Car seats and older cars ?

karinothing

Okay so we can call this my stupid question of the day.

DH and I have one car, a 98 Toyota Corolla. The car is a champ and still runs fine with no major issue. We typically only use it on the weekends (both take the bus to work) and don't plan on changing that when we have the kid. So, we aren't that motivated to buy a new car.

That being said, this weekend we went to look at car seats. We liked the Chicco keyfit but find that just being secured with the seatbelt seems a little unstable, but maybe this is just me being overly paranoid. I wondered how much more study the new latch systems are. Have you had an older car and new car with a car seat? Do you find one to be safer than the other?

Thanks.

christiney06

we have the Chicco seat but only had one base.  when we used it in MH's car we only used the seat belt and it was totally fine.  yes, the base is sturdier, but the seat is totally safe w/ just the belt.   i think if you're only using it on the weekend you'll be good.  

lfen0526

I personally felt like I couldn't get the LATCH as tight as the seatbelt on my Chicco.  Also, with the LATCH, most cars say not to put it in the middle seat because they are not made like that.  

 

If you take your seat to have it inspected, you will be amazed at how tight they can get it.  One tip to get mine tighter was to twist the buckle.  It made it so that it was lower then I could pull the seatbelt a little bit more.  

karinothing

christiney06:

we have the Chicco seat but only had one base.  when we used it in MH's car we only used the seat belt and it was totally fine.  yes, the base is sturdier, but the seat is totally safe w/ just the belt.   i think if you're only using it on the weekend you'll be good.  

You can use the base with the seatbelt though. At least that is the way they installed it for us. Is this incorrect?

 

txbabs111

My car has LATCH and my husband's does not. We have installed the Chicco Keyfit (we had a base in each car), Sunshine Kids Radian and Britax Marathon in both cars. Honestly, I think you can get it equally tight with either the LATCH or the seatbelt, but I will say that the LATCH is much easier when you're taking it in or out.

karinothing

I think maybe I just don't like the way car seats are designed ha ha. I think they should make cars where you remove the actual seat cushion and it has latches that you can place the carseat into (kind of how you place the car seat into a base). Then it locks firm with the seat, so it doesn't jostle at all. IF i could invent things this is what I would invent ha ha

rkto

karinothing:

I think maybe I just don't like the way car seats are designed ha ha. I think they should make cars where you remove the actual seat cushion and it has latches that you can place the carseat into (kind of how you place the car seat into a base). Then it locks firm with the seat, so it doesn't jostle at all. IF i could invent things this is what I would invent ha ha

let me know when you open your carseat company!  will you give me a Nest Discount? 

You said that when "they" installed it ... who are "they?" Are there special people you can get to install your carseat? 

karinothing

rkto:

karinothing:

I think maybe I just don't like the way car seats are designed ha ha. I think they should make cars where you remove the actual seat cushion and it has latches that you can place the carseat into (kind of how you place the car seat into a base). Then it locks firm with the seat, so it doesn't jostle at all. IF i could invent things this is what I would invent ha ha

let me know when you open your carseat company!  will you give me a Nest Discount? 

You said that when "they" installed it ... who are "they?" Are there special people you can get to install your carseat? 

Oh, I just meant the folks at Babies R US. But when we actually get the car seat (now we just registered for it) I plan on taking it to the DMV or firedepartment and they will install it for me. I heard a ridiculous number of car seats aren't installed properly so best to let them install the base.

Temp574971250006741

I have a 1996 Explorer, MH has a 2008 Focus and I have had no issue with either seat in either car. I can get the latch and seat belt just as tight in both cars. Like PP said have it inspected. The sherriff who installed ours initially showed me some tricks to get it tighter which helped.

christiney06

rkto:

You said that when "they" installed it ... who are "they?" Are there special people you can get to install your carseat?  

yes, most towns fire dept's will have car seat checks available.  esp w/ the convertible seats, it was hard to get it in there super tight.  they were very good at getting it in as tight as possible.  

and to the OP, i have no idea about the base and the car seat, sorry...we only used it w/ LATCH. 

ProcrastinatingBride

I don't have the experience you're looking for (installation in both a newer and older car), but we have a similar situation.  We have one car, a 2001 Toyota Avalon.  Like you, we typically use it on weekends and maybe once a week besides (we typically take the subway to work).  In 2002, apparently, regulators started requiring all cars to have LATCH systems.  So we have the last of the cars manufactured before LATCH was required.  Having said that, our car has under 30K miles on it, and we just got it a year ago.  We aren't getting rid of ours either.

We chose the Chicco KeyFit because it has the seat belt lock feature, which is intended, at least to some degree, to account for the lack of a LATCH system.  We haven't had it installed yet, but everyone I've talked to has said this will be fine.  We've researched it pretty thoroughly and haven't found another carseat that has the safety features that the KeyFit has to make up for the absence of LATCH.

Hope this info makes you feel a little bit better. 

karinothing

ProcrastinatingBride:

I don't have the experience you're looking for (installation in both a newer and older car), but we have a similar situation.  We have one car, a 2001 Toyota Avalon.  Like you, we typically use it on weekends and maybe once a week besides (we typically take the subway to work).  In 2002, apparently, regulators started requiring all cars to have LATCH systems.  So we have the last of the cars manufactured before LATCH was required.  Having said that, our car has under 30K miles on it, and we just got it a year ago.  We aren't getting rid of ours either.

We chose the Chicco KeyFit because it has the seat belt lock feature, which is intended, at least to some degree, to account for the lack of a LATCH system.  We haven't had it installed yet, but everyone I've talked to has said this will be fine.  We've researched it pretty thoroughly and haven't found another carseat that has the safety features that the KeyFit has to make up for the absence of LATCH.

Hope this info makes you feel a little bit better. 

Thanks! It does. ha ha

We looked at the graco snug fit too, which also had a similar seat belt lock feature but ultimately liked the chico better (in part cuz of the material of the seat ha ha). BUt i liked the safety ratings of chico better