In its latest round of infant car seat crash testing, Consumer Reports (CR) found two models have “significant structural integrity issues” — a heads up that collision repairers may be able to give to their customers who own the seats.

The Diono LiteClik30 XT and the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 Urban Mobility baseless infant seat, released in 2024 and 2025, meet federal safety standards but CR says its testing goes beyond those measures.

“In 2014, CR launched its own comparative car seat testing protocol to better simulate real-world conditions using higher crash forces and energy,” CR wrote in a Feb. 6 article. “It’s designed to identify car seats that offer an additional margin of safety, even above the basic federal level.

“CR’s crash protection scores are based on injury measurements taken from highly instrumented child-sized crash dummies. We also look at how well car seats protect the dummies from contacting surfaces that simulate a vehicle’s interior.”

The video below shows CR crash test footage of the car seats, and provides more detail about how the tests are conducted.

In two out of three CR rear-facing tests of the Diono LiteClik30 XT using a dummy to simulate the size (29 inches) and weight (22 pounds) of a 1-year-old child, the carrier released off the base despite the base being installed with a seatbelt.

“While the dummy remained secure within the carrier, the detachment of the carrier from the base was cause for concern,” CR says. “A car seat that does this in a crash poses an increased risk for the child, especially because many crashes aren’t single-impact events. Imagine a crash where the impact on a vehicle comes from multiple directions or a crash that’s followed by a rollover. A detached carrier can also expose a child to contact with surfaces within the vehicle.”

The carrier remained attached securely during the tests when installed with the Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) anchors.

It’s also important to note for collision repairers that customers may not know their vehicle owner manuals recommend inspections and/or replacement of infant and child seats after a collision just as OEMs often require that seatbelts, seat backs, seat tracks, and LATCH anchors be inspected post-collision to ensure the safety of vehicle passengers.

Mike Anderson, with Collision Advice, and Danny Gredinberg, with the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG), share below why those inspections are necessary as part of safe and proper repairs.

In the latest CR testing, the Primo Viaggio 4-35 Urban Mobility infant seat, a new baseless model from Peg Perego, significantly cracked in all four rear-facing tests in the seat shell along the internal seams of the seatback.

“When the carrier was installed with the lower anchors and the dummy that was similar to a year-old child, the cracking was so severe that multiple pieces of the shell came off, and the crotch buckle pulled completely through the shell,” CR wrote. “The structural integrity of the infant seat shell was severely compromised, a cause for concern given the increased risk of injury in a subsequent crash event.”

CR rated both seats as “Basic” for crash protection, which meet the required federal safety standards. However, CR says it’s concerned that the seats “might not provide additional crash protection beyond those minimums.”

There have been no reported incidents with either seat, according to CR. In the Consumer Tip video below, Anderson and Gredinberg share more about safety inspections, and why they’re important.

Images

Featured image: The Diono LiteClik30 XT (left) and the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 Urban Mobility (right) both meet federal standards for infant car seats but had issues in our independent crash tests. (Provided by Consumer Reports)

Secondary image: The Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 Urban Mobility car seat showed significant cracking after CR’s crash tests, severely compromising the seat’s structural integrity.