Starting Thursday, September 1, 2011, Sunshine Kids will officially change its name in the U.S. and Canada to Diono. We first brought it to you on our Facebook page when it was announced at the KIM Conference.
Let’s start with the obvious: Diono is pronounced “Dee-oh-no.” They will be coming out with new carseats as well: the Radian RXT, which is a combination seat based on the 
Radian XTSL, the Radian R100, which is the RXT without adjustable head wings and is based on the Radian 65SL, and the Radian R120, which is based on the Radian 80SL. The Radian R100 will harness rear-facing from 5-40 lbs., forward-facing from 20-65 lbs. and booster from 50-120 lbs. The R120 and RXT will both harness rear-facing from 5-45 lbs., forward-facing from 20-80 lbs. and booster from 50-120 lbs.
The new Diono website will be www.diono.com. There’s nothing there right now but the logo, but it’ll be up and running soon.
We’ll have a review of the RXT for you coming soon! In the meantime, you can participate in the on-going thread at car-seat.org or leave your comments here. We *love* comments! We also feel the “like” at Facebook ;).
I have an old radian xtsl that my 3 year old is now using. I’m interested in getting another one for a different car, but I’ve been disappointed in the actual height limit (versus the reported limit) and the stiffness of the seatbelt loosening mechanism (it was tight from the beginning and never loosened for us). Has anyone had any height comparisons (specifically with the winged headrest) and seatbelt stiffness between the old model and current models? My 8 year old needs a car seat for as long as possible, but she outgrew the old one already (by approximate height/weight 45 in and 45 lbs).
Hi Ann. Yours have been common complaints throughout the history of the Radians. For your 8 yr old, I’d suggest looking at a combination carseat, which is a harnessed seat that converts to a belt-positioning booster: https://carseatblog.com/safest-recommended-car-seats/#COMBINATION.