Who invented LATCH?

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teekadog

Active member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #1

I had a Honda salesman tell me yesterday that Honda invented the LATCH system. Yes? No? Then why does their minivan only have 3 LATCH seats

 

skaterbabs

Well-known member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #2

Honestly, my guess is the guy was feeding you a line. But I don't know who invented LATCH.

 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician

• Apr 1, 2007

• #3

XmasEve said:

I had a Honda salesman tell me yesterday that Honda invented the LATCH system. Yes? No? Then why does their minivan only have 3 LATCH seats

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Yeaaaahhh...and Al Gore invented the internet....

I vaguely recall it was an international committee...the "LATCH" heading at the top of this page may go into the history of it, but it's a US/EU invention, not Japanese....

And their minivan only has one more than the regulation demands (all cars need to have only 2 full sets and a third top anchor to meet standards)

 

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teekadog

Active member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #4

It sounded very wrong. He went on to say then Honda tried to market it to Kmart. It was hard not to laugh. The guy was of my dad's generation tho, so I had to show respect.

 

J

jenny03

New member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #5

Tried to market it to Kmart? I wonder what he was smokin'.

 

broken4u05

New member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #6

how would kmart reallt use it?

 

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teekadog

Active member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #7

broken4u05 said:

how would kmart reallt use it?

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Maybe that's why no one knows Honda really invented LATCH-- it was a bad move to market it to Kmart

:ROTFLMAO:

 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin

Staff member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #8

I'm pretty sure Ford had the first vehicles with LATCH in the USA, I think the Focus and Windstar had the anchors in 2000. Ford and Kmart did have a marketing blitz back then when the first Windstars hit the showrooms. Kmart sold the Cosco Triad and Fisher Price Safe Embrace, the only two LATCH carseats at the time. I think VW also may had some models include LATCH in 2000 as well.

I believe Honda did not release any LATCH equipped vehicles in the USA until 2001, though perhaps they released some earlier in Europe.

I'm not sure who can claim to invent it. The idea certainly began somewhere, but the implementation was the work of numerous auto manufacturers, government regulatory agencies and child restraint manufacturers.

 

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southpawboston

New member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #9

wasn't it originally an international standard called ISOFIX which didn't go over too well with the US car industry and then the US came up with their own variant which they then termed LATCH?

 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin

Staff member

• Apr 1, 2007

• #10

I don't know why they opted to use a different name or when that change happened. I think the implementation for the US auto makers is essentially the same here as it is in Canada, Europe or elsewhere.

On the other hand, implementation in the USA was changed for child restraint manufacturers to allow for flexible attachment systems rather than rigid ones. Maybe they wanted the name change, too? I don't really know.

 

UlrikeDG

Admin - CPS Technician Emeritus

• Apr 2, 2007

• #11

I thought Britax was claiming ownership of the original ISOFIX concept.

 

tjham

New member

• Apr 3, 2007

• #12

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=14423

 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician

• Apr 4, 2007

• #13

tjham said:

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=14423

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But some 1999 VW's can be retrofit with bars, so the idea was around for years before even Ford was first to implement it on a wide scale (yay, ford, BTW)

 

Loves2sing

New member

• Apr 4, 2007

• #14

Funny that this is a topic today. I was waiting for my dh at a home depot in the car while dd was sleeping. So I thought I would read the car's manual. It is a 94 Sunbird (GM), and I was shocked to find an early type of latch system in our car. The manual suggested that if you are driving alone with an infant you should put the infant in the front seat, (no airbags, but whatever, like I would put my RF infant in the front.) And because the car has those nifty "automatic seat belts" that never need to be unlatched, you had to get a special seat belt for the carseat. It attatches to a small latch looking hook just underneath the door frame beside the seat, and then the special seatbelt latched onto the hook, and the other end went into the female end of the belt buckle. It was interesting, and reminded me a lot of latch. I don't think I would ever use this primitive system, even if it was in the back, as it was just plain weird, but it was interesting all the same. Oh Ps, and the car also told me that if you can't fit a child properly in the back seat with the shoulder straps, you should either move the child closer to the middle so the belt would not be on the child's neck, or just put them in the middle where there is only a lap belt.