2014 Audi A8 L: Car Seat Check

Audi’s flagship sedan probably isn’t the first vehicle on family shoppers’ lists, but the 2014 A8 L’s extra roomy backseat might have some parents giving it a look. The long-wheelbase version of the A8 adds 5.1 inches to the wheelbase, which translates into 42.9 inches of rear legroom. The regular A8 has 38.7 inches of rear legroom. Given the A8 L’s starting price — $81,795 including an $895 destination fee and a $2,100 gas-guzzler tax — most parents will look elsewhere for a full-size sedan that can handle their child-safety seats.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

• With a gigantic backseat, our rear-facing infant and convertible seats fit well, and we didn’t need to move the front passenger seat forward.
• The high-back booster seat fits well in the A8 L; the seat belt buckles are on stable bases and stick up high enough that they’re easy for young kids to grasp on their own.

What We Don’t

• The A8 L has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats that are difficult to access. The back cushions sit on top of the Latch anchors, and we were unable to move the cushions out of the way to get at the anchors. For our installs, we ended up using the seat belt after attempting to access the Latch anchors with the seats’ different connectors.
• The forward-facing convertible fit well in the A8 L as long as we didn’t use the Latch anchors, but we accidentally broke one of the tether covers off when trying to access the tether anchors. The plastic covers are flimsy.

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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 when available.

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

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. To learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks, go here.

Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.

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