Thursday, October 31, 2013

2014 Cadillac CTS: Car Seat Check

14CTS_Main

Redesigned for 2014, the Cadillac CTS is a midsize luxury sedan that grabs attention on the road and in the parking lot. Thanks to its redesign, the CTS is more than 4 inches longer than the previous generation, but those additional inches don't impact the 2014 model's rear legroom. The 2014 CTS' rear legroom is 35.4 inches, which is about a half-inch smaller than the 2013 model. How does this affect car seat installation?

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

  • There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats. The anchors sit in pockets in the leather, and to use them we had to angle the Latch connectors to get at them.
  • The forward-facing convertible fit well in the backseat after we raised the head restraint.
What We Don't
  • To fit the rear-facing infant and convertible seats in the backseat, we had to move the front passenger seat forward.
  • Seat bolsters caused our high-back booster seat to sit an angle.
  • The short, floppy seat belt buckles fell behind the booster seat, and these buckles can be difficult for young kids to use.
14CTS_latch

14CTS_infant

14CTS_rear

14CTS_forward

14CTS_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 when available.

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

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.

To learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks, go here.

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

Related
2014 Cadillac CTS Expert Review 
2014 Cadillac CTS: Photo Gallery 
More Car Seat Checks



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

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