Why does my car shake when I'm stopped at the lights?
A car shaking at idle usually comes down to four causes. Here's how to read what your car is telling you and which ones can wait vs. which ones can't.
What age can you stop using a child's car seat?
Child car seats are literal life-savers, but let’s face it – they’re also a bit of a festy Bermuda triangle where snacks are dropped and sweaty tantrums are had. On some level, doesn’t every parent look forward to their kids outgrowing their car seats?
So at what age can your child graduate to the grown-up seat instead? Well, both age and height need to be considered. That’s because kids grow at different rates, and a child's size and development determines how they’d best be protected in a crash.
When can a child be taken out of a car seat?
By law, all children aged under seven years must use an approved and suitable child restraint when travelling in a vehicle.
- Infants up to 6 months must use a rear-facing child car seat.
- Kids of 6 months to 4 years must use either a rear-facing child car seat, or a forward-facing child car seat with an inbuilt harness.
- Kids of 4 to 7 years must use either a forward‑facing child car seat with an inbuilt harness or an approved booster seat.
However – height comes into it too
The suggested minimum height for using a standard seatbelt is 145cm or taller. Why? That height requirement helps to ensure the seat belt won’t pull across the neck or the abdomen with sudden braking. Children who are too small to use a standard seatbelt should be using an approved booster seat or an anchored safety harness, even if they’re over seven years of age. Yep – that means some children could be using a booster seat until they’re 11 or 12.
So before you banish the booster seat to the back of the garage, check that your child is over seven years of age and over 1.45m tall. The seat belt should fit across their hips and chest, and shouldn’t be sitting across their neck or stomach.
For reassurance, use the five-point test
The five-point test is an easy way to check a good fit. If you’re thinking of moving your child to a standard car seat, make sure they can do all of the following first:
