2012 Honda Crosstour: Car Seat Check

Fans of the Honda Accord looking for more cargo room need to search no further than its sibling, the Crosstour. The 2012 Honda Crosstour, formerly known as the Accord Crosstour, is a wagon version of the popular midsize sedan. Cargo area increases significantly in the Crosstour, which has 25.7 cubic feet with the rear seats up and a whopping 51.3 cubic feet with the backseat folded; the Accord’s trunk is 14.7 cubic feet. Like the Accord, the Crosstour seats five.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat.

The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position 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 seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

Here’s how the 2012 Crosstour did in Cars.com’s Car Seat Check:

Latch system: This wagon has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard rear seats. To use the anchors in some positions, you have to fight past the seat belt buckles. Once past the buckles, there’s enough space between the back and bottom cushions to connect to the anchors.

Three tether anchors are midway down the seatbacks. The tethers sit under hinged plastic covers and are easy to use.

Booster seat: The high-back booster seat fit nicely in the Crosstour, but this wagon has floppy seat belt buckles, which are a pain for kids and adults to use. The floppy buckle was easily overrun by the booster seat, and young kids in boosters often have a difficult time buckling up with them.

Convertible seat: Both the forward- and rear-facing convertible fit well in the Crosstour.

Infant-safety seat: There was no need to move the front passenger seat forward to fit this rear-facing car seat.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

Editor’s note: For three car seats — infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats — to fit in a car, our criterion is that a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.