2014 Buick LaCrosse: Car Seat Check

Among a number of tweaks to the Buick LaCrosse for the 2014 model year, the full-size sedan received new seats. While we weren’t able to fit three child-safety seats across its backseat, we did appreciate its five Latch anchors. While most cars have two sets of anchors in the outboard seats to meet a federal mandate, the LaCrosse has an extra anchor in the middle that allows parents to use Latch anchors to install a car seat in the middle seating position.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

• The five anchors are easy to use because the seat cushions that surround them move easily out of the way.
• Both the rear-facing infant and convertible seats fit easily in the backseat, with no need to move the front passenger seat forward.
• The forward-facing convertible also fit well despite the fixed head restraint pushing the seat forward on the bottom cushion.

What We Don’t

• The high-back booster seat fit well in the LaCrosse, but we had to mark this seat down because of the LaCrosse’s floppy seat belt buckles, which can fall behind the booster, making it difficult for younger kids to use 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 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.

Related
2014 Buick LaCrosse: First Drive
2014 Buick LaCrosse: Photo Gallery
More Car Seat Checks