2014 Chevrolet Impala: Car Seat Check
With its 2014 redesign, the Chevrolet Impala gets some much needed attention. The new version grew less than an inch in length, but significant amounts of space were added for front and rear passengers. Front legroom grew by 3.5 inches to 45.8 and in the rear by 2.2 inches to 39.8. The 2013 Impala fit three child-safety seats across its backseat, but the 2014 model can’t do so because its rear hip room has decreased.
How many car seats fit in the second row?
Two
What We Like
- The Impala has five Latch anchors — a set in each outboard seat and an additional anchor in the middle position. This allows parents to use Latch anchors to install a child-safety seat in the middle seating position.
- As an added bonus, the Latch anchors are nearly exposed between the seat cushions and easy to access.
- The wide outboard seats made it easy to install our forward-facing convertible.
- The roomy backseat meant we didn’t have to move the front passenger seat forward to fit the rear-facing infant and convertible seats.
What We Don’t
- The raised middle seat made it difficult for us to install three child-safety seats across the Impala’s backseat.
- The seat belt buckles are floppy, making them difficult for kids to use independently.
- Those floppy seat belt buckles had a tendency to fall behind the booster seat; when this happened with my kids, it meant either fishing behind the booster seat for the buckles or yanking the booster — with the kid on it — to the side to uncover the buckle. Either way, it’s annoying.
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.
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