Cheers and Jeers from the Chicago Auto Show

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I attended a media preview of the Chicago Auto Show this week.  I had hoped to go for 3 days and to catalog a number of vehicles in regard to airbags, seatbelt arrangements and LATCH attachments.  Unfortunately, my baby sitting service (mom) went back home last week and I was only able to work in part of one day of the show.  Instead of my detailed survey, I kind of randomly wandered and took notice of whatever caught my eye…

Cheers to Honda Motors, who has put in a 5th lower anchor in the back seat of many of their sedans and SUVs.  This allows parents to use LATCH in the center seat, something you couldn’t do on Hondas in previous years.  It’s not as nice as having three separate pairs of lower anchors, because you can’t put in three seats at the same time with the arrangement Honda uses.  Still, it gives parents a little more flexibility, provided they read their owner’s manual and determine which seating positions and which anchors are to be used!  Here’s the arrangement in the Honda CR-V (left), you can see the dots above the seat cushion that indicate the location of the anchors.  The 8-passenger Honda Pilot (right) has three separate sets of lower anchors.

 

Jeers to the Chevrolet Aveo for the worst LATCH anchors.  Not only are they hard to reach because they are recessed into the seat cushion, but you actually have reach in to find the the tab on a tiny little zipper and unzip the opening first!  Then, the seat padding around the anchors makes the opening very narrow.

 

Jeers to Chrysler, for only having three LATCH positions in their minivans, two in the 2nd row captain’s chairs and an offset placed third location in the center of the third row (left).  On the plus side, you can get a wi-fi enabled minivan, in case you need to surf the internet while driving!

 

Cheers to Chrysler, for also putting same three pairs of LATCH anchors in my fantasy car, the Dodge Challenger:

I wonder if one of these will appear in my driveway for Valentine’s Day?  I would like an orange one with the 5-speed autostick, please.  In my next blog, I’ll be handing out the CarseatBlog Awards for the auto show.  I think any Chrysler reps reading this blog know what to do in order to get top placement…

12 Comments

  1. Kat_momof3 February 14, 2009
  2. Jessica (owensmama) February 13, 2009
  3. Elaine February 13, 2009
  4. CPSDarren February 13, 2009
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  7. Jeanum February 13, 2009
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