing the clasp and removing the child press that magic button and loosen the 5 point system up, it makes the next journey much easier and less stressful than trying to place a wriggly child into straps that are too small.

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