Thursday, May 30, 2013

2014 Acura RLX: Car Seat Check

14RLX_Main

Although the brand-new 2014 Acura RLX is bigger than a midsize sedan, it's not big enough to fit three child-safety seats across its backseat. A raised center seating position and larger seat bolsters hindered our ability to install three car seats. However, two car seats fit easily in the RLX.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

  • Two sets of easy-to-access Latch anchors in the outboard seats 
  • Lots of room for rear-facing infant-safety and convertible seats 
  • Outboard seat belt buckles are on rigid bases, making them easy for younger kids to use 
  • Bolstered seats cradled our high-back booster seat

What We Don't

  • Rear-facing convertible was difficult to install because its base blocked access to the Latch anchors 
  • Center seat's buckle has a floppy base, making it difficult for kids in booster seats to grasp

14RLX_Latch

14RLX_Infant

14RLX_RearC

14RLX_ForwardC

14RLX_Booster

Grading Scale

A: Plenty of room for the car seat and the child; doesn't impact driver or front-passenger legroom. Easy to find and connect to Latch and tether anchors. No fit issues involving head restraint or seat contouring. Easy access to the third row.

B: Plenty of room. One fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row.

C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row.

D: Insufficient room. Two or more fit or connection issues.

F: Does not fit or is unsafe.

About Cars.com's Car Seat Checks

Editors Jennifer Geiger and Jennifer Newman are certified child safety seat installation technicians.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible seat and Graco TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver's seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the front passenger seat.

We also install the forward-facing convertible in the second row's middle seat with the booster and infant seat in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.

Related
Research the 2014 Acura RLX 
2014 Acura RLX: Photo Gallery
More Car Seat Checks



from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/




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