2014 Kia Cadenza: Car Seat Check

All-new for 2014, the Kia Cadenza is a return to the full-size sedan segment for the South Korean automaker. The Cadenza’s backseat is plenty roomy for rear-facing child-safety seats, and it almost fit three car seats across the backseat.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two, but it nearly held three car seats.

What We Like

• Both the rear-facing infant and convertible seats had plenty of room in the Cadenza; the front passenger didn’t have to move her seat forward to accommodate these space hogs.
• Seat bolstering held our high-back booster snugly in place.
• The three tether anchors on the rear shelf are easy to use.
• The forward-facing convertible fit well, but we struggled to hook the Latch connectors to the obstructed anchors.

What We Don’t

• Seat cushions move out of the way easily to reveal two sets of lower Latch anchors, but access was difficult because the seat belt webbing and buckles crowd the anchors.
• The seat belt buckles are on floppy bases, causing the buckle to fall behind the booster seat. The floppy bases also make it difficult for kids to buckle up independently.

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.

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