2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class: Car Seat Check
Kids bring so much joy into their parents’ lives. They also bring a lot of mess. Whether its mud-caked shoes or the constant debris of cracker crumbs and sticky fingerprints they leave in their wake, kids and messes go together like peanut butter and jelly. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class, a luxurious sedan, may be too nice to put kids in, especially considering its $93,825 price tag (including destination); our test car cost $122,895. If that price didn’t make you blink, keep reading. The good news is the five-passenger S550 earned top marks across the board in our Car Seat Check.
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
What We Like
- The S550 has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats. To access the anchors, you have to lift up a long flap that runs the length of the seat. It’s not difficult, just a bit awkward. The Latch anchors are set deeply into the seat bight, but they aren’t difficult to use.
- We installed both the rear-facing infant and convertible seats easily, and they had plenty of room in the backseat. There was no need to move the front passenger seat forward to fit either of them.
- The forward-facing convertible installed easily in the backseat. There was plenty of room for it.
- Seat bolsters helped hold our high-back booster seat in place. Fixed seat belt buckles are easy to grasp for youngsters.
What We Don’t
- The bottom seat cushion is angled sharply toward the seat bight. Parents may need to use a pool noodle or rolled towel to help rear-facing car seats fit properly.
- Raising the head restraints for the rear seats blocks access to the top tether anchors on the rear shelf. People with smaller hands should be able to access the anchors, however.
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
Editor Jennifer Newman is a certified child safety seat installation technician. Editor Jennifer Geiger is working on renewing her certification.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide Classic Connect 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Marathon 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, and that Latch anchors have a weight limit of 65 pounds, including the weight of the child and the weight of the seat itself.
Cars.com photos by Evan Sears
