Amazon is having another sale on Britax car seats. There have been some interesting developments in car seat recommendations lately - the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees that kids should be kept rear-facing until age 2, and the industry as a whole is moving towards an acknowledgment of the huge importance of side-impact protection - so if you're looking to switch seats, now is a great time to get a Britax, which is at the leading edge of both trends. Most seats are $50 off in this sale, and also qualify for free shipping from Amazon. We've personally purchased three Britax seats for Z so far and we love them!

If you've been reading Z Recommends for a while you know that we love Britax car seats. We've had Z testing out the Boulevard CS for the last few months and at age 4.5 years old she can still fit in it forward-facing. With a rear-facing shoulder height limit of 16" (seated) and weight limit of 35 pounds and a front facing shoulder height limit of 16" and weight limit of 65 pounds, we consider it an excellent convertible car seat - that is, a car seat that can both rear face and forward face.

Safe Kids USA cited failure to adequately tighten car seat shoulder straps as one of the most common things parents do to undermine the safety of their child's car seat (second to not securely tightening the safety belt restraining the car seat itself). Britax's new "Click & Safe" feature (the "CS" at the end of the name) addresses this issue by adding an audible click that sounds when shoulder straps are pulled tight enough. We were curious to test this feature and found it to be a big help - it's reassuring to hear that you have the straps tight enough without having to second-guess or test it by trying to wiggle your finger in between the straps and your child to check for tightness.

Another big win for the Boulevard CS is the way you adjust the shoulder straps - they're fully adjustable using a twisty dial on the back of the seat. So not only do you not have to unthread and rethread the straps (anyone who has wrestled with this knows what a pain that can be!) but you don't even have to uninstall the seat. Really. It's that easy. We should make a video of this like we did with the Frontier's own nifty strap adjustment method.

Additionally, Jeremiah was able to install this car seat in each of its possible configurations - with LATCH connectors and with the seat belt, forward- and rear-facing (so four configurations in all) in under 15 minutes on the first try. Granted, he's probably getting pretty good at installing car seats by now, since he's in charge of getting them installed and reinstalled properly for Z in four cars (his, mine, and two local grandmothers') and has done test installations for all the car seats we've reviewed. But the Boulevard CS struck him as particularly easy.

Britax seats are also side-impact tested by the company and developed to offer side impact protection commensurate with European safety standards.

In short, we highly recommend this seat, and are naming it a Top Pick for its ease of use in this car seat class as well as Britax's excellent record of safety and its position at the forefront of side impact protection. The Boulevard CS retails for $330 but is on sale until Feb. 15 for $280 on Amazon.com and elsewhere.

Kate writes:

If I am interested in buying a Frontier right now, how do I know the production date of my frontier? Should I assume the problem has been fixed in the new Frontiers?

Since Britax is replacing the Regents with the Frontiers, would you say there is any reason to consider a Regent?

Great questions, Kate. The Frontier recall involves a problem with the metal harness "yoke" in back of the seat, which the harness straps attach to. The fix is as follows, according to a press release issued by Britax:

To address this issue, Britax will provide two rubber caps that can be easily placed on the yoke slots to prevent the harness straps from detaching. The rubber caps have been specifically designed for the Frontier yoke to provide a secure fit and have been tested to verify their effectiveness.

No later than January 7, 2009, the rubber caps will be mailed with an instruction sheet to all registered Frontier child restraint owners with manufacturing dates prior to September 15 or 18, 2008. Additional caps will be made available to retailers with affected inventory of Frontiers manufactured prior to September 15 or 18, 2008. All Frontier child restraint owners should confirm whether their Frontier is affected by verifying the date of manufacture.

As of today, a website at www.frontierrecall.com now offers additional information and a form through which owners of the Britax Frontier can sign up to receive a repair kit.

As shown in the image above, on the child's righthand side on the back of the car seat's wing there should be a label with all of the needed information to determine when your car seat was manufactured and what exact model it is. The recall includes Frontier child restraints manufactured between April 1, 2008 and September 14, 2008 for Model #s E9L54E7, E9L54H6, E9L54H7 and E9L54M6 and between April 1, 2008 and September 17, 2008 on Model # E9L5490.

The best thing to do prior to receiving your kit is to uninstall your Frontier and check the yoke to make sure the straps are securely attached (not slipping off).

