2015 Acura TLX: Car Seat Check

The 2015 Acura TLX, the new five-seat midsize sedan that is the luxury brand’s years-long bid to win back buyers after an unpopular 2009 TL redesign, improves upon the models it succeeds in many respects while remaining much the same in others. Cars.com reviewer Joe Bruzek says the TLX “surpasses the TSX and TL it replaces in every way, but doesn’t take Acura anywhere it hasn’t been before.” The same could be said for child-safety seat installation in the TLX. Compared with the Car Seat Check on the TL’s 2012 version, Latch anchors seem easier to use, but we still had to move the front passenger seat forward to fit our infant seat, and connecting the top tether anchors is an uncomfortable affair. Check out the Car Seat Check below for more.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

More Car Seat Checks

What We Like

• There are two sets of easy-to-use Latch anchors in the outboard positions that lie behind slits in the leather seats, and three tether anchors on the rear shelf are under plastic hinged covers. While the rear seats do not recline, the head restraints are adjustable and removable.
• Our rear-facing convertible seat installed easily and fit well, with no need to move the passenger seat forward. The forward-facing convertible also latched with ease, as did the infant, sitting flat on the seat cushion.
• Sitting flat against the seatback once we raised the head restraint, our high-back booster seat also installed easily.

What We Don’t

• We had to move the front passenger seat forward quite a bit to fit the rear-facing infant seat, but the tester still had a bit of knee room.
• Connecting to the tether anchor to secure the forward-facing convertible is, almost literally, a pain in the neck. The tether must be fed under the head restraint and, because of the car’s design, there’s little headroom or maneuvering room for your hands as you feel your way awkwardly to connect the anchor.
• Seat belt buckles are on floppy anchors, so kids might have a tough time using them.

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 Newman and Matt Schmitz are certified child safety seat installation technicians. 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