2013 Mitsubishi Lancer: Car Seat Check

Our stable of child-safety seats fit well in the 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer. This compact sedan seats five passengers and competes with the Honda Civic and Ford Focus.

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.

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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 convertible seat 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. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

Here’s how the 2013 Lancer did in Cars.com’s Car Seat Check:

Latch system: The Lancer has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats. The anchors, which sit behind large slits in the leather seats, are accessible. Three tether anchors are on the rear shelf and are easy to use.

Booster seat: Our high-back booster fit well in the Lancer’s backseat. However, the seat belt buckles are floppy, which can be difficult for younger kids to use independently.

Convertible seat: It was a breeze to install the forward-facing convertible into the Lancer’s backseat. With the rear-facing convertible, we had to move the front passenger seat forward a couple of inches to get the car seat to fit. An average-size front passenger will have plenty of legroom, though.

Infant-safety seat: This rear-facing car seat also required us to move the front passenger seat forward to accommodate it. Again, the front passenger still had enough legroom to sit comfortably.

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.

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