5 Things Moms Need To Look For When Buying A Car For The Family

Which Is The Best Family Car For You?

The car you buy as your family car should have every attention to detail geared towards having children. That means cupholders, room for booster seats, enough space in back row, removable floor mats, etc. In addition to those features, The car must also be safe for children outside and inside the car, and also safe in general! You have ask yourself when buying a family car, what’s the crash test rating?  Will the kids be safe in their booster seats during a crash? These are all things you need to be thinking of when looking for the perfect family vehicle. One company that has proved make great family cars can be found here: https://www.baldwinsubaru.com/

Family Car Means Car Seats

If you’re looking for which cars work with which car seats, and how safe they are together, visit safekids.org for more information. At safekids.org, they have Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPST) ready and available for any parents with questions or concerns. There’s also a helpful safety guide called the Ultimate Car Seat Guide. It has expert advice and recommendations, as well as how to install the seat and more. Features of vehicles with well-made car seat options should include:

1. Easy Latching System: the LATCH system is the best system to look for in a car. It  includes two loops at the top which are metal, as well as a third anchoring mechanism attached to the rear of the seat to hold it in place. Some brands of car seats do not make their latches easily accessible, which can be a real pan when you use it everyday.
2. Center Positioned Seat: the safest place for a car seat is the center of the 2nd row. Most LATCH systems are made on the sides seats instead of the center. This is a disappointment for most parents with one child, but for parents with two they would probably prefer the two on the sides.
3. Vehicle Seat Itself: a hump-shaped seat cushion, or seat belts are in front of seat crack, or seatbelts close together can make installing a child seat extremely difficult. It’s important to know your car and which features will be safe enough for your child.
4. Space Between Rows: it’s important to make sure that there is space between the second and third rows simply to place the child seats into their position. Your child cannot be too close to airbags either, this can be an issue with rear facing child seats.
5. Second Row Length: it’s important to make sure that there is enough length of the second row in case you will need to make room for more seating in the future. Some sedans are decent with this feature and some larger vehicles actually have too short of benches to make fitting the seats in very difficult.

Crash Test Rating

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are both very valid sources of crash test information.

The IIHS tests evaluate two aspects of safety:

• crashworthiness—how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a crash
• crash avoidance and mitigation—technology that can prevent a crash or lessen its severity.

Car Must Grow With Your Family

You must prepare for the growth of your child. Eventually your child will outgrow their rear-facing seat and move into a belt booster seat. Your basic family cars might not have enough room for this kind of seat so you must prepare in advance and choose the right car first.

Safety Features

1. Forward Collision Warning/Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB): In terms of standard equipment on cars, these are two of the biggest advances in safety since 2012. Both keep you aware and also assist you in braking through the use of radar.
2. Blind-spot Warning: this system uses cameras to detect vehicles in the lanes around your car. It provides an audible warning to the driver and also reminds you there is a vehicle there through a light on your side mirror.
3. Anti-Pinch: based on an electrical circuit, this safety feature detects how much pressure your windows are using, and then causes the motor to reverse direction if it detects something is in the way. This is useful for not hurting your child’s limbs if they happen to be near the window.
4. Vehicle telematic: subscription based, full of features for navigation, vehicle location, maintenance of your vehicle, and control of vehicle speed./li>
5. Park Assist: uses sensors on the corners or bumpers of the car to alert when there are obstacles the vehicle is about to run into.

Safety of Back Row

If the back row of the vehicle is near the rear window, this could be hazardous for passengers back there in the event of an accident. The further away the rear window is from the seat, the more safe the vehicle’s passengers will be. Air bags should be all around the family cars passengers, on all sides. Headrests are a must for all passengers, and make sure to not use car seats with forward-facing seats.

Reversing Blind Zones

Every vehicle needs a rear camera to prevent reversing blind zones. 59 children were killed in 2016 because driver’s didn’t see them while moving in reverse.