Jeep's Wrangler has all the off-road chops you'll need for an afternoon off the beaten path, and its four-door, five-passenger Unlimited version means you can bring the family along for the ride, right? Parents looking for a family vehicle should think twice before adding the Wrangler Unlimited to their shopping list due to questionable safety ratings and room issues with rear-facing car seats. More Car Seat Checks How many car seats fit in the second row? Two What We Like We're conflicted on the Unlimited's Latch setup. There are two sets of anchors in the outboard seats and we like that the anchors closest to the doors are exposed, but the inboard anchors were hard to access (more on that below). You're also able to use the outboard seats' Latch anchors to install a car seat in the center position as long as the car seat uses Latch connectors on straps and not rigid connectors that stick out of the car seat base itself. Three top tether anchors sit at the base of the seatbacks, and we had no issues connecting the forward-facing convertible. What We Don't The second-row head restraints are fixed and the seatbacks don't recline, making it more difficult to get car seats situated at the correct angle. The Latch anchors in the inboard positions were difficult to access with the convertible seat's rigid connectors. We didn't have a problem using the infant seat's hooklike connectors. Although the infant seat was easy to install, we needed to move the front passenger seat forward to fit the car seat behind it. We had trouble installing the rear-facing convertible because of the tricky Latch anchor, and we also had to move the passenger seat forward to accommodate the car seat. The booster fit well on the seat, but the buckles are on floppy bases, which make it hard for kids to buckle up independently. 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.
from Cars.com News http://ift.tt/1LQ1pBF
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