2016 X1 BMW raises concerns locking seatbelt | Consumer reports
A child seat is among the most important purchases parents need for their new baby, and Consumer Reports has long fire place for advice and information about those for your child and your vehicle For decades, Consumer Reports has been working to make car seats and secure market for the transportation of children to help reduce fatalities on the roads and now we have made significant improvements to our assessments to help parents and more caregivers with this important decision.
Here are the details on a new crash test, we have developed and rigorous testing methods we use on each seat.
Car seats for children have come a long way since Consumer Reports first crash test for the magazine issue of Consumer Reports in August 1972, when we classified 12 of 15 of them as unacceptable Between 1972 and 1977, seats children were tested four times, that made consumer Reports publication only when CRASH regularly tested these seats and reported the results to both consumers and the government on the organization of next released its 1974 report, the government proposed a strong child restraint standard from January 1, 1981, all child seat manufacturers must certify that their seats had a dynamic impact test in accordance with the safety standards of the government.
Consumer Reports continues its efforts to improve the market and has developed a new test protocol for testing crash seats Children Through a rigorous, two and a half years to develop the new test, we extensively studied published research on pediatric and child -injury biomechanical models in vehicle accidents we also analyzed the crash test videos and data accidents conducted by the national Highway safety administration NHTSA traffic and Transport Canada, and the case so, we conferred with other passenger safety of children and experts in car safety we also reviewed our protocol with Dr. Priya Prasad, an external consultant who is a respected expert in biomechanical safety and vehicle injuries, with 40 years experience.
As part of our mission, we are always looking to improve how we serve customers through research and development of tests that help them make better choices As an independent consumer group, nonprofit that accepts or advertising or corporate donations, consumer Reports uses this research to provide consumers with real-world experience and expert advice, without external influences we also buy the seats that we test on retail markets, as consumers do, rather than accept free samples of manufacturers allows us to ensure that we are testing the same products that consumers get when they buy them.
Our last baby seat ratings are based on tests conducted by our new collision protocol to an agreement outside laboratory We have also conducted internal testing both ease of use and management assessments on board the vehicle on each seat We combined the results of these three tests to determine the overall score for each car seat, giving more weight to the combined scores of the ease of use and fit testing vehicle for testing performance of the accident, because the protection of the optimal accident can not wait without proper and safe installation use.
Consumer Reports has for many years conducted our own simulation of frontal crash test 30 mph according to the criteria of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 FVMSS 213, which is the standard NHTSA for the performance of child restraint accident car seats child car child seat manufacturers to certify that they have complied with this standard.
Consumer Reports wanted to offer an additional service to the consumer by developing its own testing protocol that would allow consumers comparative information on the potential of a car seat to provide extra safety margin in some cases simulated accident our new tests We evaluated the performance of the seats on a scale that ranks the seats of those who had the least potential to offer this additional margin based seat that had the best the greatest potential we place the additional margin is due to the fact that all car seats sold in the US must already provide an essential level of security according to government standards, it must meet.
To create our new test, Consumer Reports considered conditions of vehicles in the real world and an increase in the speed of the front impact test simulation 30 mph 35 mph Our new test also includes the installation of child seat on a testbed that uses cushions and hardware real seat of the vehicle and also includes a surface to simulate the front seat, something present in all vehicles research shows that when children are injured in frontal collisions, it is usually because they have hit his head on something in the vehicle, such as the back of the front seat seatback simulation allows this interaction.
Our protective safety ratings are based on injury criteria measured on a standardized size mannequins of children typically used in this type of simulated crash tests, b direct contact of the manikin's head with the simulated file and the ability to seat it remains intact during testing.
Here are details on the three major changes we have made to our crash test protocol car seat before to make our assessment.
We measured the length of the seat cushion, cushion angle, and the angle of inclination of the folder in the Consumer Reports auto test fleet cars for the years 2008-2010 models we found that the back seat of the second row Ford Flex 2010-2011 was a good representation of a middle seat through fleet.
For the rigidity of the cushion, we used the backseat study of several cars from model years 2003-2007 and proceeded to NHTSA stiffness tests on the second row Ford Flex to see how it compared with data studying NHTSA This is a significant change from the current federal test, and our own tests before infant car seat, use a cushion that is softer than the seats in most models of existing vehicles, however, our test experience leads us to believe that rigidity and geometry of the vehicle seat on which the child car seat is installed can affect the performance of child seats.
We added a surface that simulates the front seat to better represent a real environment of the vehicle We simulated the folder by designing a blocker who had a representative stiffness and geometry of the passenger front seat backrests in contemporary vehicles To determine the rigidity of our blocking plate, we selected six passenger seats before our own fleet of cars by analyzing the impact tests Each case was chosen because it was a typical family car, like a 2011 Honda Accord and a 2011 Ford Explorer Collectively, these six represented a variety of seatback stiffness found in actual vehicles - some with soft foam and a bit of hard plastic these data were used to determine the stiffness of the blocker, we designed and used in our new test car seats for babies.
Our experts have also analyzed the movement of the seatback in 35 mph crashes videos front of the vehicle carried out by the NHTSA and Transport Canada in which forward-facing car seats and rear-facing have been installed This us determined the appropriate backrest angle blocker that we used during the tests on the basis of our analysis, we estimated that the case can move 4 to 5 inches in an accident 35 miles per hour before the car seat restraint is in contact with it, so we adjusted the angle of the locking plate to represent the movement.
We also increased the speed for our tests of 30 mph to 35 mph for testing simulated frontal crash from a study of more than 1,200 crash tests of contemporary vehicles, we could better bring the characteristics of accidents actual vehicles for our new tests.
In addition to laboratory crash tests outside, our certified child passenger safety technicians evaluate how seats are easy to use We have seven certified technicians on staff This is an important part of our testing, ease of use and understanding of directions to help consumers properly install the seats in their own vehicles.
Product labels and instructions, including the availability of instructions in Spanish.
Assembly, if necessary Most infant seats assembly required sunshades awnings only.
Characteristics toward the back-installation and use of LATCH belts and vehicle safety using the base.
Characteristics toward the back-installation and use of the vehicle seat belts, without using the base.
The last part of each seat of note includes how a seat is one of a variety of vehicles We install all the car seats in every single rear seating position for five different vehicle These vehicles also include things that can make the child seat installation a challenge based on our vehicle evaluations our technicians carefully follow the manufacturer's instructions and make judgments based on how safe each seat may be installed.
With these rigorous tests, each child seat is awarded an overall score based on a weighted combination of these three components See our Car Seat Ratings and buying advice to determine which seat is best for you.
How to Child Car Seats Consumer Reports Test, testing child seats.