Cybex Aton is going away

…And not on a vacation. It’s being deported. Earlier this week, Regal Lager informed us that they will no longer be distributing Cybex car seats in the United States. This came as quite a shock, since the new Cybex Aton car seat was one of the most exciting new product releases of 2011.

When I first wrote about the debut of the Cybex Aton, I went so far as to title the post “Why the Cybex Aton Changes Everything” — and I really thought this product was going to have a seismic impact on the car seat market. Now we’ll never know if I was right, because just four months after I wrote that post, Cybex is apparently giving up on the Aton in the US.

Four months isn’t a very long time, and new products often take some time to get established. New infant car seats, in particular, always need time to get off the ground. I know that Regal Lager has been collaborating with Cybex for years to design the base for the Aton – a base that is an amazing feat of engineering – and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how just four months is enough to throw all that away.

I liked the Aton well enough when it first came in, but this summer I got certified as a Child Passenger Safety technician. Knowing how new the Aton was, I brought one with me to class so that the instructors and all the new techs would have a chance to play with it. I had the opportunity to put the seat through its paces and install it in a number of different car seats, both with and without the base. It was really impressive all around, and it was far and away the best looking car seat in the jumble of demo seats.

I hope Regal Lager and Cybex will reconsider this decision. The Aton has huge potential — it’s a great looking seat that performs exceptionally well and is compatible with a multitude of excellent strollers. This should be a no-brainer.

Fortunately, Aton seats are still in stock (for the time being), and because Regal Lager will continue to distribute the Cybex strollers, I would assume that they will be providing customer service and support for parents using the Aton car seat. So come and get ’em while they last, folks.

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