Audi, Lexus And Toyota Rank Highest For Car-Seat Anchors

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New rankings from the insurance industry show that the Audi Q7, Lexus RX and Toyota Prius have the easiest-to-use anchors for child seats.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety evaluated LATCH systems in 170 vehicles. LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children.

The U.S. has required LATCH in rear seats since 2002. But the institute says many systems are hard to use, which makes it more likely that child seats will be incorrectly installed.

The institute evaluated both seat-level anchors and seat-mounted tethers.

The best performers had anchors that were easy to maneuver and didn't require much force to snap in a car seat. They also had more than the required minimum number of anchors.

"A common problem with the lower anchors is they're buried too deep in the seat," said Jessica Jermakian, a senior research engineer at the IIHS. "When the LATCH hardware is difficult to use, parents can make a lot of mistakes and leave their children less protected in the event of a crash."

The Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Silverado and Infiniti Q70 were among the worst performers.

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