2016 Chevrolet Cruze: Car Seat Check

CARS.COM — For its 2016 redesign, the Chevrolet Cruze has improved on the first generation’s positive attributes with a quiet cabin, improved powertrain and tech upgrades. Our team of certified child safety technicians didn’t Car Seat Check the original Cruze, but one of our contributing writers/moms was less than enthusiastic about the 2014 model’s car-seat accommodation. Our techs, however, found the redesigned five-seat sedan’s Premier trim quite accommodating — with some exceptions.

More Car Seat Checks

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

• The two sets of lower Latch anchors are positioned in the rear outboard seats behind leather covers that can easily be pushed out of the way. The three top tether anchors on the rear shelf were easy to use.
• Despite some connection difficulty, our convertible car seat fit well in both the forward- and rear-facing positions.
• Our infant-safety seat also fit well and was easy to install with its thin, hooklike Latch connectors. However, we had to move the front passenger seat forward an inch or so; the front passenger still had sufficient legroom.

What We Don’t

• The seat belt buckle slightly crowds the inboard Latch anchor on the passenger side; it was a bit challenging to connect the convertible seat use using its larger, rigid connectors. The seat’s big base also got in the way given room was already tight between the Latch anchors and the buckles.
• The seat belts are on floppy bases, which will make it difficult for children to buckle up independently. Also, the buckle fell behind the booster during installation, further complicating things.

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.