'Mother Proof' Car Reviews

Woman Translates Mechanical Terms Into Plain English

(CBS) 
For Varela, the important things on a car aren't the features under the hood. Loading her daughter into the car, she says her pet peeve with smaller cars is that she has to duck under the roof line.

She says, "Numbers don't mean a lot to me when I'm driving a car. I really need to know how easy it is to load children in and out of, how functional the storage compartments are. Those things."

And she has a checklist for all those things.

"Four pages of notes, with each car," she says.

As a member of the Automotive Press, Varela gets to "borrow" cars from manufacturers for two weeks, and put them through their "mommy paces." Then she writes her mommy review.

"It's about life," she says. "I drive these cars in my regular life and I bring that experience with me in the reviews. So I sit down and write the review as if I were talking to a girlfriend over coffee."

Varela admits that she knew very little about cars before she began Mother Proof. But now she has tidbits she thinks every parent should know.

"Leather seats are a godsend for parents," she says, "Baby spit-up, spilled milk, sticky crumbs, they all wipe right off of leather seats."

So far Mother Proof has reviewed more than 30 cars. Among the favorites?

She says, "The Volvo XC90; new in 2005 is the Ford Freestyle, which we really enjoyed; and the Pacifica."

On the day The Early Show visited, Varela was testing the Nissan Quest, an SUV she liked for its grocery hooks, its storage compartments, and its automatic sliding door (though she said both doors should be automatic).

She says the car is really mom-friendly. It's got places for your drinks, CDs, cell phones, and purse holder. They are features Varela says are very important because more important than the kids being comfortable is that the mom is comfortable, she says.

"Happy mom means happy family," she notes, laughing.

With her reviews available for other moms, Varela just might be making families everywhere a bit more cheerful.

Varela is hoping to expand Mother Proof to include reviewers with kids of all ages in order to give a broader perspective.

Motherproof.com is just getting started, but Varela is hoping to expand the business to include consulting dealers on what moms want to buy.