Tuesday, January 28, 2014

2014 Ford Fusion Energi: Car Seat Check

Fusion

The plug-in hybrid version of Ford's midsize sedan may sacrifice some cargo room to accommodate its battery, but the backseat's legroom isn't affected. Although space wasn't a major issue in the Fusion Energi's backseat, buried Latch anchors and our test car's stiff leather seats complicated installation.

More Car Seat Checks

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

  • There are three tether anchors on the rear shelf and they're easily accessible.
  • The rear-facing convertible fit well; there was no need to move the front passenger seat forward to fit the car seat behind it.
  • The rear-facing infant-safety seat also had plenty of room.

What We Don't

  • Although the booster seat had enough space and fit well on the seat, installation was complicated because the head restraint pushed the seat too far forward. Removing the head restraint was difficult. The buckles are also on short stalks that can easily sink into the seat cushion, complicating connection for kids.
  • The two sets of Latch anchors were buried into the stiff leather seat cushions, and we were unable to use the system to install the infant seat with the seat's narrow, hooklike connectors. We defaulted to installing the car seat with the seat belt.
  • The anchors worked better with the forward and rear convertible seat's rigid Latch connectors, but the inboard anchor was still tough to access because of crowding by the seat belt.

Latch

Iss

Rfc

Ffc

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.



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