Thursday, October 3, 2013

2014 Cadillac XTS: Car Seat Check

14XTS_main

The 2014 Cadillac XTS is the automaker's flagship sedan and it seats five in plenty of luxury. In our Car Seat Check, we fit three child-safety seats into the XTS' backseat, but it was impossible to reach a hand between the booster seat and the convertible seat to buckle the seat belt. Under our guidelines, that means it doesn't fit three car seats, but three seats that are narrower than the ones we use should work.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

  • The XTS has five Latch anchors; two sets are in the outboard seats and there's an extra anchor in the middle seat; they were all easy to access. This setup allows parents to install a car seat in the middle seating position using the Latch anchors. Remember that parents should attach only one Latch connector to each Latch anchor. No doubling up!
  • The roomy backseat means there's plenty of room for the rear-facing infant and convertible seats. There's no need to move the front passenger seat forward to fit either of these car seats.
  • The forward-facing convertible also installed easily in the rear seat.

What We Don't

  • The seat belt buckles live in pockets in the bottom seat cushion. If the buckles are recessed in the pockets, the booster seat rides over the buckle. We preferred to keep the buckles pulled out of the pockets, but this made them floppy, which can be difficult for kids to use.

14XTS_Latch

14XTS_Infant

14XTS_Rear

14XTS_Forward

14XTS_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.

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

Related
Research the 2014 Cadillac XTS 
More Car Seat Checks 
More Safety News



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

IFTTT

Put the internet to work for you.

via Personal Recipe 647517

No comments:

Post a Comment

Archive