Here we go again (Britax Renaissance Si)

Member Name: anwar7

Product:	Britax Renaissance Si
Date:	07/02/04 (1575 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See review

Disadvantages: see review

My first child?s car seat given as a leaving present by my lovely colleagues was a Britax club class. The seat was very safe, fitted well and my little boy loved it .I would have used the seat again for my second son if some b****** had not hit our car head on at speed. The car was completely mangled in the accident. What was left was finished off by the fire brigade-if any members of the emergency services ever read this thank you all for saving our lives!!! Although remarkably the child seat showed little sign of damage, it is strongly recommended that you do not use a child seat that has been involved in an accident, as it may have sustained damage to it?s frame which may be difficult to spot.


Right, enough of the emotional stuff, this is an op on the renaissance seat. I have been the happy owner of this seat for over 6 months now so thought I?d write an op on my impressions, I hope it is helpful.


As you can imagine child safety in the car is something I am passionate about. Prior to buying this seat I looked at just about every seat on the market. I was also interested in the britax duo isofix seat as we have a Renault Laguna sport tourer; with isofix fittings this seemed like a good choice. But when we looked for the isofix fittings in our new car guess what? The clever folk at Renault had stitched the seat fabric over the fittings! I was told that our local Renault garage would be happy to unpick the stitching and then re-sow it when we no longer needed the seat! The car is however another op!

I phoned Britax (01264-386034) to ask for their recommendations on suitable car seats for our 2 cars. They couldn't have been more helpful. The renaissance was our first choice for the following reasons-

1.It has a unique seat-belt tensioner, which when fitted correctly means the seat belt is at the optimum tension for performance in a crash.
The seat has a handle on the side, which takes up the seat belt slack in one
simple action.


2.The seat has an adjustable headpad, which means you do not have to unthread the harness to change the height of the harness. The seat has an adjuster on the back, which can be simply moved up or down to adjust the straps for a perfect fit.



3.The seat has large side wings for protection in a side impact. This is really important as a baby is more vulnerable to head injury than an adult
and many accidents are side on. You can also visit the Britax web site at www.Britax.co.uk.I Britax was given an award for excellence by mother and baby magazine in November 2003.
Having decided we wanted to buy another Britax seat the next decision was where to get it from and which fabric to choose.


The seat comes in several fabric designs-all washable. After much shopping around I bought mine from Kiddicare.com.I paid only £99.50 for the seat including p&p! The seat retails in most other stores for £135.00.The only reason the seat is so much cheaper is that the fabric used for the cover (vintage check) is last years design. I checked with Britax before buying and they confirmed that the seat itself was exactly the same this year.

My 2 year old did not reach the required weight for using a forward facing seat until he was 18 months old (9 kg) Initially he was unsure about travelling facing forwards! However he quickly got used to it and now loves his seat. The seat is big with lots of thick padding, which is not only comfortable but adds to the safety aspect of the seat. The seat can easily be reclined, good for long journeys. My son always sleeps in his seat when we go on long journeys. Unlike other seats friends have,his head does not fall forwards.
The seat can be used with a full seat belt or a lap belt alone. The seat can be used until a child is around 4 years old.

However some cons?
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One concern is that my adventurous 2-year-old once man
aged to unclip the harness clasp. I would have preferred this to be positioned at the side as on the mamas and papas primo seat. It would also have been better if the seat had a second horizontal strap to prevent him from getting his arms out of the straps.
The seat is very heavy and although this makes it feel safe, it is a real pain if you need to constantly transfer it between cars.

Overall I am very happy with this seat .I would recommend anyone considering purchasing a child car seat should first telephone Britax to check which models are suitable for their make of car.

Summary: