most of us members here do know that fit is one of the most important things to consider when choosing a seat, it just wasn't stated as a caveat to this thread. It is good for public viewers to see and know that when reading this thread.
Most of us here also agree that sled bench testing is woefully inadequate in telling us how a seat will perform with real kids in real life in a real crash. But our current situation is it is all we have. it is impossible to test all seats in all cars in all types of crashes. So this is a standard way to compare how seats perform and be sure they meet minimum requirements, albeit only in one narrow situation. This is the testing we are left with to try to make educated choices for our kids. So we try to extrapolate the data to our car/kid/situation. That may not be a perfect application, but it is the best we can do currently. If our musing and extrapolating is horribly misleading to public viewers, then maybe this thread should be moved downstairs (which I don't think it is, but perhaps just stating that these are opinions and not fact is enough).
I do think this data is important, as it is a way to see performance side by side, head to head, of different seats. We don't know for sure if a seat that tested well here will always perform well, but it is a good starting point. I'd rather start with a known good data point than a known less good data point.
There are obviously many factors to consider when choosing a seat, and while this is certainly not the most important, I think this data can help in making some decisions in specific situations, as in the "no top tether" scenerio.
Most of us here also agree that sled bench testing is woefully inadequate in telling us how a seat will perform with real kids in real life in a real crash. But our current situation is it is all we have. it is impossible to test all seats in all cars in all types of crashes. So this is a standard way to compare how seats perform and be sure they meet minimum requirements, albeit only in one narrow situation. This is the testing we are left with to try to make educated choices for our kids. So we try to extrapolate the data to our car/kid/situation. That may not be a perfect application, but it is the best we can do currently. If our musing and extrapolating is horribly misleading to public viewers, then maybe this thread should be moved downstairs (which I don't think it is, but perhaps just stating that these are opinions and not fact is enough).
I do think this data is important, as it is a way to see performance side by side, head to head, of different seats. We don't know for sure if a seat that tested well here will always perform well, but it is a good starting point. I'd rather start with a known good data point than a known less good data point.
There are obviously many factors to consider when choosing a seat, and while this is certainly not the most important, I think this data can help in making some decisions in specific situations, as in the "no top tether" scenerio.