[Rat]

My daughter flew in from Texas with her husband and baby. We had bought a Graco car seat base that matches the car seat they transported her in on the plane. She had said the LATCH system was easier to use than the seat belt method, so before they arrived I installed it in the Volvo to pick them up at the airport. The metal rods that the belt hooks attach to are set in too deep and in an awkward position, too high in the "tunnel". It took me half an hour to hook it in the first time and I cut my hand doing it. Then my wife discovered that one end was loose. There's a right angle ledge of sort that I had mistakenly hooked to instead of the rod. A good pull and it comes loose. This is a serious flaw; it felt secure but actually could come loose. In addition, there was a plastic sheet from the seat upholstery that covered the rod on the other side. I was able to get that hook on, but the hook got all tangled in it. So I decided to unhook the whole thing and just use the seat belt method. Unfortunately, I couldn't. One end wouldn't hook properly and other wouldn't unhook at all due to the plastic. That left it as unusable and unremoveable. I spent another half hour and finally got both sides hooked on properly, but cut my hand again.

We transported the baby just fine from the airport. After we got home I explained all the problems I'd had to my daughter and she was flabbergasted. I have arthritis in my hands and asked if she or her husband could unhook the base and we could use the seat belt system. That way I could remove the base when she left. It took her ten minutes of sweating and swearing to get it unhooked, but she succeeded. She said in her car and others she's used, it normally takes five or ten seconds to hook or unhook and stow the strap from the LATCH system. She said it was the worst design she'd ever seen - way too deep and inaccessible. The seat belt system worked fine after that. Just a word of warning.

 

[msnut1]

Finally someone else with a similar problem. the hooks are set in too deep. It's a challenge to get the latches in right, it takes me around 10-15 minutes and a lot of swearing to get it in. Srsly, you would think the people who design these for the car did it without any testing of actual car seats.

One tip would be to loosen up the latches on the car seat, push the latches in from the top and the tighten it up at the end. I also "double up" to provide more stability for the car seat : 1) latches 2) use the seat belt as well to hold the base of the car seat. I have the Peg Perego car seat for toddlers.