Purchasing a new car

If you were buying a new car, would you let the weight limit for the LATCH in that car determine which car you are purchasing? I'm about to purchase a car that has a LATCH system rated to 40lbs. DS is current RF in a Boulevard. With a LATCH that maxes at 40 lbs, what would our next seat choices be? I would like to avoid going directly into a booster. Is it possible to avoid that?

Edited to ask... Has anyone heard of any reason not to purchase a Mercedes R350 pertaining to car seat installation safety? I know it is considered to be a very safe car as the IIHS rated the Mercedes ML as one of the safest cars and the R and ML are built on the same platform... and the R actually has a lower center of gravity which provides additional stability.

Thanks!

I bought a Honda Odyssey despite the manufacturer's 40 pound limit. As long as any high weight seats you use install well, you can use the seatbelt instead. Unless the Mercedes has unusual seatbelts or seats, you shouldn't have an issue. You might take your Boulevard with you on a test drive to make sure it installs well using both LATCH and the seatbelt.

Don't know about the Mercedes, but LATCH limits to me would be something to know, but not much to care about. My next car will likely have a 40 pound limit LATCH. So after that I'll use the seatbelt. No need at all to go to a booster at 40 pounds! Especially when you have a lovely Boulevard that should install easily FFing with the seatbelt at 40 pounds, and can simply use the seatbelt to 65 pounds.

Wendy

At 65 lbs or when DS grows out of the Bouelvard.... what seat would you buy if price is not a consideration. I assume I wouldn't be able to use a Regent? We had a scary incident in our ML 350 today. Our Boulevard is installed in the center seat. I decided to sit in the back with DS which I rarely do.. but my parents, friends, in-laws do on occasion. I inadvertently undid the buckle holding DS's seat in. Once I noticed that... we pulled over immediatley and I reinserted the seat belt. Then I checked the seat and both lock-offs were undone. Do those come undone when the seatbelt is undone? How could the lock-off on the opposite side of the seat come undone? I know if was not undone before. This makes me nervous that it could happen again with someone less careful than I.

For vehicles, I'm much more concerned with the safety features the vehicle offers than with their LATCh limits. LATCh is not safer than a seatbelt installation. It is supposed to be easier, but even that's not always the case. When I was car shopping a few months ago, I was looking for things like side airbags and traction control. I also tried my seats in the vehicles that had made the "short list" before making the final decision. Top tether anchors are important to me, but I really didn't care about the lower anchors.

tl01 said:

At 65 lbs or when DS grows out of the Bouelvard.... what seat would you buy if price is not a consideration. I assume I wouldn't be able to use a Regent? We had a scary incident in our ML 350 today. Our Boulevard is installed in the center seat. I decided to sit in the back with DS which I rarely do.. but my parents, friends, in-laws do on occasion. I inadvertently undid the buckle holding DS's seat in. Once I noticed that... we pulled over immediatley and I reinserted the seat belt. Then I checked the seat and both lock-offs were undone. Do those come undone when the seatbelt is undone? How could the lock-off on the opposite side of the seat come undone? I know if was not undone before. This makes me nervous that it could happen again with someone less careful than I.

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Why couldn't you use a Regent? Just install it with the seatbelt. We're likely to get a Regent in the next six months as my daughter is likely to outgrow her Wizards (the previous generation of Boulevards).

The RFing lockoffs are notorious for coming undone. If the seatbelt is locked they're not required, so don't fret too much. The lockoffs are more for use instead of a locking clip with a seatbelt that doesn't lock at all. Not knowing Mercedes seatbelts inside and out I would venture a guess that they're likely switchable retractors. Meaning if you're sitting there and lean forward they do nothing, but in a sudden stop or if you move forward too fast they lock. Well, if you take that belt and pull it ALL the way out, then let it go back in the seatbelt will be locked. You'll have to unbuckle it to get it to unlock. So provided that is done with your son's BV RFing then you don't need to fret about the lockoffs. If you want to use them, fine (the one opposite the buckle is what's recommended) if they don't stay locked provided the seatbelt is locked it's fine.

