Lexus RX Among Highest Rated for Safest Child Seat Anchors

By Melissa Perez - September 5, 2016

When purchasing any new vehicle, but specially a luxury SUV, most parents would say safety is at the very top of their list. New safety rankings have been released, and the Lexus RX seems to have the easiest-to-use anchors for child seats.

In case you’re curious, LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (NHTSA) just evaluated the LATCH systems in over 170 vehicles. At the very top of the list with the best results, sat the Lexus RX amongst other Toyota models.

“We began by going through our North American vehicles one by one, identifying the issues and prioritizing the solutions that had the biggest impact and could be implemented quickly,” said Jennifer Pelky, senior engineer at the Toyota Technical Center and a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. “Some of the biggest challenges we faced were balancing ease-of-use with safety regulation requirements, comfort, and aesthetics.”

The best performers had anchors that were easy to maneuver and didn’t require much force to snap in a car seat, which is especially important for parents that share a carseat between 2 different cars. They also had more than the minimum required number of anchors. I personally know the struggle, as we often rotate a car seat between test cars when we perform our own reviews.

“As a safety engineer and a mother of two young boys, I understand that installing a child safety seat is not always the easiest task,” said Pelky. “I’m proud to have played a role in making that part of parenting a bit easier.”

The Lexus RX was already a pretty darn good family SUV, but it seems it just got even better!