Consumer Reports did some extensive testing of infant car seats with alarming results using a 35-mph frontal crash test and in a 38-mph side crash test, which is still not *that* fast. Car seats flew off their bases, rotated too far and would have caused grave injuries as measured by the test dummy.You can read their report here: it won’t be free for long.
Here’s a quick summary for shoppers: only two performed well in all tests: the Baby Trend Flex-Loc and the Graco SnugRide with EPS. The Chicco KeyFit, Compass I410, Evenflo Embrace and Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP passed if used with vehicle safety belts but not with LATCH. Three seats outright failed – the Evenflo Discovery, the Graco SafeSeat, and the Britax Companion, the Evenflo being the worst as it did not even pass the 30-mph retest, which is the federal safety standard. Consumer Reports is pushing for a recall. If you own that seat, I would call Evenflo and demand they recall it so you can go buy a better seat!
UPDATE: They recalled their report. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cu-press-room/pressroom/2007/2/0702_eng0702ccs.htm
This is good news for us b/c we registered for a SnugRide with EPS instead of the SafeSeat. Thanks for the info!
Well, we have the Graco SafeSeat. We have NEVER used the base with any of our infant seats – we saw a report on TV years ago by that man whose always doing car crash tests (I can’t remember his name). Anyway, he said no matter how good the test results of infants seats in the base, we should neber use them: the fit is always more secure and snug without it. As a matter of fact I think we never took the base out of the box – I would like to see test results for these same seats without the bases. The results could be very different. In the meantime Bairno is going into the big Britax rear-facing Roundabout!
That is just scary. Thankfully we have used a Graco SnugRide with all three of our kids.
Thanks for the info.
BTW, Diaperswappers has an infant amber teething necklace co-op right now. They look nice.