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Automobiles: Cars for Transporting Children

Selecting the proper child-safety seat also requires appropriate installation in the vehicle to properly is only protect your child. It's not an option: It's the law! Before buying a car, ensure it is suitable.

• Children 12 and under need to ride in the back seat away from the front-seat air bags. Children belong in the back seat, so pick a vehicle with an accommodating one.
  
• Some backseats are contoured in a way so you cannot properly install your child seat so that it sits flat and rests at a particular angle, as indicated by a gauge on the seat itself.
  
• The location of the seat belts, buckles or LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) anchors should ensure that the seat is installed securely enough, depending on the model used. Always bring your child seat to the dealership to make sure it can be installed securely.
  
• Even if the child seat is properly positioned, the car's design can make it physically difficult to install the child seat. A low roofline, a narrow or awkwardly placed doorway, or a high floorline can all make it difficult to press the seat into the cushion before securing it, as is recommended.
  
• The safest location for a child seat is in the center of the back seat, the furthest from the car's exterior in all directions (to protect the child from side impact). If the center position is raised, this may make child-seat installation difficult, or improperly allow the child seat to rock from side to side. Few vehicles offer LATCH anchors for the center back seat position, only for the outboard seats. Some vehicles offer three LATCH pairs across the back seat.
  
• Top-tether anchors are required in all new cars, but aren't equally-well installed in sport utility vehicles, hatchbacks and minivans. Sometimes they're inaccessible behind the back seat, interfere with cargo handling in the back bay.