2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS: Car Seat Check

For 2013, Chevrolet added the sporty RS hatchback to the Sonic lineup. This sporty subcompact with a turbo four-cylinder engine handled child-safety seats surprisingly well. The Sonic also comes as a sedan. Although the hatch is 14.1 inches shorter than the sedan, the rear legroom is 34.6 inches for both body styles.

How many car seats fit in the second row?

Two

What We Like

• The RS’ seats have some bolstering, but that didn’t affect the fit of our high-back booster seat. 
• Our forward-facing convertible easily fit into the backseat, and its rigid Latch connectors pushed past the seat cushions to hook onto the Latch anchors. 
• We were pleasantly surprised to find the rear-facing convertible could fit into the backseat without moving the front passenger seat forward.

What We Don’t

• The two sets of lower Latch anchors are buried deep between the seat cushions; thankfully, the seat cushions are pliable so we were able to access the anchors without too much effort. 
• The seat belt buckles are on floppy bases; they easily fall behind the booster seat, making it difficult for younger kids to buckle up independently. 
• We had to move the front passenger seat as far forward as possible to fit the rear-facing infant-safety seat behind it; this left our tester with her knees pushed against the glove box. 

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.

C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row.

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
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