Let's play - What was the car maker thinking?? (or - were they thinking at all?)

It's the disappearing center seat!

Why should you care?

• The center of the back seat is the safest place of the car
• Studies show kids are 43% safer if they ride in the center instead of the side

What does a "normal" center seat look like?

2010 Honda Accord Sedan
Center: 15 inches wide

What car seats might work in a narrow center seat?

• If you or a parent you are helping have a vehicle with a narrow center seat, we at The Car Seat Lady recommend trying the Graco Snug Ride 35 (if you need an infant seat) or the Britax Marathon / Boulevard (if you need a convertible seat).  We find these two seats to fit in narrow situations where other seats won't.  However, there are some centers that are too narrow for even these seats.  While the First Years True Fit Premier has a narrower footprint than the Britax, the head area of the First Years is wider and often won't fit rear-facing in the center of the vehicle without forcing the driver to sit too close to the steering wheel (the contours at the top of the Britax tuck themselves nicely between the two front seats).  
• For reference, the footprint of the Graco Snug Ride 35 is 9.25 inches and the Britax approximately 13 inches.

Get ready to watch the center seat disappear!
Note: All of these center positions have top tether anchors (for forward-facing car seats) - which means that someone who made the car thought it would be possible to install a car seat in this position.  I'm wondering what they were smoking?

It gets narrower...

2010 BMW X5Center: 9.5 inches "wide"

Best part: if you can find a forward-facing car seat that is narrow enough, the head rest is fixed and angled forward which prevents the car seat from resting flush against the back of the vehicle seat, and thereby prevents a tight installation

And narrower...

2010 Infiniti EX35Center: 9 inches "wide"

(check out the dual hinges the center is sporting - this center is a car seat nightmare)

and narrower...

2010 Nissan Cube

Center: a svelte 8 inches

Worst part for a car seat: the seat belt & buckle are 5 inches forward of the bight!

wait - it's almost non-existent here...

2010 Toyota Highlander - back view

My bottom hurts just looking at this center seat

2010 Toyota Highlander - front view

I didn't get to measure as I lost my tape measure, 

but the center is probably about 6 inches "wide"

Wait... it did disappear!

2011 Mini Cooper Countryman

Finally, a wise decision - if you don't have room for a center seat, don't tease us with 8 inches of a seat that is unusable for a car seat or a human body

Monday's Mistake - Humps & Hinges - or "What was the auto maker thinking???"

This is not the typical mistake Monday - as there aren't even any car seats in most of the pictures!  The sad part is that these "mistakes" appear in real vehicles - and they make installation of car seats/boosters quite a challenge.  Unfortunately, there were many more vehicles with humps & hinges I could have shown - I just selected a few for this post.

HINGES 101

Q: Why are hinges bad?  
A:  In order to install a car seat properly, you need to sink it down and back into the vehicle's seat cushion.  Rigid structures - like metal hinges & the plastic covers for them - prevent the car seat from sinking into the seat cushion - leaving you with a loosely installed car seat (and an unsafe child). 

2010 Toyota Venza

Is that a center seat - or just one big hinge with a little bit of fabric & cushioning?

Check out how the seat belt for the center seat is several inches into the passenger seat - gotta love the overlapping!

2010 Toyota RAV-4

Close-up of the center seat

Are you kidding me?  This is supposed to be a family car.  

Let me tell you why this center seat is a recipe for disaster for car seat installation.

1. You have 5 inches from the buckle for the center seat to the buckle for the driver side seat.  Have you seen a car seat that is 5 inches wide?  I didn't think so - as newborns are wider than 5 inches!
2. You have not only 2 upper hinges, but also one lower hinge cover in this center seat - all to prevent you from getting the car seat tightly installed.
3. The "lumbar bolster" (my name for it) - will further push the car seat away from the back of the vehicle seat. 

HUMPS 101

Q: The center seat in the back has a hump.  Why are some humps bad?
A: Humps can pose a challenge for several reasons.

 2010 Acura RL Tech - hump makes the center seat 4 inches higher than the side seats

• The foam under the center hump is often more rigid than the foam under the side seats' cushion - which means that when you try to install the seat you have to use more muscle to compress the hump so that the car seat gets tight.
• Some humps are off center from where the LATCH system's lower anchors or the vehicle's seat belt is located.  In this picture below, the vehicle has a hump in the center.  The lower anchors for the side seat are half on the side and half into the center seat (we'll explain later on this week why they spaced the lower anchors this way).  With the car seat sitting half on the hump in the center and half off the hump, you end up with a car seat that looks drunk.   

 Lincoln MKS 2010 - Combi Coccoro using LATCH on the passenger side

•  While most humps are on the bottom cushion of the vehicle seat - some are on the back cushion, which further pushes the car seat forward and prevents it from sinking into the vehicle's seat cushion.

2010 Nissan Maxima - with center hump protruding from the back cushion