Retrofit kits for child car seats.(Product Information)

If one or more of your passengers is of the blankie-and-Sesame Street set, you have some choices to make in the coming months about car seats.

The background: All car seats and most passenger vehicles manufactured as of Sept. 1 of this year must have new equipment designed for simpler buckling. The acronym for the new buckling system is LATCH, for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. Vehicles will contain metal bars called lower anchors between the car's rear seatback and rear seat itself. And car seats will come with special hooks that clip onto the anchors. (Car seats made since 1999, except boosters, already have a tether strap; newer cars have a fastener for that strap.) The setup eliminates the need to use a vehicle safety belt with the car seat.

Does the deadline mean you'll need to ditch your current car seat or that it won't work in a new car? No. You may continue to use your car seat with a vehicle safety belt for your child.

Or, you can buy a retrofit kit that will enable you to use your current car seat with the car anchors in a new car. We crash-tested three kits and they worked, securing car seats as well as vehicle safety belts did. They are the Century EZ Latch (to be replaced by the Century and Graco EZ Latch, which did not arrive in time for our crash tests), the Cosco LATCH Retro-Fit Kit, and the Evenflo Secure-Right LATCH Kit, all $20 to $25. Each kit is to be used only with certain models of that company's car seats; packaging and company web sites list those models.

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