An investigative report from the Chicago Tribune reveals details about government crash testing involving infant car seats.

The tests were used to rate the safety of cars, not car seats, and were never publicized.

These results are not scientific; not all car seats were tested, and some seats were crash tested far more often than others.

The only car seat models to get perfect scores were among those that underwent only one test: the Chicco KeyFit and the Maxi-Cosi Mico.

It's hard to say how much that reflects on the car seat's quality versus the odds of a failed test being much lower with a single test.

The car seats were tested on a wide variety of car models as well, and there wasn't any sort of consistency.

Prompted by the Tribune's investigative series, the U S transportation secretary says he will talk with carmakers about crash-testing infant car seats.

Videos from federal crash tests are posted on Youtube, detailing results on a half-dozen car seats.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tests child car seats only for ease of use including evaluation of labels, evaluation of instructions, installation features and securing the child and assigns a rating for individual categories and overall performance.

CarSeatData org has a great compatibility database for car seats and cars.

There is also a nice report detailing the various kinds of car seats and recommendations from site founder Toby McAdams, a long-time car seat reviewer.

In terms of infant car seats, the honors are given to two seats, the Graco SnugRide and the Baby Trend Rigid Latch-Loc.

Both seats are praised for having five-point harnesses and for being very adjustable.

Although average ratings are listed, they are so similar overall that it's hard to tell at a glance what model might be the best choice.

Amazon: parent reviews:

Our Assessment Parents posting at Amazon com like the Graco SnugRide for a number of reasons, specifically the light weight, the detachable base that can remain in the car, and the simple nature of the seat compared to competitors.

Still, it's clear many of the reviewers have a lot of personal experience using the car seats, which they are eager to share.

Target com is a good source for parent-written reviews on car seats and other products, but the infant car seat reviews are spotty.