4 in 10 puzzled parents admit they don’t know what car seat they should get for their children.
With so many regulations covering child car seats, a huge array of styles and safety labels in shops and no ‘one size fits all’ seat, it’s no wonder parents feel confused over this vital purchase.
Online car marketplace heycar polled 2,000 parents to reveal the biggest issues mums and dads have when it comes to keeping their little ones safe in the car. In this era of easy comparisons online, 1 in 4 of those surveyed felt there was no quick reference to find the right car seat, while 37 per cent admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the number of different ranges and styles that are available.
That’s why, with so little access to information about what seat is the right one and knowing who to trust, it takes parents time to ensure they get it right.
To help parents make an informed choice for their cars and get the information they need quicker, heycar now has a simple car seat chooser on its site, with the exact fit for different makes and models of car presented in seconds.
This research is vital as two thirds of parents surveyed said that after they’d gathered information they were confident they’d made the right choice of car seat.
Vik Barodia, chief operating and product officer at heycar, says: “There’s a lot of confusion out there about car seats, so it’s easy to see why parents don’t know what way to turn.
“However, the quick information parents need to feel reassured - about what seat is right for their car and their child - shouldn’t be something they have to spend a long time looking for. With the new heycar car seat chooser, we want to take away the hassle, provide peace of mind and leave families confident in their choice.”
The things that are top priorities when it comes to choosing the right seat are safety (47 per cent), being right for the child (15 per cent), being the right quality (11 per cent), being easy to fit and remove (six per cent) and being long-lasting (five per cent).
On the subject of fitting child seats in their cars, the heycar research revealed that after buying a seat, 10 per cent of parents do not feel confident they’ll be able to fit it properly. Dads are more confident than mums, with one third of dads saying they are very confident, versus less than a quarter of mums.
The time it takes to fit a new car seat into a car is 11 minutes 30 seconds on average, according to those surveyed. A speedy 28 per cent claim they can do it in under 5 minutes, while one per cent took more than an hour to complete the task.
