NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › ratings
Car Safety Ratings | Vehicles, Car Seats, Tires | NHTSA
NHTSA's 5-Star Safety Ratings help you make smart decisions about safety when buying a car. Compare vehicles, and search car seat and tire ratings.
Homepage
Get resources and info about staying safe on America’s roads. And, find out if there’s a recall on your car or how to report a vehicle safety problem.
Recalls
Use our VIN lookup tool to check for recalls on your car, or search by make and model. Also, get recall information on car seats, tires and equipment.
Drunk Driving
Every day, about 34 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that's one person every 42 minutes. In 2023, 12,429 people died in
Car Seats & Boosters
Get resources on how to find and install the right car seat for your child such as forward-facing and rear-facing car seats, along with booster seats.
NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › car-seats-and-booster-seats › car-seat-ease-use-ratings
Car Seat Ease-of-Use Ratings | NHTSA
All car seats that NHTSA rates for ease-of-use are self-certified by the car seat manufacturer to meet federal safety standards, including strict crash performance standards.
Videos
02:14
Consumer Reports finds significant problems with 2 infant car seats ...
02:07
Consumer Report: Concerning child car seat crash results - YouTube
02:11
Consumer Reports | Car seat testing results - YouTube
01:54
NHTSA unveils new federal safety standards for car seats - YouTube
NHTSA announces side-impact crash-test standard for child car seats ...
Saferidenews
saferidenews.com › 2023 › 10 › study-nhtsa-eou
Study Examines NHTSA’s CR Ease-of-Use Ratings – Safe Ride News
For vehicles, the agency’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) is considered a safety rating because it has a crash test component in addition to promoting the presence of certain desired (but not required) safety features. NHTSA’s Car Seat Ease-of-Use (EOU) rating, on the other hand, is not considered a safety rating because it focuses on how easy a product is to use (with no dynamic testing component).
NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › ratings › 2020-model-year-vehicles-selected-testing-nhtsa
2020 Model Year Vehicles Selected for Testing by NHTSA | NHTSA
Each year, NHTSA crash tests vehicles as part of our 5-Star Safety Ratings program. In addition, we do verification tests on advanced crash avoidance technology systems in vehicles. Here are the lists of vehicle models selected for each test.
Consumer Reports
consumerreports.org › babies & kids › baby & toddler › car seats › how consumer reports tests child car seats
How Consumer Reports Tests Child Car Seats - Consumer Reports
That's because a seat can't provide optimal crash protection if it hasn't been properly installed or is being used incorrectly. For many years, Consumer Reports performed simulated frontal crash testing at 30 mph based on the criteria outlined in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 (FVMSS 213), which is NHTSA's standard for crash performance of child restraints (child car seats).
Data.gov
catalog.data.gov › dataset › child-safety-seat-ease-of-use-rating-child-safety-seat-ease-of-use-ratings
Department of Transportation - Child Safety Seat Ease of Use Rating - Child Safety Seat Ease of Use Ratings
To assist consumers purchasing child safety seats, NHTSA has rated car seats which meet Federal Safety Standards and strict crash performance standards. While all rates seats...
World Car Rating
worldcarrating.com › home › nhtsa car seat crash test ratings explained
Essential Guide to NHTSA Car Seat Crash Test Ratings
September 13, 2025 - Car seats are essential for ensuring the safety of young passengers in vehicles. With numerous options available on the market, understanding how these seats perform in crash scenarios is crucial for parents and caregivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts rigorous crash tests to evaluate the safety of car seats, providing ratings that […]
NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › vehicle › safety-standards
Vehicle Detail Search - safety-standards | NHTSA
Search for vehicle using all available options, one page at a time. Full Vehicle Detail Search - safety-standards
DOT
crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov › Api › Public › ViewPublication › 813396 pdf
DOT HS 813 396 April 2025 (Revised) The 2021 National Survey of the
Child car seats on the market have a wide variation in height and weight limits. Height limits · range between 36 and 54 inches, and weight limits range from 40 to 60 or more pounds. Previous · NSUBS publications considered these limits in assessing premature transition with respect to · NHTSA's previous guidelines.
NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › equipment › car-seats-and-booster-seats
Car Seat & Booster Seat Safety, Ratings, Guidelines | NHTSA
To maximize safety, keep your child in the car seat for as long as possible, as long as the child fits within the manufacturer’s height and weight requirements. Keep your child in the back seat at least through age 12. ... The best seat for your young child to use. It has a harness and, in a crash, cradles and moves with your child to reduce the stress to the child's fragile neck and spinal cord.
