A great seat if your budget allows it

I want to say first off that I do think these are excellent car seats and would recommend them to anyone based on safety, durability, and longevity. BUT all car seats meet safety guidelines and if money is an issue and you do not have special seating circumstances (like no shoulder belts) do not feel bad about purchasing a cheaper car seat. You should pick the car seat that best suits your needs and budget.

Our seat was $250 at Babies-R-Us. And we have an older van and there are no shoulder belts in back so when our boys needed bigger seats any sort of belt positioning booster just was not an option, we needed an actual car seat and the Regent goes to 80 pounds.

We do have one of the seats in this Sahara fabric and it is very attractive. One thing though is the center fabric is a crisper nylon so it gets really cold and is not plush like the outer edges are (though it is easier to wipe clean). We received our seat from Babies-R-Us and they only carried it in this cover.

The seat can be a chore to install and I would not recommend it if you need a seat to often transfer from one vehicle to another as it weighs 25 pounds empty! The car seat belt goes through 2 ways. One is the more traditional through the back way. Another (long route) you bring the belt around the front, slip it through holes and thread it behind the seat and then back out to the front and around the other side… this can be a chore. But once installed this thing isn’t going anywhere! This also comes fully equipted with the LATCH system. When you child get's older you must use both the vehicle betls and the latch to secure the seat.

There is a recline bar that gives the seat just enough angle so that if your child falls asleep his or her head doesn’t slump forward or to the side. It has nice shoulder pads that must make the straps more comfortable and also rubber guide/pads for the chest clip that help keep the belts in place and also aide in preventing the child from slipping the chest clip out of location. It has a belly pad that simply slips onto the buckle to cushion that as well. The cover is nice and soft (except the nylon center) and completely removable and machine washable. Also the shell is made of thick plastic and there is high density foam for padding.

There are mesh pockets on both sides. One pocket is divided and they call this a cup holder but really it can be for anything.

The strap adjustment is in the front but nicely covered by a flap so that the child doesn’t just go loosening his straps. I wanted to add that there are holders for the straps. They are elastic bands about midway up on the side of the seat (you can see one on the photo for this listing). They do work but not untill your child is big enough to create enough belt slack that the chest clips can reach the belt holder. I cannot use them for my 2 year old but I can for my 4 year old. You simply tuck the belt clips into the elastic and they will be held out of the way when you are positioning your child.

This car seat is a very tall and quite a wide seat. We were able to get both seats side by side but there is no room to spare. Also another thing to consider is if you are shorter you may want to have one on one bench/seat and another behind it as the backs of this seat do come up high and can interfere with your rear view. Our other seat is an older model of this same seat.

You can find the exact dimensions for the Britax seat at http://www.britaxusa.com/products/product_detail.aspx?ID=9
It is further down at the end of the page. You may want to take these measurements into consideration and go measure your vehicle before investing in this seat.