Consumer Reports New Cars – November 2019

(Kiana) #1
Based on best practices and child-seat
height/weight limits, these are our
recommendations for which child seats
you’ll need to own and when you should
use them, up until your child can use a
vehicle’s seat belts alone. Remember

that spending more doesn’t necessarily
get you a safer seat, but one that may
offer more features. Many midpriced
models perform as well as or better than
pricier ones. Undamaged seats can be
reused until their expiration date.

Child Car-Seat Timeline and
the Main Seat Types

CR’s Recommended Car-Seat Use for Children Under the Age of 12


■ Recommended Use Period ■ Transition Periods (Safe to use depending on the seat’s
limits and your child’s height and weight.)

Age (Years) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Rear-Facing
Infant
Convertible
Rear-Facing
Convertible
Forward-Facing
Belt-Positioning
Booster

REAR-FACING
INFANT SEATS
(for children
4 to 40 pounds)
$80 to $

CONVERTIBLE SEATS
(for children 5 to
45 pounds, rear-facing;
from 20 to 70 pounds,
forward-facing)
$40 to $

BELT-POSITIONING
BOOSTER SEATS
(for children 30 to
120 pounds)
$11 to $

These allow parents to
carry a child easily, and
most models will also snap
into a compatible stroller.
Though parents may be
tempted to use a convert-
ible seat for newborns, our
tests show that infant seats
provide the best fit for the
smallest babies. Though
these seats are designed to
accommodate babies
that weigh up to 40 pounds,
most children outgrow
them height-wise first.

A convertible seat is
needed for two reasons.
It’s recommended for
kids to remain facing
rearward until at least
their second birthday, and
our tests show these seats
offer better head protec-
tion for 12-month-old kids
than infant seats. The seat
can be positioned facing
forward once a child has
reached age 2 or exceeds
the height or weight limits
of a rear-facing seat.

Children usually aren’t
ready to use seat belts
alone until they’re 57 inches
tall and are between 8
and 12 years old. Boosters
are designed to raise a
child high enough so that
the vehicle’s seat belt
sits correctly. High-backed
boosters are a better
choice because they
include some side bolster-
ing as well as a guide that
can position the shoulder
belt better. PH

OT

O,^

TO

P^ L

EF
T:^
GE

TT

Y^ I
MA

GE

S

12 NEW CARS CR.ORG/CARS


Better Boosters
Booster seats use a car’s seat belt to
protect a child in a crash and raise him
or her up so the belt will fit correctly.
The shoulder belt should sit over the
sternum and the center of the collarbone,
not over the neck or across the arm. The
lap belt should sit low across the upper
thighs, not across the abdomen.
There are three types of boosters:
high-back, backless, and highback-to-
backless (the back is removable). We
recommend high-back models, which
position the shoulder belt better, provide
some side- impact protection, and are
more comfortable for resting kids to
lay their heads.
Proper seat-belt fit is crucial with boost-
ers. That’s why we test how easy it is
to use each seat in five different vehicles,
and how well it fits a test dummy that
represents an average-sized 6-year-old
child. We also move the dummy in
the seat the same way a child would to
see whether the belt stays in place when
the child moves.
Each seat is also subjected to a simu-
lated 35-mph frontal crash to ensure that
load-bearing components and key posi-
tioning features remain intact. All of the
boosters we evaluated fared well in our
structural integrity tests.
Replace any booster that has been in
a crash or is damaged. Some seats have
a expiration date printed on the label or
molded into the seat. Others expire after
a certain number of years, so check the
manual and do the math.

12 NEW CARS CR.ORG/CARS

Free download pdf