Britax currently has no plans to phase out the Regent. (Based on your comment, we checked in with them to make sure.) The primary differences between the Regent and the Frontier are that the Regent offers slightly longer five-point harnessing (i.e. to a bit higher torso length) but is a bit wider design than the Frontier. The Frontier can be transitioined into one of the best belt-positioning boosters on the market, retaining its wings for added side-impact protection. (We reviewed the Britax Frontier in detail here.) Either makes an excellent choice, in our view, based (as are all car seat purchases) on your car and child.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced a recall of some Britax Frontier car seats manufactured this year. Detailed information won't be available until Dec. 17, but it looks like the harness can slip off of the metal piece in back of the seat, and the company will provide a repair kit. The NHTSA release reads as follows:

Make: BRITAX

Models: E9L5490 (FRONTIER), E9L54E7 (FRONTIER), E9L54H6 (FRONTIER), E9L54H7 (FRONTIER), E9L54M6 (FRONTIER)

Production Dates: April 1, 2008 - September 18, 2008

Defect: BRITAX IS RECALLING CERTAIN FRONTIER CHILD RESTRAINT SYSTEMS, MODELS E9L54E7 (FRONTIER RED ROCK), E9L54H6 (FRONTIER RUSHMORE), E9L54H7 (FRONTIER PINK SKY), E9L54M6 (FRONTIER CANYON), AND E9L5490 (FRONTIER SAHARA), MANUFACTURED BETWEEN APRIL 1 AND SEPTEMBER 18, 2008. IF THE HARNESS STRAPS ARE LOOSENED USING ONE STRAP AT A TIME, THEN THE HARNESS STRAPS MAY BECOME DETACHED FROM THE METAL YOKE LOCATED ON THE BACK OF THE CHILD SEAT.

Consequence: SHOULD THE HARNESS STRAPS BECOME DETACHED, THE CHILD WILL NOT BE PROPERLY RESTRAINED, POSSIBLY RESULTING IN AN INCREASED RISK OF INJURY IN THE EVENT OF A VEHICLE CRASH.

Corrective Action: BRITAX WILL MAIL THE CONSUMER NOTICE AND REMEDY KITS TO ALL REGISTERED OWNERS FREE OF CHARGE. OWNERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED THEIR SEATS WITH BRITAX MUST CALL BRITAX AT 1-704-409-1700 AND REQUEST A KIT. THE RECALL IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN ON OR ABOUT JANUARY 7, 2009. INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS RELATED TO THE CAMPAIGN WILL BE POSTED ON THE BRITAX WEBSITE AT HTTP://WWW.BRITAXUSA.COM NO LATER THAN DECEMBER 17, 2008. OWNERS WITH OTHER QUESTIONS CAN CONTACT BRITAX AT 1-704-409-1700.

Notes: CUSTOMERS MAY ALSO CONTACT THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION'S VEHICLE SAFETY HOTLINE AT 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), OR GO TO HTTP://WWW.SAFERCAR.GOV .

The Frontier is one of our favorite extended-harnessing seats, and this is an easily-remedied problem but a dangerous one, as well as a disappointing misstep for a highly-regarded company. We have used Britax seats throughout Z's childhood (she currently has a Regent) and admire the company's commitment to extended harnessing and their position at the forefront of new safety technologies in car seat design.

The way NHTSA runs recalls can be a little awkward, but it is more aggressive. Unlike the CPSC, the NHTSA has the clear authority to issue a recall without the company's permission, which the company can then go through a series of challenges to try to reverse if they disagree with it. Here's what the NHTSA says about its own process:

If the manufacturer declines to conduct a recall in response to the Recall Request Letter, the Associate Administrator for Enforcement may issue an Initial Decision that a safety-related defect exists. An Initial Decision will be followed by a Public Meeting, at which the manufacturer and interested members of the public can present information and arguments on the issue. Prior to the Public Meeting, the manufacturer is sent copies of all information on which the Government’s decision is based. A copy of the file is also made available for public inspection in the agency’s Technical Information Services (TIS) Office.

During the meeting itself, the manufacturer may attempt to refute the Government’s evidence in addition to presenting new information. Public interest groups, other manufacturers, trade associations, and consumers may also present information that will be considered and evaluated by NHTSA’s Administrator in making a final decision on whether a safety-related defect exists. The entire investigative record is then presented to NHTSA’s Administrator, who may issue a Final Decision that a safety defect exists and order the manufacturer to conduct a recall.

