2015 Subaru Forester: Car Seat Check
The 2015 Subaru Forester is a straight-A student when it comes to our Car Seat Checks. This compact SUV makes easy work of child-safety seats, though it gets a demerit for one issue, but it didn’t affect its overall GPA.
More Car Seat Checks
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
What We Like
- Two sets of lower Latch anchors are found in the Forester’s outboard seats. They sit under Velcro flaps and are easy to access. Three tether anchors sit midway down the rear seatbacks and are easy to use.
- There was no need to move the front passenger seat forward to fit either the rear-facing infant or convertible seats behind it. Both seats installed easily in the Forester.
- The forward-facing convertible also installed easily after we removed the head restraint for better tether anchor access.
- We had no issues putting the high-back booster seat into the Forester. The outboard seat belt buckles are on stable bases and sit up high enough for young hands to easily grasp.
What We Don’t
- The seat belt for the middle seating position comes out of the ceiling, which will impede the driver’s rear visibility when in use.
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 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.
