Author Topic: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!  (Read 11309 times)

CanuckExpat

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Re: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!
« Reply #50 on: August 30, 2017, 09:00:04 AM »
Cars are very dangerous.  Yes, you lower your risk by being a vigilant, defensive driver, but you can't control the truck driver in the highway behind you who is looking down at his cell phone.

Good time to point out, the best way to reduce the risk is to drive as little as possible, or not at all.

trollwithamustache

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Re: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!
« Reply #51 on: August 30, 2017, 09:03:33 AM »
we bought new for the first one. We would never ever buy a used car seat. Never ever. nope, not done, straight to parent hell with no parole.

however we kept re using them for subsequent children. Thank god we bought it new so none of them ever had a used seat!




NeonPegasus

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Re: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!
« Reply #52 on: August 30, 2017, 10:13:54 AM »
Most people don't even realize that a fender bender qualifies as an accident for car seat purposes, or they forget that the car seat was in one, or they don't even know.  (We loaned car seats to my parents to drive our children around and my mother was rear ended at some point.  When they returned the seats, I had already forgotten that they'd been in an accident.) So the "why would someone lie about that?" argument fails on more than one level.

If a car seat was unoccupied in a fender bender like you mention above (not a major accident), it is still safe. That is what the car seat manufacturers say.

That is not correct, we actually called the manufacturer in our case.  A very minor accident where there is little to no bumper damage is generally ok (but you have to check the criteria of the specific manufacturer).  But a relatively minor accident can cause major structural damage to a vehicle (which was the case in the accident that I mentioned).

I looked it up again and see that I am mistaken that it makes a difference whether the seat was occupied or not. That being said, I am correct about minor fender benders. I think the issue at hand is what constitutes a minor fender bender. Here is the criteria from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

See https://us.britax.com/faqs/after-a-crash/

Quote
QUESTION:
Can I continue to use my child seat after it has been involved in a crash?

ANSWER:
Britax recommends that the use of a child seat be discontinued if it has been in a moderate to severe crash.   We further advise of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) position that it is not necessary to replace a child seat after a minor crash. (emphasis mine)

A minor crash is one that meets ALL of following criteria:

The vehicle was able to be driven away from the crash site; AND
The vehicle door nearest the child restraint was undamaged; AND
There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants; AND
The air bags (if present) did not deploy; AND
There is no visible damage to the child seat.

charis

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Re: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!
« Reply #53 on: August 30, 2017, 12:28:38 PM »
Most people don't even realize that a fender bender qualifies as an accident for car seat purposes, or they forget that the car seat was in one, or they don't even know.  (We loaned car seats to my parents to drive our children around and my mother was rear ended at some point.  When they returned the seats, I had already forgotten that they'd been in an accident.) So the "why would someone lie about that?" argument fails on more than one level.

If a car seat was unoccupied in a fender bender like you mention above (not a major accident), it is still safe. That is what the car seat manufacturers say.

That is not correct, we actually called the manufacturer in our case.  A very minor accident where there is little to no bumper damage is generally ok (but you have to check the criteria of the specific manufacturer).  But a relatively minor accident can cause major structural damage to a vehicle (which was the case in the accident that I mentioned).

I looked it up again and see that I am mistaken that it makes a difference whether the seat was occupied or not. That being said, I am correct about minor fender benders. I think the issue at hand is what constitutes a minor fender bender. Here is the criteria from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

See https://us.britax.com/faqs/after-a-crash/

Quote
QUESTION:
Can I continue to use my child seat after it has been involved in a crash?

ANSWER:
Britax recommends that the use of a child seat be discontinued if it has been in a moderate to severe crash.   We further advise of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) position that it is not necessary to replace a child seat after a minor crash. (emphasis mine)

A minor crash is one that meets ALL of following criteria:

The vehicle was able to be driven away from the crash site; AND
The vehicle door nearest the child restraint was undamaged; AND
There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants; AND
The air bags (if present) did not deploy; AND
There is no visible damage to the child seat.


I agree that this is the criteria and don't wish to debate it any further.  I meant, as I should have written, that a fender bender CAN qualify as an event required the replacement of a car seat, which people don't realize.  And I recommend following the criteria of your specific manufacturer, as we did.

a rose by any other name

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Re: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!
« Reply #54 on: August 31, 2017, 10:11:46 AM »
It actually depends on the carseat manufacturer. Graco carseats for example need to be replaced after every crash per Graco. CSFTL, which is run by CPSTs is a great resource for this kind of thing.

https://csftl.org/does-my-car-seat-need-to-be-replaced-after-a-crash/

Additionally, I would be unwilling to purchase a used carseat because you don't know if it was ever checked on a plane, saturated with water (like if someone sprayed it down with a hose), or cleaned improperly. These are things that many people don't realize would render their seat unsafe to use. Since a new seat can be bought for as little as $45, I don't see any reason to bother with used seats unless it's one that you can be 100% sure was properly cared for.

CanuckExpat

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Re: Should I buy a used carseat??? Help!
« Reply #55 on: September 05, 2017, 12:03:59 AM »
We're onto baby number two, and this would be used carseat #2 (or maybe #3)
They keep showing up for free, I'll keep using them