This is followed by additional opportunities for the company to contest the recall.

Our guess is that Britax was notified of the defect by the NHTSA and quickly agreed to the recall; unfortunately, the process leaves gaps - like the fact that Britax isn't committed to publicizing this until Dec. 17 (there isn't any information on their website as of this writing), and the recall itself won't "begin" until January. That may leave some parents with a sense that they are in limbo, which is the opposite of what a company like Britax would ideally like to do in order to assure consumers that they are in good hands and are being taken care of. Companies have a lot more leverage in negotiating when and how a recall will be orchestrated, and while this often means that CPSC recalls are delayed by foot-dragging tactics, it also means that consumer reaction can be a bit better managed than the NHTSA is doing here.

Whether you own a Frontier or not, a recall like this should serve as a reminder to everyone to make sure they have registered their child's car seat with its manufacturer. This is the best way to get product recall information on one of the most important investments you make in your child's safety.

We spoke with Britax's Advanced Technology Program Manager, Pankaj Amesa, as well as Jeanna Rimmer, a communications specialist at the company, prior to receiving our review unit of the new Frontier, which we reviewed earlier today. Our candid phone call covered issues ranging from the chemicals in their seats to a disclosure of just how committed Britax is to the idea of extended harnessing.

ZRecs: We were most interested in the Frontier's design to keep children harnessed later than other seats. But your marketing materials seems to focus on side-impact protection features. Why this emphasis?

Pankaj Amesar: To put it in perspective, among children from birth to twelve years old, one in four crashes are side impact crashes, and the fatality rates are much higher than in frontal impact crashes. In frontal impact there's not much in the way of intruding objects that come into direct contact with the occupant, but in side impact crashes there is not much between the occupant and the object, so the door deforms and hits the occupant, which causes large [numbers of] fatalities. The stiff structure of the Frontier acts as a barrier between objects and the occupant. It's also important to manage the energy, and we lined the structure with the energy-absorbing components. This takes energy away from the occupant. These are factors we closely design for.

There has been a lot of research done that suggests that a five-point harness is the safest protection that can be had. There have been calls by researchers to keep kids in five-point harness as long as possible. The Regent kept kids in a five-point harness up to 80 pounds. There are not many products that go 80 pounds harnessed. Britax believes in keeping kids in a five-point harness as long as possible for safety reasons.

Jeanna Rimmer: Because there is no side impact standard in the States, we are taking what they are using in Europe - more of a consumer test - to test to. We also test to global standards, in Europe they have been doing side impact testing for many years. Europe has been working for a decade on side impact testing standards. A consumer group [NPACS] has picked up the standard as a benchmark standard to evaluate standards.

ZRecs: Clearly, extended harnessing is a big part of that.

Jeanna: We as a company want to be known for best practices. One of those is keeping a child in a five-point harness as long as possible. Keeping them rear-facing as long as possible, then forward facing as long as possible. We had the first 65-pound convertible seat on the market, and now we are advancing our product to 80 pounds. If we can make it so it's a combination harness to booster, we can encourage that five-point harness longer than parents might otherwise use it.

Typically by the time a child is two, two and a half, a family will have another child and pass that seat down. This gives them the opportunity to move that child into the Frontier, a combination booster, keeping the child in a five-point harness hopefully up to 80 lbs. If they decide to take them out at five, six, or seven, they’ll still have the side-impact protection, because the back and head wings are retained in booster mode.

We're trying to lead the way to move away from a basic booster seat. With the Frontier, all you're removing is the harness. Even as a booster, you can use the LATCH system for stability.

ZRecs: Do you think that eventually this will all be part of the law? LATCH connections, side impact requirements?

Pankaj: NHTSA is looking at developing a new standard for side-impact protection. It will take its due course of time and we don’t have any information on that. As far as forcing LATCH on a booster, that's probably not on the horizon simply because having a LATCH booster the only thing it does for you is keep it from not being a projectile when it's not being used. If you put a booster in there and do not secure it and nobody’s using it, it could be a flying projectile. If you are using a booster, you need to engage the seatbelt and lock it so it will not become a projectile. The benefits of the LATCH for when a child is wearing a belt are still to be quantified.

