We hear the term “Vehicle Safety” tossed around a lot these days, but here at McLaughlin Volvo, we want you to know that when we say “Vehicle Safety,” we mean for everyone, and that includes the little ones. So much has been made about the awesome driver assistance features available on many new vehicles, including most Volvo models, but today we’re focusing on protecting our future: child safety seats.
There are a lot of options for child safety seats out there, but Volvo has designed a line of Child Safety Seats that it believes to be more comfortable and altogether safer than your average child seat. It has three size ranges to allow for different ages and sizes to stay safe:
- Infant Seat— reward-facing, suitable for children up to 13 kg or 1 year of age.
- Child Seat—rearward-facing and suitable for children from 9 months to 6 years of age.
- Booster Seat—forward-facing, suitable for children that have outgrown the rearward-facing seat, from ages 3 to 10 years.
“Our focus is on ensuring that young children travel in the safest manner possible, depending upon their size and age. This means rearward-facing up to the age of at least 3 or 4 years and after that with child seats or booster cushions up to 140 cm in height. The safety benefits are unquestionable, yet many parents unwittingly allow their children to sit forward-facing too early. One of the many reasons quoted for this is comfort – the child complains that there is not enough legroom, or is too warm due to the upholstery. We believe that children will be more comfortable in our rearward-facing new seat and that this will encourage parents to keep their children rearward-facing for longer. This will have a direct impact on overall child safety and support our Vision 2020, where no one will be killed or seriously injured in a Volvo car by the year 2020.” said Lotta Jakobsson, Adjunct Professor, PhD and Senior Technical Leader, Injury Prevention at Volvo Cars Safety Centre
It’s Volvo’s vision for the future that no person be killed or seriously injured in one of its cars by the year 2020, and that vision absolutely includes children. Part of achieving that is getting children to travel in rearward-facing car seats for as long as possible. To find out which car seat might be suitable for your child and your Volvo vehicle, you can check out this handy online tool, the Volvo Child Seat Configurator (link will take you to a new page). If you’d like to size things up in person, come see us in our Moline, IL showroom and speak with someone from our friendly sales team about the Volvo model that interests you most, and they’ll be able to answer your child safety questions!