BMW of Owings Mills
bmwofowingsmills.com › home › what you need to know about nhtsa safety ratings
What You Need To Know About NHTSA Safety Ratings | BMW of Owings Mills
September 7, 2022 - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ... The NHTSA safety rating program evaluates new vehicles in four major crash tests. The Frontal Crash
NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › research-data › child-seat-research
Child Seat Research | NHTSA
Evaluation of Child Occupant Protection In a 56 km/h (35 mph) Frontal Barrier Crash (Technical Report) Compliance tests were conducted on the Orbit Baby Inc. infant car seat model ORB803000 child restraint system in accordance with the specifications of the Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance Test Procedure No.
Car Seat
car-seat.org › home › forums › the best child safety seat advice › car seats: questions? ask here
Re: Highest CRASH TEST ratings for car seats | Car Seat.Org - Carseat, Automobile & Child Passenger Safety Forums
August 15, 2008 - That said, NHTSA does do compliance testing of child restraints and those test results are viewable online, arranged by government fiscal year (GFY or FY, another acronym ) at: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/comply/fmvss213/ ... Re: Highest CRASH TEST ratings for car seats The link Jean posted will show the various measurements that a car seat must pass.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/cars › nhtsa is providing incorrect child seat recommendations on it's website
r/cars on Reddit: NHTSA is providing incorrect child seat recommendations on it's website
December 2, 2023 -
The child car seat finder tool published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/car-seats-and-booster-seats) is returning potentially dangerous results, contradicting information shown on the rest of the page and not functioning as one would expect.
As you can see from the linked screenshot, the tool does not even take into consideration the height and weight parameters and they are being completely ignored when generating a recommendation. It is dangerous that this is happening, providing incorrect child car seat information like this, especially from a federal organization that is often seen as a source of truth. Was this tool tested in any way before being released to the public? This is very troubling and makes me a bit mad. How much taxpayer money was spent on this tool? Not cool. And not safe.
https://imgur.com/usjFU6l
The tool's chart also changes the recommended age range for a rear-facing seat from Birth - 3 years to Birth - 2 years when you run the tool.
Original recommendation shown if you scroll up above the tool on the page: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/carseatrec_age_size_bars_static_1000px.png
Edit: I've reached out to the NHTSA about this, haven't heard anything just yet.
Top answer 1 of 5
56
An observation as a car mechanic who has had a child recently. Most child seats are IMPOSSIBLE to install correctly according to their own directions. The local fire department certified guy is always unavailable. I am beginning to think it is a feature, not a bug.
2 of 5
14
So rather than reaching out to the NHTSA, or tipping off some journalists who could better raise visibility with the general public, you're complaining here? I highly doubt the NHTSA has its own in-house programmers so this is something to get them to go yell at their contractors about.
BabyGearLab
babygearlab.com › vehicle safety › car seat reviews
The 10 Best Car Seats | Crash Tested
Nuna Pipa RX
After spending tens of thousands of dollars on crash testing car seats in a certified testing lab, we discovered that not all car seats are equal, despite...
NHTSA
nhtsa.gov › vehicle › 2020
Vehicle Detail Search - 2020 | NHTSA
Search for vehicle using all available options, one page at a time. Full Vehicle Detail Search - 2020
GitHub
github.com › fboulnois › nhtsa-car-seat-safety
GitHub - fboulnois/nhtsa-car-seat-safety: An analysis in R of the NHTSA data on infant and child car seats
I cross-referenced the seat model of the most popular travel systems with the NHTSA data. The car seat data was analyzed in a few different dimensions: Which car seats have the highest combined rating by geometric score · Which convertible (multifunction) car seats have the highest score · Which convertible car seats have an overall rating of 5 in any category · Which travel system car seats have the highest score · A few organizations also perform independent testing of car seats that meet or exceed the NHTSA standards:
Author fboulnois
Thompson Sales
thompsonsales.com › home › vehicle safety ratings, crash test ratings, and how they work
Complete Guide to Vehicle Safety Ratings
July 8, 2025 - It received a five-star rating from the NHTSA, and it has mostly good ratings for crash tests from the IIHS. The GMC Acadia is a midsize SUV with a long history of excellent safety ratings.