ZRecs: We're seeing a growing awareness and interest among our readers in car seat materials - both plastics, which can off-gas, and fabrics, which often contain high levels of brominated flame retardants. Where does Britax stand on the phasing out of chemicals of concern to parents?

Pankaj: Federal standards are by far the biggest ones that capture most of it, but there are subtle regulatory requirements at state levels such as chemical requirements in your products, phthalate requirements - California just passed a law that said none of the components should have phthalates in it.

Jeanna: Over the last year we have been working with suppliers and vendors to make sure that the flame retardants that we are required to use are at safe levels and are not anything that would cause concern. There are a lot of reports that are going on right now and there is not a lot of scientific evidence that this amount will cause this kind of problem.

ZRecs: But the issue of BPA has shown that consumer demand and even possible regulation can advance faster than achieving a complete scientific consensus.

Jeanna: Absolutely. As manufacturers, even though there may not be hard scientific proof, we want to do things that make parents comfortable. It's an issue that has just come to fruition over the last 12 to 18 months.

We are moving towards new chemical-type standards to follow with our suppliers. One area of concern is the amount of bromine in flame retardants. We are moving towards standards like OEKO-TEX that is widely accepted.

A lot of the fabrics we use have inherent flame-retardancy - the nylon-type fabrics, in our microfibers the plush or "flop" type fabric, some of them have inherent flame-retardancy to them.

ZRecs: While I have you, Pankaj, I'd like to get you on the record about aftermarket products - seat belt tighteners, neck pillows, and all that. We have come out very strongly on ZRecs against those, and it's sometimes very frustrating to see them being sold despite all that is known about their potential harm.

Pankaj: We do not advise using any aftermarket products. Anything aftermarket, we can't say how it's going to affect that product in a crash test environment.

ZRecs: Give me more. Some parents think that's just legalese for car seat manufacturers protecting themselves from liability. You're an engineer. What's your engineer's perspective?

Pankaj: Well, for example, if you’re using seat belt tighteners, you could overtighten, you could damage the seat belt, and you could make the seat installation too stiff and it would not absorb the impact of a crash. Pillows could alter the initial positioning of the kid, and could cause the harnesses to be looser than they might be. They have their own set of issues.

ZRecs: What is the future of traditional booster seats at Britax? I don’t want to put you on the spot and ask you to tell me if you’re discontinuing either of your standalone booster seats, but I'm curious - your other booster products don't offer as much side impact protection, which now seems to be a major focus for you.

Jeanna: Oh, but we are discontinuing them. We have two booster products, the Parkway, which you cannot remove the back, and the Monarch booster which has a removable back but it does have the deep wings when the back is attached. We are discontinuing both of these products.

The Parkway you can still see at retail but it is no longer in production. The Monarch will be phased out of production by June or July. You'll probably still see it in retail until the end of the year but we will no longer be distributing it from our Charlotte, North Carolina headquarters after the summer is over.

I spent some formative years with an accident reconstructionist living and working in the house, and earned spending money organizing car wreck scene photos. Suffice to say, no one ever gets in my car without buckling up and sitting properly. So it was with great interest that we approached Britax with a request for a review unit of their new Frontier car seat, a 25-to-80-pound car seat that converts from a five-point-harness seat to a belt-positioning booster, to evaluate for Z Recommends.

In addition to its harness-to-booster design, the Frontier features significant side impact protection, uncommon in car seats in general and almost unheard of in booster seats. The Frontier keeps kids harnessed up to 80 pounds and 53" tall (standing height), at which point you can remove the five-point harness and use the seat as a belt-positioning booster until up to 100 pounds and 60" tall. This seat has an astonishing usable lifespan of 9 years, which means that the Frontier is truly a second car seat that can transition your child from convertible car seat to a height sufficient for the safest use of shoulder safety belts without the need for a separate booster purchase.

Comparing a seat and separate booster purchase with the the Frontier, we're guessing some parents could go either way, as the Frontier costs a hefty $280 (on sale at Amazon.com for $250 this week). But to understand the seat's additional benefits, you have to understand a bit about why a seat like this exists in the first place, and why it represents a genuinely safer option for most families.

