2015 Chevrolet Trax: Car Seat Check

The subcompact SUV category is trending. Automakers are churning out diminutive crossovers that are a good fit for urban life, but do they fit child-safety seats too? We put the 2015 Chevrolet Trax through its paces, expecting it to fare as well as its GM sibling, the Buick Encore. However, the Trax didn’t score as well as the Encore did in its Car Seat Check.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

More Car Seat Checks

What We Like

• The rear-facing convertible installed easily into the backseat, and we only had to move the front passenger seat forward a little bit to accommodate it.
• The backseat is flat with little bolstering, which makes installing a booster seat painless.

What We Don’t

• The two sets of lower Latch anchors sit almost an inch into the outboard seat cushions. We had difficulties accessing the inner Latch anchors because the seat belt buckles block access.
• The rear seat bottom cushions fold up against the front seatbacks and then the rear seatbacks fold forward to create a flat cargo floor. What’s frustrating about this setup is it’s easy for the rear seats’ floppy seat belt buckles to fall under the bottom cushions when putting the cushions back into place. When first testing the Trax, we spent several minutes looking for a missing buckle only to realize it was pinned under the seat bottom cushion.
• Those floppy seat belt buckles also are difficult for young children in booster seats to use independently.
• While the rear-facing infant seat installed easily into the Trax, we had to move the front passenger seat forward to fit it. The front passenger’s knees didn’t touch the glove box, but she didn’t have much space in the front row.
• The forward-facing convertible wasn’t easy to install. We had to remove the head restraint, which meant folding the seatback forward to do so, and the seat belt buckle sat nearly on top of the Latch anchor, complicating access. Once installed, we tried to thread the car seat’s tether strap between the cargo cover and seatback, but the cover was so tight against the seatback that we had to raise the liftgate to create enough space between the two. Parents could also remove the cover.

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 Jennifer Geiger are certified child safety seat installation technicians.

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.