A word of warning ...

If you see this sign, don't hit the minivan with four kiddos, hit the Porsche - it might be cheaper. Learned a new thing about car seats. I never said I knew it all. Transport Canada has a clear policy that in the event of a crash, all child restrains must be replaced. Unlike the United States NHTSA, Transport Canada doesn't distinguish between types of crashes - a crash is a crash, regardless of how minor and all child restrains must be replaced. The concept is that the stresses of the jolt could have weakened the integrity of the car seat and there is no real way, aside from xraying the car seat to determine any possible damage. Our insurance policy will cover the cost.

I am not convinced the car seats are any worse for the wear. However, do you risk it given that it is the safety of your children, it is Transport Canada policy, and your insurance company supports the policy and will pay for the replacements? I contacted a Sick Kids organization (Safe Kids, I think) and they re-iterated the Transport Canada policy.

The bad news - I have this lovely Britax Marathon that has the higher height restrictions for rear facing at 37". The replacement seat will only have the 32" replacement. The car seat gurus suggest ignoring the height limit since it is just the manufacturers labelling and the US allows a much higher limit. I can't do that - it doesn't seem logical to follow the Transport Canada Policy (which is excessively conservative compared to the US policy**) on seat replacement but ignore the manufacturer's recommendations because the US policy is more liberal. It does appear Britax Canada may be moving to changing the labelling (retroactively, hopefully) such that the random choice of the 32" height will be removed from the Marathon seats.

** Oddly enough, the US policy is based on a study of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia ( ICBC ) . Might be one of the few times a US policy is based on Canadian research, that not even Canada follows. I guess Transport Canada has done its own research that doesn't eliminate the idea that it is ALWAYS safe to continue to use these seats. I think it is akin to the no drinking while pregnant concept - scientists don't know what is a safe amount of alcohol (or car seat stress).