2016 Audi S7: Car Seat Check
CARS.COM — Don’t let the Audi S7’s swooping roofline and dynamic curves fool you — there’s enough room for two child-safety seats in the sedan’s backseat and exposed Latch anchors make installation easy. However, one look at the posh leather and suede interior of our test S7 may make parents think twice before putting (often grubby) kids in the car.
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
What We Like
- The two sets of Latch anchors are under plastic covers that pop off so they can be exposed for easy connection.
- The buckles are on rigid bases, which should make them easy for kids in boosters to grasp and use independently. Also, the fixed head restraint didn’t push our booster’s back off the seatback.
What We Don’t
- The rear-facing infant seat went in easily, but our 5-foot-6 passenger had to move her front seat forward to make room for it. Her knees were not quite touching the glovebox, but taller passengers will be uncomfortable.
- In rear-facing mode, installation of our convertible was also trouble-free. We were able to move the front passenger seat a bit farther back than when we had the infant seat installed, but the front passenger’s legroom was still affected.
- The fixed head restraint pushed the forward-facing convertible’s seat back off the S7’s seatback and the top tether anchor is positioned very close to the back of the head restraint, making it tough to tighten the strap for a tight fit.
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, Jennifer Newman and Matt Schmitz 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 shorter 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.
