latch lower anchors and tethers for
children the special child seat
connectors you're supposed to use to
secure your kids car seat not the seat
belt they've been required on new cars
in the US since September 2002 but of
102 cars just reviewed by the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety three were
found to have good latch tethers the
rest not so much
parents shouldn't have to struggle to
install a child restraint latch is meant
to simplify the process but it doesn't
always succeed it's not that poor rated
latch tethers aren't safe and solid it's
that they aren't easy to use and in the
practical world that's tantamount to a
lack of safety too often they're hard to
connect right parents get it wrong the
feds say three out of four times so the
IIHS set these five simple criteria for
a latch to be considered good lower
anchors not buried more than three
quarters of an inch down in the seat at
least a 54 degree angle of approach as
you're trying to connect to the lower
anchor less than 40 pounds of force
required to attach your connectr upper
anchors must be on the rear shelf or no
more than 15% of the way down the seat
back on an SUV or a truck for example
and no other connectors should be near
the latch tether that could be confused
for some vehicles make it a challenge to
find the tether anchor in this Toyota
Sienna which gets a poor rating this is
the tether anchor it would be easy to
get confused by other hardware the three
tested vehicles that nailed all five
were the BMW 5-series
the Mercedes GL SUV can Volkswagens
Passat but that doesn't mean you can
shop with confidence by brand other
tested Mercedes only scored acceptable
all other tested BMWs marginal and VW's
Jetta poor
it pays to double check that you know
how to fasten the latch tethers in your
car even if they're not very good and if
you have kids and are shopping for a new
car make sure you know which ones make
using this technology less of a pain and
a latch more realities of modern driving
revealed now at CNET on cars comm click
on smarter driving
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