Booster Seats and the Safety Gap

While the safety of kids in cars has advanced by leaps and bounds in the years (decades!) since I was sorting photos of car wrecks, there's been a significant but little-discussed safety gap for four- to eight-year olds in the U.S. State laws are beginning to mandate longer booster use, but still fall well short of regulations in the European Union, where kids stay in boosters until they're twelve years old or 4'5" tall.

Boosters are becoming a popular option for four-year-old and even three-year-old kids in this country. A child typically outgrows their convertible car seat (the backward- to forward-facing step up from an infant car seat) around four years of age, depending on the seat (most top off at 40"). But when that same child is between two and two and a half years old, most of these families have another child, who will likely need a convertible car seat before the first child has outgrown it. So parents suddenly have to choose between buying another convertible (presumably a larger one, so their older child can use it longer) or switching them to a booster at around their third year. New companies and existing ones have accommodated this trend by introducing boosters rated as safe for ever-younger and lighter children, with the smallest belt-positioning boosters now claiming to be safe for children as small as 30 pounds. Images of even younger-looking children on some boosters' advertising and packaging silently encourage parents to switch to belt-positioning boosters as early as necessary to avoid buying another car seat.

But boosters come with some significant safety problems when used with children this young. Seat belt geometry is not as protective for their small bodies as a five-point harness, which better distributes crash forces throughout a child's skeletal body, and lap belts can cause potentially fatal internal injuries in a crash, as children's less-developed hip bones cause the belt to rest against the soft abdomen rather than bone. And even if children are somewhere near the right size or physical stage of development to be adequately protected by a seat belt, it is often far later that they are mature enough to sit in one - that is, not squirming around, getting out of position, or falling asleep and leaning or slouching their way out of the bulk of the belt's protective design. Organizations like the Kyle David Miller Foundation have cropped up to encourage extended harnessing and inform parents of the risks of transitioning to a booster too early.

This means that for most parents, the safest option is to buy a third car seat before eventually shifting to booster use. Such car seats are bound to be the biggest on the market, and more expensive than the least-expensive convertible options were. Some companies rolled out new car seat to booster hybrids beginning a few years ago, but until recently most have topped out at a maximum child weight of 40 pounds for harnessing, meaning that children are forced into the belt-positioning booster earlier than many are ready for it.

A Better Solution: Extended Harnessing

The good news for parents at this crossroads now is that a new wave of car seats that last longer and support a wider height and weight range just might last you through the booster years. Z frequently travels in either of two vehicles, so when she outgrew her twin Britax Roundabouts (one of our top recommendations for convertible car seats) we purchased a Britax Regent for our primary vehicle and a Radian 80 (made by Sunshine Kids) for the other one. In either case, we'll need a booster to get us that extra few inches to 4'9".

I know what you're thinking: The concept of keeping a child in a "car seat" through the age of eight is still anathema to most Americans, but it is gaining traction elsewhere. Enter Britax, which is counting on the idea that belt-positioning boosters that have backs and side wings represent a habitable middle ground for safety-conscious American families.

The Frontier

So we return to our original points about the Frontier: It keeps kids in a five-point harness until they reach 80 pounds or 53" tall (standing height), at which point you can remove the five-point harness and use the seat as a belt-positioning booster until up to 100 pounds and 60" tall. And the seat can be used for up to nine years. Other seats with similar goals include the Graco Nautilus and the SafeGuard Go, both of which also convert from car seat to belt-positioning boosters (boosters with backs).

There are a number of other combination five-point harness/booster seats on the market that are much cheaper - the Eddie Bauer 3-in-1, Graco CarGo, and the Cosco Summit Booster among them. But these seats have harnessing weight limits of 40 pounds, and the Graco CarGo's height limit for harnessed use is 43", factors which seriously limit these inexpensive seats' conversion benefits.

First, we'll take a look at the Frontier's design elements and ease of use, which are one reason we consider this seat a standout product.

We noticed two welcome differences in the seat's design. The first was the seat's width - it is significantly narrower than the Regent, which makes it both easier to move and install and less bulky for use with older children who might be more sensitive to being in a "car seat."

The second is the Frontier's harness adjustment mechanism, which is the simplest and easiest to use that we have ever seen, and we honestly can't see a way it could get much easier. You just pull a tab and gently raise or lower the top portion of the seat. The technique demonstrated in this short video below is all the more astonishing because it was this easy to do the moment we pulled the car seat out of the box; there is really nothing to learn. Contrast this simplicity and adaptability with the belt detachment and rethreading required in most seats.



