2015 Lexus ES 350: Car Seat Check

For 2015 Lexus' midsize sedan now has new standard equipment every parent will appreciate: a backup camera. Families will also like how the 2015 Lexus ES 350 handles child-safety seats. Its copious amount of room and easy-to-access Latch anchors helped the sedan earn straight As across the board.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

More Car Seat Checks

What We Like

• The outboard seats' two sets of lower Latch anchors sit just inside the seat bight, and the cushions easily move out of the way for easy access.


• Both our rear-facing infant and convertible seats installed easily and had plenty of room. There was no need to move the front-passenger seat forward to accommodate either seat.


• In forward-facing mode, the convertible also went in easily and we had no problems connecting to the top tether anchor on the rear shelf.


• The outboard seat belt buckles are on stable bases, so kids in boosters should have no trouble buckling up independently. The inboard buckle is floppy, however, which might be tough for little hands to find.

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

Editor Jennifer Newman is a certified child safety seat installation technician. Editor Jennifer Geiger is working on renewing her certification.

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.

Cars.com photos by Evan Sears

from KickingTires http://ift.tt/1yw37BS