Over the years, I have done a few posts here on car seat safety. It is something I’m very passionate about. So, when I saw this article on testing from Consumer Reports featuring a seat that one of my sons currently rides in, I was understandably concerned. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

After consulting with a few Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPST) and researching further, the general consensus is this: When it comes to car seats, Consumer Reports is not a very reliable source of reviews. The crash tests they use are often not indicative of real world crashes. They are extreme and very rare circumstances. Most of the accidents they replicate, where they say the seats had critical failures, are accidents that would have a very low rate of survival anyway.

What Happened in the Testing?

The Britax Frontier and Pioneer Clicktight Harness-2-Booster, the Cosco Finale DX, and the Harmony Defender 360 all sustained structural damage during these extreme crash tests.

Britax Frontier and Pioneer: The headrests and harness supports on both seats broke when tested with a 52 lb crash dummy (the size of an average 6 year old). Because the Frontier has a harness capacity of 90 lbs, it was also tested with a 78 lb dummy (the size of an average 10 year old). In that test, the support for the metal retention bar on the back of the seat broke, and the bar and harness pulled through the back which significantly loosened the harness.

Cosco Finale: The support for the top tether (which anchors the car seat to the vehicle) broke when tested with the 52 lb dummy, extending the tether strap and moving the dummy further forward than it should have. There were also signs of stress to the tether area when tested with a 35 lb dummy (the size of an average 3 year old), but it did not break.

Harmony Defender 360: The hardware near the shoulder area on the back of the shell broke in tests with a 52 lb dummy, which caused the harness to pull through and loosen.

What Do These Test Results Mean?

All of these seats received a BASIC rating for crash protection, which means that they meet all of the requirements from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, aka the federal government), but do not provide a higher level of safety when tested with crash dummies that weigh more than 50 lbs. No structural issues were found when tested with a crash dummy weighing 35 lbs, with the exception of the Cosco Finale.

Should I Continue Using these Car Seats?

Based on this round of testing, Consumer Reports recommends that if you own any of these seats, you should switch your child to booster mode as long they meet the height/weight requirements (at least 40 lbs and 45″ tall), and are mature enough to sit properly all of the time without the harness. (Most children under 5 years old will not be ready for this.)

If you are using one of the seats, have no other car seat available, and your child is not booster ready, the benefits of keeping your child harnessed outweigh the minimal risk of a crash that would cause this sort of seat failure. The only exception is the Harmony Defender 360, which both Consumer Reports and CarseatBlog say should be replaced with another harnessed seat if your older/larger child is not booster ready.

If you are in the market for a new seat, the Graco Milestone All-In-One and the Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 earned a BEST rating for crash protection in these tests.

Again, the seats in question meet all of the federal requirements for safety, and are in use by tens of thousands of children without issue. Having your child properly restrained in an age/size appropriate car seat is the most important factor when keeping them safe in a vehicle.

{This post is not sponsored by any company or Amazon. It does contain affiliate links to Amazon. Purchases made through these links support The Practically Green Mom Blog. Please see my disclosure policy for my information.}