The Frontier installs in a LATCH system or using a seat belt. LATCH installation is a bit different from other car seats we've installed, as the clips are attached straight down from deep inside the seat footprint, and tightened through twin openings under the car seat's padding; once you get the hang of it, though, it's in some ways easier than accessing LATCH connectors from the outside edge, which often feel displaced by the sides of bulkier car seat models, and it feels good to be tightening the car seat straight down into the car instead of at odd angles that often brace latch connectors against the hard plastic of the car seat.

The Frontier has a couple of captain's chair-like doodads to keep older kids happy - hinged armrests and side-drawer cupholders. We found the cupholders to be less than perfect: they tend to stick a bit and require a certain finesse to get them open, and aren't big enough to hold some of Z's larger travel cups. The armrests are probably of greater interest to older children than someone our daughter's age.

One challenge taller car seats face is the risk of blocking the driver's view behind the vehicle. In this regard, the Frontier performs similarly to its peers; we have heard of some other brands' seats actually hitting some car roofs before they are extended to their full headrest height, but we haven't heard any such reports on the Frontier, and it wasn't our experience, either. Here's a view of our seat seen through our rear-view mirror with the harness at the highest setting; the blockage may look more dramatic because the Toyota Corolla Matrix has ridiculously large blind spots and a small rear window.

The effect is basically that of a somewhat hulking adult sitting in your back seat, except you can't tell them to duck when you're parallel parking.

When your child has outgrown the five-point harness, you remove the harness straps to convert it into a belt-positioning booster. Britax has confirmed that the LATCH system can be used to secure the booster into the car; the safety belt is then needed to secure the child to the booster, but the use of the LATCH system prevents the booster itself from becoming a projectile in the event of an accident when the booster seat is not in use.

Back to Safety: How Does the Frontier Measure Up?

The following chart shows the minimum and maximum weight specifications for each of the three car seat models we consider to be serious contenders in this new hybrid car seat market.

In terms of safety, there are two factors that distinguish the Frontier from most of its competitors: The significantly extended harnessing window, as shown above, and the Frontier's significant side impact protection.

Generally, the upper weight limit of a car seat is not the key factor in considering how long you will be able to use your car seat. Most children will actually reach the height limit well before they will reach the weight limit, so if you want to keep your child harnessed as long as possible, make sure you get the tallest harness system that you can find. Both the five-point harness and booster use window in the Frontier extend slightly longer in terms of height limits as well.

Additionally, there are some differences in the height of the tallest harness slot, even in models with identical height limits; the Graco Nautilus and the SafeGuard Go are both rated for 52" standing (compared to the Frontier's 53") but there's a half- to three-quarter-inch difference in favor of the Frontier in the top harness slot's height. This is worth noting if you have a child with a long torso, and also worth understanding for convertible car seats as well: Children whose height comes mostly from long legs will be able to use a car seat longer than children whose height is in their torso.

The Question of Cost

Britax car seats tend to be among the safest, highest weight-limit, and more expensive car seats in each car seat class they compete in. They also limit discounts and sales to a couple of times a year (this week, Britax car seats are currently running 10% off on Amazon.com and elsewhere). The Frontier retails at $280 ($250 this week), compared with $200 for the SafeGuard Go and $125-$150 for the Graco Nautilus.

This makes the Frontier a significant investment. The question for consumers is, is it worth the extra $80-$100 for the Britax imprimatur?

Britax is a well-funded, heavily research-oriented company; unlike Graco, manufacturer of the CarGo and the Nautilus, they don't make a vast array of kids' products, and don't have any of the black marks (recalls, alleged cover-ups, and massive CPSC fines) Graco has seen in the past decade. And don't even get us started about Cosco, which makes the Summit Booster as well as Eddie Bauer 3-in-1 car seats.

This means the key competitor for this seat is the SafeGuard Go. Both seem like good options, although we haven't had the chance to test the SafeGuard model. We like the emphasis Britax is placing on side impact protection; they are essentially adapting European safety standards for side-impact protection for U.S. use, and have designed this seat to conform with those requirements. We'll get into that this afternoon in an interview with Britax's Advanced Technology Program Manager, Pankaj Amesar.