How Do Car Seats Fit in a 2018 Nissan Leaf?

Nissan redesigned its Leaf electric car for 2018, and although range is way up this year — the Leaf can now go an EPA-estimated 151 miles on a single charge — its backseat space has stayed relatively the same as the outgoing model. Room wasn’t the only problem we had with some car seats; the Leaf’s buried Latch anchors also made for some tricky installations.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

Related: More Car Seat Checks

Solid

• Booster, grade A: After raising the head restraint, the booster fit well. The buckles are on stable (though short) bases.

So-So

• Latch, grade B: The two sets of anchors are set into the leather upholstery, and it requires some muscle to find them and make the connection. The three top tether anchors sit halfway down the seatback; they’re clearly marked for easy connection.
• Rear-facing convertible, grade B: It took a bit of muscle to connect to the Latch anchor. We moved the seat up just a bit to accommodate this car seat but not enough to make it lose a grade for room. Our 5-foot-6-inch front passenger still had enough legroom.
• Forward-facing convertible, grade B: This seat fit well after we raised the head restraint. As with the convertible in rear mode, we struggled to connect to the Latch anchor but had no issues connecting to the top tether anchor.

Skip It

• Infant seat, grade D: It was tough to connect to the Latch anchors with this seat’s skinny, hooklike connectors; it’s a bit easier with the convertible’s rigid, chunkier connectors. Room was also an issue; our front passenger had to sit with her knees sideways against the dash.

Grading Scale

Solid indicates an A grade for optimum ease of use and fit. So-So indicates B or C grades for one to two ease-of-use or fit issues. Skip It indicates D or F grades.

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: One room, fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row when available.

C: Marginal room plus one fit or connection issue. Difficult to access third row when available.

D: Insufficient room, plus multiple 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.

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