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2016 Mini Clubman: Car Seat Check

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CARS.COM — The Mini Clubman underwent a serious growth spurt for the 2016 model year. Thanks to its redesign, it grew more than 12 inches in length and the rear passengers get an additional 2 inches of legroom, now at 34.3 inches. This extra space translated to top grades for the Clubman in our Car Seat Check, where we tested a Cooper trim with leather sport seats.   

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

More Car Seat Checks

What We Like

  • Other automakers should take notes on the Clubman’s Latch system: It has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats that sit under flip-up plastic covers. The anchors are easy to find and use. Three tether anchors are midway down the seatbacks; they’re also well-marked and easy to use. 
  • In both forward- and rear-facing mode, our convertible car seat installed easily in the Clubman.
  • Our high-back booster seat had no problems nestling into the Clubman’s wide rear seats. The seat belt buckles on stable bases should be easy for young kids in booster seats to use independently.

What We Don’t

  • To fit the rear-facing infant seat in the backseat, we had to move the front passenger seat forward just a hair. Our 5-foot-8 tester still had plenty of legroom after the front seat adjustment, so we didn’t downgrade the infant seat’s score.
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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.

Jennifer Newman
Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Newman is a journalist with more than 25 years of experience, including 15 years as an automotive journalist at Cars.com. Jennifer leads the Editorial team in its mission of helping car shoppers find the vehicle that best fits their life. A mom of two, she’s graduated from kids in car seats to teens behind the steering wheel. She’s also a certified car-seat technician with more than 12 years of experience, as well as member of the World Car Jury, Automotive Press Association and Midwest Automotive Media Association. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennilnewman/ Instagram: @jennilnewman
Email Jennifer Newman

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