2017 Volvo XC60: Car Seat Check
Editor’s note: This Car Seat Check was written in May 2016 about the 2015 Volvo XC60. Little of substance has changed with this year’s model. To see what’s new for 2017, click here, or check out a side-by-side comparison of the two model years.
CARS.COM — The 2016 Volvo XC60 is a compact luxury SUV that could work well for smaller families. We were able to easily fit almost all of our child-safety seats into its backseat. Our test car, an XC60 T6 with all-wheel drive and leather seats, had Volvo’s optional built-in backless booster seats ($500). These boosters easily pop out of the outboard rear-seat bottoms, ensuring that parents are never without this important car seat.
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
What We Like
- The two sets of lower Latch anchors sit about a half-inch into the seat bight, where the bottom and back cushions meet. They’re easy to use. There are three tether anchors found on the seatbacks. They’re not marked as tether anchors, but we didn’t downgrade them because there aren’t any nearby cargo hooks that could confuse parents when attaching a car seat’s tether hook.
- The rear-facing convertible seat installed easily with the Latch anchors. It had plenty of room in the backseat.
- The XC60’s head restraints fold but aren’t removable. They didn’t interfere with the installation of the forward-facing convertible and our high-back booster seat, which both fit well in the backseat.
- The XC60 has stable seat belt buckles, making it easier for kids in booster seats to buckle up independently.
What We Don’t
- While the rear-facing infant seat installed easily into the XC60, we had to move the front passenger seat forward to accommodate the car seat. This left our 5-foot-6 tester short on knee room.
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.
