Target In-Store Event: Trade in Any Old Car Seat/Base & Receive Expired

Basically, there's zero evidence that carseats actually *expire*, or perhaps zero real world data to show that after some period of time, the safety of seats declines due to the materials.

CR goes on to justify [washingtonpost.com] the 6-7 yr "expiration" as indicating safety standards and technology evolves. That might be a reason to replace a seat, but not that existing seats are inherently bad.

The closest I can find to an answer is a guy that lives in a country where there is a thriving second-hand carseat market (apparently):

Is there any data that says secondhand car seats aren't safe? [marketplace.org]

Sweden has some of the best and strictest child safety seat laws in the world. And they've paid off: child auto fatalities have been reduced to almost zero.

I figured that if anybody could give me an honest, data-driven answer to the question of whether used and expired child safety seats are dangerous, it would be a Swedish regulator. So I contacted Maria Krafft, the director of traffic safety and sustainability at the Swedish Transport Administration, who years ago had blogged in favor of used car seats and where to buy good ones in Stockholm. Krafft referred me to Professor Anders Kullgren of the Karolinska Institutet and the Chalmers University of Technology, as well as the longtime head of traffic safety research at Folksam, one of Sweden's largest insurers. During the early 1990s, Folksam even manufactured its own line of child safety seats. If used car seats are a hazard, Professor Kullgren would know. He shared his thoughts via email:

We have the same experience in Sweden. Manufacturers of child restraints (and other safety equipment such as bicycle and motorcycle helmets) tell their customers to buy a new product after a certain period of time, often relatively short. We can't see any evidence to justify that from what we have seen in real-world crashes.

The email continued, touching on Folksam's past as a seat manufacturer:

We still have some seats stored at Folksam that have been used. We have not seen any changes or problems with the plastic material in those seats for this 20–30 year period of time.

That's not data, but it's more than what the world's biggest car seat manufacturers and Target are willing or able to reveal.

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And regarding the comparisons of leaving lawn furniture outside for years? Unless you're rocking a convertible, carseats don't see nearly the same amount of abuse; heat and cold cycles, yes, but not UV exposure which I'd say is the #1 reason for plastic degradation; carbon black and other compounds are added to inhibit UV damage. Also, most lawn furniture is RPVC (same as your window casings, molding, vinyl trim is made out of) and particularly susceptible to degradation. As I mentioned previously, carseats (the actual plastic seat, not the belts or covering) are generally HDPE, the same resin as milk jugs and the same resin (type, perhaps not specific grade) as Little Tykes lawn toys. They might fade, but I can't say I've had one crumble on me and I have stuff that's 20 years old, sitting out in direct baking sunlight all day, or frigid temps in the winter.

I'm not arguing against replacing seats, but I hate it when someone pisses on my leg and tells me it's raining. Let me evaluate the data and make my own choice - don't come up with bullshit excuses.

QR and terms attached. Hope it works for everyone.

It's funny but when someone says last year I still think Of 2019. 2020 is like the forgotten year.