PALOS VERDES, Calif . -- Like thousands of other parents across Southern California, Lori Hindman spends the better part of her day in the car, shuttling her kids and their friends back and forth to school, sports practice and play dates.

All that concentrated drive time makes the mother of two in Palos Verdes an expert on what works in a family car, and what needs improvement. But unlike most soccer moms, Hindman gets paid to share her auto expertise.

As a reviewer for Mother Proof (motherproof.com), a Web site about cars targeted for women, Hindman hits the road with a different car every few weeks. With her research staff in tow -- two sons and two dogs -- Hindman tests her cars for drink-holder durability and ease of wiping up milk or dirty footprints from the carpet.

She also writes about nuts-and-bolts topics, such as how easy it is to strap in a car seat. Manufacturers love the constructive criticism, and they have even made changes based on Mother Proof's reviews.

One article revealed a glitch with the car-seat connector of a particular model.

"I pulled it, and the plastic cover sliced through one of my fingertips," said Kristin Varela, the Denver-based founder of the Web site. "They filed it down for the next generation."

"Mother Proof is good at sorting through car offerings and helping consumers refine their shopping list," said Anne Belec, CEO of Volvo Cars of North America.

Varela came up with the idea for Mother Proof when she went car shopping and found that a short test drive wasn't enough to learn which vehicles were the easiest to install child-safety seats or load kids into.

"My oldest daughter started preschool and I wanted to carpool, and I realized with the Subaru Outback there was no way to fit a third car seat," she said. "So I started doing research, and I was appalled at the lack of information. Average consumer vehicle reviews are written for the gearhead and the car buff, and they didn't tell me which cars are easy to get kids in and out of or have removable storage areas."

Last summer, Cars.com acquired Mother Proof in an effort to reach women, who buy 53 percent of all new cars, it claims.

Before Hindman started writing reviews in December, Mother Proof's mom reviewers were all in Denver or Detroit. But the company needed a Southern California mom because many of the automakers' design headquarters are here, and Varela said she couldn't always get the latest models quickly.

Plus, L.A. traffic provides the ultimate testing ground for certain features designed to keep kids comfortable and entertained on long drives.

Of course, what is comfortable and entertaining is very different from a kid's perspective than from a parent's point of view. Hindman said her sons, ages 5 and 7, flipped over the Volkswagen Eos, which has a convertible roof that automatically stows itself with the push of a button.

"They thought it was like a Transformer. Everyone we met, they would push that," she said.

From Mom's point of view, the make-or-break feature for a family car is probably the all-important third row of seats. It comes standard in many minivans and SUVs, but not all third rows are created equally.