It is very necessary and useful to know about ADAC to all those who are going to buy a car seat or rent a car seat just for travel.
“The ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V.) (General German Automobile Club) is an automobile club in Germany, founded on May 24, 1903, as German Motorbiker Association (Deutsche Motorradfahrer-Vereinigung), and given its present name in 1911. With more than 18 million members in May 2012,[1] it is the largest automobile club in Europe. It is also the largest motorcyclist association in the world, with 1.5 million members”.
This is the quote from Wikipedia.
What does the German automobile organization mean for us living in Ukraine? After all, we will not use its technical support, insurance.
But!
If you have children, and of course you are, as you are on our website :), you should be aware of the role that ADAC plays in your life!
In plain language, the ADAC is the most authoritative organization in Europe that tests cars, their components and accessories, motorcycles and bicycles for safety declared by manufacturers. ADAC requirements are much stricter than the legal requirements of ECE R44/03 and ECE R44/04.
The crash test for the safety of the children car seats includes frontal impact at a speed of 64 kph, side impact (50 kph) and even rare impact. ECE only require the test to frontal impact at a speed of 50 kph.
And what speed do you drive at?? But not all car seats pass the crash test even at a speed of 64 kph and therefore are not able to protect your child.
It is important to understand for parents that if the car seat successfully passed the ADAC crash tests then you bought or rented a real security system for the baby in the car rather than just an additional accessory that will take place in the back seat. As a rule, these car seats are more expensive. But your car is also not cheap! In this case, you are buying just practically one of the CAR’s PART.
Twice a year, different models of car seats are teasted on various criteria by ADAC.
They are tested for safety, operation, ergonomics, pollutants or presence of the harmful substances in materials that the children can be in direct contact with.
The grade from “very good” to “poor” is given to a specific car seat model not a brand as a whole. There is a general assessment, which consists of five different criteria and a final ADAC result is based on the criteria in different percentage:
The overall ADAC result is based on the three most important criteria: safety, operation and ergonomics.
Some of the criteria have changed and new standards been added over time. Every year manufacturers increase the level of reliability and operational quality of car seats. Therefore, if the safety of your child is really important for you we recommend looking more at new models of the car seats.
Please, think about high-quality car seats, as the car security systems (belts, pillows, electronics) are mostly designed for the height and weight of an adult!
Just pay attention to the marks and labels on the car seats from manufacturers.
If the car seat passed the ADAC crash tests then you will see it immediately on the labels.
We work with the best brands that have excellent safety results.
Labels on the car seats is a must-have of certification.
They are available on every car seat in our rental agency.
ADAC kind of the highest authority and the certification according to international standards is the necessary minimum base for the car seats. Please note that for Europe and USA they are different.
The main standards in Europe for today are ECE R44/03, followed by ECE R44/04 and since 2013 I-SIZE R129.
It was adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on July 9, 2013. And it was also accepted by another 60 countries, here’s the full list .
The full text of the I-SIZE R129 standard (114 pages, eng) can be found in here.
Now the car seat of this new standard is slowly squeezing out the previous models from the market. Therefore, if you are going to buy a car seat it is better to take the I-SIZE standard. This is safer for the baby and much more promising in terms of the future sale of the car seat in the secondary market.
This is how the label of the I-SIZE looks like
By the way, the first i-size certified car seat was Maxi-Cosi Axxisfix in 2015. And since 2016 we have already started working with this model:)
And that’s what ADAC experts say about crash test results for 2018 (Russian translation).
We wish you comfy and safe trips!
Baby Service
April, 2019