I recently received a “newsletter” with an auto insurance premium, and right up top in big red type: GIVE YOUR KID A “BOOST” WITH CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY. The photo below it shows a rear bench seat with two child booster seat bottoms, and the vehicle appears to be an early Ford Escape or similar but there’s “insufficient data” to make a determination. However, it is plainly obvious that there are no headrests--integral or adjustable--in this seat and that the backrest cushion is not very high.

Accompanying the photo are guidelines for various sizes and ages of children about what seat to use, where to put them, and to always follow the child seat and vehicle manufacturers’ instructions. There’s even a company website to visit for more information.

What’s odd is that every child seat and vehicle owner’s manual I’ve consulted—easily more than 300 of them combined—says the same thing: The back of the booster seat should be adjusted so that it supports the back of the child’s head if there is no headrest on the seat. Even my four-year-old’s head would clear the seatback in the photo shown, and there is no age/size guideline accompanying the photo that suggests the image shown is at all appropriate. So the company whose bean-counters determine what kind of risk you pose as a driver is illustrating how not to do child seats.

This is just another reason I dislike insurance companies. I would say “of any kind” but I believe specialty places like Lloyds’ of London and Hagerty, to name a pair, deserve better. The insurance industry seems to be amongst the least-regulated and most profitable, even before factoring in health insurance. I even heard a solo-company agent once attribute a rate increase to bad investment on the company’s part; and these are the “what if?” people we’re to rely on.

Like a lot of TDR readers I have more than one car. Insurance companies dictate (and tell the state to as well) that all of them be insured for liability; no coverage on the vehicle is required unless the lending institution that “owns” it says so. Despite the fact that I can drive only one car at a time, I must pay a liability premium on each—no company or agent I’ve ever approached could cover me to drive anything, although most said they could cover me for anything assuming all my owned-and-registered cars carried liability coverage. Interesting how that works, huh?

I imagine I could be a Democrat, Republican, and Independent as far as insurance companies are concerned, as long as I pay my contribution to legislative lobbying—oops, pay my premium—on time. What’s your favorite contribution or insurance story?