Your son is unlikely to undo the buckle of his carseat's seatbelt himself, so I wouldn't worry about that. And sometimes the best you can do is freak out, pull over, and fix it if you've seen you've done it. I think most of us have at one point. I put Piper in on the side that has the buckle and so I automatically and instinctively check that it's done. Or at least I'd notice if it wasn't.

I hope this helps!

Wendy

No LATCH weight limits is never a deciding factor for me. My oldest Marathon is currently installed with the vehicle seatbelt as she is 45lbs fully clothes when out LATCH weight limit is 48lbs for both the vehicle and carseat.

In my dh truck (none LATCH vehicle) her Regent & my younger dd Roundabout are installed with the vehicle seatbelt rock solid.

So, To me knowning the LATCH weight limit is good but using it isn't my top priority. I use which ever I get the best installation with.

I would say a Regent. My 5 1/2yr old dd has a Regent in my dh truck. It is installed with the vehicle lap/shoulder belt. It is in there rock solid. You can't move it at all. You try to shake it and it moves the entire truck (big Chevy 2500 heavy duty crewcab (true 4 door) truck). I love how the Regent installs with the vehicle seatbelt.

Count me in as another parent and Regent user who won't base future vehicle choices on the lower LATCH anchor weight limit in any particular car. The lower LATCH anchors can be more convenient for some carseat installations. Britax convertible seats are indeed a breeze to install using LATCH in our vehicles, for example. But lower LATCH anchors honestly aren't necessarily the holy grail by any means. Overall safety features, crash test results, and carseat compatibility with the vehicle are more crucial IMHO.

I have lower LATCH anchors in most rear seating positions in my van and DH's car. However, my DD's seats are almost entirely installed with the seatbelt. I was able to achieve a more rock solid installation for the Regents using the long belt path, and using the seatbelts allowed me to install DD1's Regent in the middle next to DD2's outboard rear facing Marathon in DH's Saturn L100. The outboard lower LATCH anchors in the Saturn are positioned closer to the middle of the backseat and prevent me from installing the seats side by side using LATCH.

We own a Honda with 40 lb LATCH limits and a Subaru with 60 lb LATCH limits.

I think the higher LATCH limits are an added convenience, just because it's so easy to install seats with LATCH. I also like the fact that the top tether anchor has (I presume) been tested up to 60 lbs. But I think it really is mostly a convenience thing, like the placement of cupholders or location of seat adjustments. If you take seats in and out of cars on a routine basis, the ability to use LATCH beyond 40 lbs could be a pretty big deal. But that's probably not an issue for most of us. (It also depends on how easy it is to access the LATCH anchors. Some of them can be so far back it's easier just to use the belt.)

I do consider them, mainly because vehicles with higher LATCH limits also have higher top tether limits. Even if the seatbelt is the better installation in a particular vehicle, the tether is important (and required for some seats.)

True about top tether limits, but after reading these links

http://www.saferidenews.com/html/LATCH_P8.htm
http://www.saferidenews.com/html/LATCH_P49.htm

I'm not too worried about the tether anchor weight limit (lower anchor weight limit is something to pay attention to, as it's the primary anchorage for the carseat; the top tether is an additional point of anchorage, but its purpose is to reduce head excursion, and it will do that even if the anchor for the top tether fails at some point during the crash; since the carseat is being restrained by the seatbelt PLUS the top tether, the carseat will still be restrained even if the tether anchor fails, and it will already have done its job of reducing the child's head excursion).

I've read those, and do feel comfortable with chooing to use the tether past teh stated limits. that is not to say I would not factor in higher limits when choosing the vehicle in the first place! (for example, I think the 40 lb limits that Honda has stated to be rediculous for a car billed as a "family" vehicle.)

I figured you'd read those by now, but it made sense to have those links available in a thread like this.

Very true!!!