How Do Car Seats Fit in a 2019 Honda Ridgeline?

Editor’s note: This Car Seat Check was written in 2016 about the 2017 Honda Ridgeline. Little of substance has changed with this year’s model. See what’s new for 2019 or check out a side-by-side comparison of the two model years.

The verdict: Pickup trucks can be great family haulers and the Honda Ridgeline is no exception. Its crew-cab design easily swallowed three child-safety seats across the backseat and it has three sets of lower Latch anchors across that backseat, something we rarely see. However, the Ridgeline’s top tether anchors are difficult to find and use; they caused some problems for our certified child passenger safety technician.

Tether anchors in pickup trucks can be difficult to use. In the Ridgeline, the outboard rear seats’ tether anchors sit near the seats’ base, on the side of the seat and close to the door. To use them, route the convertible seat’s tether strap through the Ridgeline’s tether guide bar behind the seat’s head restraint. Then hook the tether connector to the tether anchor. Our Britax Marathon convertible seat has a dual tether strap, which looks like a Y. Our car seat’s tether strap is roughly 3 feet long, but it was about 7 inches shy of reaching the Ridgeline’s tether anchor. Because of this, we had to install the forward convertible in the middle seat. In this position, the tether anchor sits between the middle position’s Latch anchors in the seat bight, where the back and bottom seat cushions meet.

Does it fit three car seats? Yes

Take a look at how the Latch system and each car seat scored below in our Car Seat Check of the 2019 Honda Ridgeline.

Related: Search Car Seat Checks

A Grade

• Rear-facing convertible: The rear-facing convertible installed easily and there was no need to move the front passenger seat forward to accommodate it.

B Grade

• Infant: To fit the rear-facing infant seat into the Ridgeline, we had to move the front passenger seat forward. Our 5-foot-8 tester had about 2 inches of space between her knees and the glovebox. Taller passengers will need more.
• Booster: The seat belt buckles in the backseat are spring-loaded and sit high in the seatback cushion when not in use. To buckle up, pull the buckle down and hold it in place before connecting. This maneuver will likely be beyond the abilities of younger kids in booster seats.

C Grade

• Forward-facing convertible: Once we moved the forward-facing convertible into the middle seat, it fit well. Installation in this position, however, was time-consuming due to the top tether anchor placement.

D Grade

• Latch: While the lower anchors were OK to access and connect to, the outboard tether anchor placement was difficult to find and, for us, impossible to use. The middle seat’s tether placement is much easier to access than the outboard tethers, but we found the setup awkward.

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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