MA LATCH vs. RA LATCH (Consumer Reports?)

[MomToGupCPST]

I have a mom who came in to purchase a Roundabout. She saw that we had a Marathon on clearance and called her DH to ask if she should get that. He told her no, because CR said that the LATCH system was "bad" on the MA. No further explanation. (I was also not in the store, but my boss (not a CPST, but very CPS conscious) relayed all this)

Now, I know that CR should NOT be trusted when it comes to car seats, but this is a new "issue" to me. I've been able to refute the infant seat tests because they were obviously wrong and eventually recalled, but what's the deal with this?

I find the LATCH on the MA/BV easier to use than the RA LATCH, but that is totally personal preference and I would NEVER tell a parent that one version is safer than the other. This Dad clearly had some bad information because (according to boss lady!) they have their infant seat outboard in their Prius because LATCH can't be used in the center (good info! :thumbsup:) and they CAN'T use the seatbelt to install the seat because it's not safe. (BAD INFO! :thumbsdown:)

So I'm waiting for this Dad to email me and I need to have some facts to back up the fact that either LATCH system is safe. I'm already prepared to tell him about using the seatbelt to install.

Thanks in advance! learn something new everyday!

[MissKatie]

Consumer Reports did publish car seat ratings by merit of the ease of use, so perhaps what she saw was that they rated the LATCH system on the MA easier to use than the LATCH system on the RA, and interpreted that as crash test data. I find that a lot of people seem to see 'ratings' and selectively omit the 'ease of use' portion of the article in their perception.

I'm not familiar enough with CR's ease of use ratings to say for sure that this is what happened but I'd say it's a possibility.

[Jennifer mom to my 7]

Okay, from what I remember, the last available free reports from consumer reports are from 03 or 04 maybe? Anyway, in those reports, there was overrotation of the seat rf with latch install (which is why the marathon went from the tops in 02? to 4th or 5th in 03-04). This is what I can remember anyway, and to that I said well, we don't need latch;) and I bought the marathon anyway:p

[joolsplus3]

I think you're right, Jennifer. The MA did overrotate slightly when installed with LATCH on CR's crash test bench using a different crash pulse than NHTSA mandates for testing. And I know someone who saw the video, and the baby stayed completely contained in the seat, you couldn't visually even see a difference in rotation amounts.
But when you translate it into red or black circles, it probably looks like some horrible death trap.
As for the Chicco... yeah...um...I have no idea where anyone would get that it's not safe to install with a seatbelt (they must have missed the seeing recall that one time where it HAD to be installed with the seatbelt because the LATCH was flawed, huh? ;))

[mommycat]

Is it possible that they tried the seat belt in the center, got a bad fit, and somehow along the way that got translated into "cannot use seatbelt"? Or maybe they heard of KDM and only got "seatbelts fail" as a message?

I hope that you can give them the correct information to address whatever concerns they have.