Probably didn't feel like going through the long list of testing required for car seats in the US. If you really want a Volvo one, it might be worth it to find a dealer or someone abroad willing to ship here (provided shipping isn't stupid expensive).

 

Your explanation makes sens but it is still very interesting. The car company which has the reputation to make the safest cars and invests a ton in research around safety of children, can't get his baby car seats approved in the US.

 

Can’t comment on availability but can confirm comfort

 

Can presume it is a LATCH (US) vs. ISOFIX (EU) issue.

 

Maybe the reason is the price, from 677 EUR

 

Maybe the reason is the price, from 677 EUR

View attachment 167739

Expensive, sure, but you’re paying the Volvo tax, you can’t compare direct equivalent pricing with conversion, and VAT added.

I mean, what’s a €700 seat when you’re buying a $60-$70,000 car? People love the Clem Foonf and that’s nearly $600. Our Diono was somewhere between $300-400.

 

I'll say I bought the wool booster seat for my daughter... it wasn't cheap... but was was made in Sweden! Held up very well over the 4+ years we had it. But yeah, I'm guessing it's a US regulation cost vs return aspect. Lots of laws in the US protect us from safer options that exist because of the slowness and ineptitude of the legislative process.

 

When our daughter was in a car seat a decade ago I dug into this and discovered that to sell a seat in the US it must fit in every vehicle sold in the US market. Volvo seats were not certified to fit in all vehicles and weren't offered. I found this Swedish website that had the seats Volvo sells, but branded by their original manufacturer which I think was Klippan or Britax. CarSeat.se | CarSeat.se They ship to the US. The Klippan I bought years ago was used by at least two other kids after we were done with it. It reminded me of a race seat with high wings for the child's head and a steel frame.

 

All volvo baby car seats are made by BRITAX. I have check it by dealer, only thing from volvo is fabric. You can clearly see BRITAX logo on all plastic parts.

 

As stated above, all Volvo branded child seats (with the exception of the two piece booster) are made by Britax. Find your best price on a Britax and be happy that you have the same car seat used by Volvo.

 

100% sure they wouldn’t make their own seat (hence the Volvo tax comment). Thanks for confirming the brand. figured it was a major retailer (Britax, Diono, etc.)

 

I purchased multiple car seats from Sweden (CarSeat.se | CarSeat.se )without issue. They shipped to my door in Leavenworth, KS.

 

Congrats on having your illegal car seats slipped past US customs. Do you want a trophy?

Just because my 30kg of pure uncut Colombian cocaine made it to my house a few times doesn't mean that it was OK to start with.

 

This is just super far off the mark.

There are tons of examples of objectively safer things which aren't legal in the U.S. because of the burdensome regulatory process. Adaptive headlights - which allow a car to keep their brights on at all times, while dimming only those portions of a beam that would blind other drivers - have been used in Europe for a decade or longer. Yet they can't be legally used in the U.S. in 2022 because of a NHTSA regulation from the 60s that prohibits a high and low beams from being on at the same time.

The infrastructure law in late 2021 finally legalized their use, but it gives NHTSA up to 2 years to finalize the rulemaking and specific performance requirements, which have not been released yet.

 

Nobody said they weren't safe or that regulations weren't burdensome. I pointed out that they are illegal to import and cannot be sold in the US due to federal regulations.

 

Why is the assumption that the EU seats are safer than US seats?

 

My research a decade ago (when my daughter was young) showed that the EU evaluated more safety aspects of the seat. I can't speak to 2022, but here is an article from 2016. European Car Seats vs. American Car Seats: Is One Better? - Car Seats For The Littles

 

I think overall US has safer regulations, but either way, they are different. I'm sure a lot of them are the same for both markets, just not necessarily tested/approved for both.
I know (well I think) in addition to all of the actual requirements for seats, there is something about how emergency people must be able to remove them easily. I used to have a 1993 Dodge Intrepid with the build in child seat. We loved it, my son was 2½ when we got it, and it was super roomy and nice, and when folded up, the seat looked nicer than the ones without the built in baby seat. They also offered it in minivans. I think a lot of the reason they stopped that was in a wreck, they had to remove the children from the seat, but they prefer to leave them in it if possible. Which is why Volvo now had built in "Boosters" not actual baby seats.