The Great Car Seat Scam

Article Submitted by: Regina
The Economy


Car seats, those devices that protect our children are at the heart of a scam which robs our wallets and saps our nation's energy independence. Think I'm kidding?

 

Submitted: Jul 16, 2007    Views: 472    Comments: 4    Likes: 9   


Has anyone else noticed how car-seats seem to be getting bigger and bigger? And that if you have more than three children, there is no way of getting these seats into a normal sized car.

I have three kids and went on a hunt last month to find car seats that would fit into the back-seat of my Camry. When my first son was born we had purchased a relatively narrow car seat and three of these would have fit. The problem is that I only have one of these seats. The second one that I bought it much larger and no combination of small with large, large is going to fit.

I searched for weeks to find a narrower seat and couldn't find one. The only ones available were these wide, fat bodies seats that looked like they were made for elephant babies. I mean, come on, do little kids really need a seat that an adult passenger could fit in?

I finally bumped into my neighbor and mentioned my problem. She said she had an older, smaller car seat and brought it up. Sure enough it looked like the right size. The only problem was that written in big red letters were the words:

WARNING - DO NOT RE-USE CAR SEAT.

Say what? I thought it had to be a joke. The car seat companies won't allow you to reuse the seats.

So, here's the conspiracy in my mind. The car companies tell the seat manufacturers to design extra-large car seats. This forces all of us to have to buy higher margin mini-vans and SUVs. And then they warn us now to hand the seats down or give them to others to prevent older seats from being used and to boost profits for everyone.

I'm telling you, simply reducing the size of these seats to normal would go a long way to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and improving the nations's fuel efficiency standards.

Think about it.




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Comments Received:

CherylW

I hadn't thought about it but suppose you're right. I don't know anyone in this country that has more than two kids and isn't in a van or suv. I wonder how it is in Europe?

Posted: Jul 16, 2007

JessicaRH

The US car industry is probably behind this. They have failed in any measured way to compete so they are trying anything you can. The more important question is whether these things really work, and of that I am skeptical.

Posted: Jul 16, 2007

soczie
soczie

I am not sure that the only reason is to get us into vans and SUVs. There must be some reason why the seats are becoming wider - maybe they are safer.

Posted: Jul 16, 2007

Sam Cass
Sam_Cass

@soczie I doubt they are safer. I doubt the safety of car seats in the first place. Unless properly installed (which 80% aren't) they are actually more dangerous than a regular seat.

Posted: Jul 16, 2007



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