The Honda Fit is known for cargo and passenger flexibility: The second-row seats not only fold flat, but their cushions can be folded up for hauling taller items. When it comes to hauling kids in child-safety seats, the 2013 Fit, a subcompact hatchback, handled forward-facing car seats easily, but it had some problems with our rear-facing seats.
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
What We Like
- The lower Latch anchors — two sets in the outboard seats — are in slits in the seat upholstery. The seat belt buckles sit in front of two of the anchors, but the buckles are on floppy bases, which help to keep them from blocking Latch access.
- The forward-facing convertible fit well in the backseat after we removed the head restraint.
- With the head restraint removed, the high-back booster seat also fit well. However, the floppy seat belt buckles, which were a plus when accessing the Latch anchors, are a negative for kids who are trying to buckle up independently.
What We Don't
- While it was easy to connect the infant-safety seat to the Latch anchors, we had to move the front passenger seat so far forward that the tester's knees were pushed into the glove box.
- The rear-facing convertible also caused problems for our tester in the front passenger seat. It wasn't quite as bad of a situation as with the infant seat because our tester's poor knees were only resting against the glove box with this car seat.
- Unlike the outboard tether anchors, which are midway down the seatbacks, the middle seat's tether is located in the Fit's cargo-area roof. When in use, the car seat's tether strap will affect the driver's rear visibility.
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
Research the 2013 Honda Fit
More Car Seat Checks
More Safety News
from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/
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