2017 Toyota Corolla: Car Seat Check

CARS.COM — The Toyota Corolla is popular with just about everyone — or so it seems. With more than 378,000 sold in 2016, it’s tough to drive down the street without seeing this five-seat compact car. For our Car Seat Check, we tested the Corolla XLE sedan with leather seats.

More Car Seat Checks

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

• There are three tether anchors on the rear shelf behind the backseat’s head restraints. The anchors are easy to use.
• Both the rear- and forward-facing convertible seats fit well in the Corolla, though the installation for both seats was problematic.
• Our high-back booster seat fit well. The seat belt buckles are on stable bases and sit just high enough that they’re easy for kids to use on their own.

What We Don’t Like

• We found the Corolla’s two sets of lower Latch anchors, which are in the outboard rear seats, difficult to use because they sit nearly 2 inches into the seat cushions. We had a tough time connecting to them with the convertible’s rigid Latch connectors.
• The rear-facing infant seat’s hooklike connectors made it easier to use the Corolla’s Latch anchors, but we had to move the front passenger seat forward a couple of inches to accommodate the car seat behind it. This left our 5-foot-8 tester uncomfortable in the front seat with her knees touching the glove box.

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. Learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks.

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.