Question Is Honda CR-V a good car for car seats?

Juliana · Feb 11, 2014

Hello,

We need to buy a new car soon (by 'new' I mean new to us, not necessarily new), and I want to make sure it won't cause us too many car seat headaches. My husband is leaning toward a Honda CR-V. Does anyone have very strong feelings either way about this car?

Details: we have a Radian RXT that we'd like to keep RF for a long time. If we have another baby I'd like to fit our graco snugride back there too (obviously followed by a different seat).

I don't even know whether any cars are specifically pains in the neck for car seats, but if so, I'd rather avoid them!

Thanks so much,
Juli

cantabdad · Feb 14, 2014

I don't own a CR-V, but it is a very common family vehicle around here, and I've seen them around town with lots of different combinations of carseats -- Radians, Britaxes, various infant carriers. I don't think you will have any particular trouble with just 2 carseats and Hondas are generally easy to work with.

Keep in mind that the CR-V is a compact SUV built on the Civic platform -- you will not necessarily have a ton of front seat legroom after you adjust for the presence of 1 or 2 rearfacing seats. A lot will depend on how tall the driver is.

The "Kicking Tires" blog on cars.com reviewed the 2012 CR-V for carseat-friendliness and it got generally good marks, with just enough room for adults in the front who were 6'0" and 5'8":

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2013/08/2013-honda-cr-v-family-checklist.html

Starting in 2007(?) or so the CR-V has 2.5 sets of LATCH in the backseat. It gives you some additional flexibility to use LATCH in the center, though you have to check the manual to know which combinations are allowed.

babyherder · Feb 14, 2014

I have installed seats in my parents CRV and find latch installs acceptable to good. But it takes time and effort to get them tight enough. Seatbelt installs drive me NUTS! I need to twist the belt stalk to get a tight enough seat belt install to be acceptable. It takes a ridiculous amount of effort and still isn't as tight as I like. The kids like to grab the seats to climb in the car and are not pleased when they move. I might just be spoiled because my volvo is so easy for seatbelt installs but I certainly hope to never have to install seats in a CRV on a regular basis.

msg221 · Mar 9, 2014

babyherder said:
I have installed seats in my parents CRV and find latch installs acceptable to good. But it takes time and effort to get them tight enough. Seatbelt installs drive me NUTS! I need to twist the belt stalk to get a tight enough seat belt install to be acceptable. It takes a ridiculous amount of effort and still isn't as tight as I like. The kids like to grab the seats to climb in the car and are not pleased when they move. I might just be spoiled because my volvo is so easy for seatbelt installs but I certainly hope to never have to install seats in a CRV on a regular basis.

What year CR-V do they have?

reissgirl · Mar 12, 2014

We have a 2011 CR-V and have found it relatively easy to install car seats. We usually have a FF Britax boulevard and a RF Diono Radian. Sometimes we have 3 across with an Evenflo Triumph.

Juliana · Jun 27, 2014

Thank you so much for the responses! We held off our car search for a while, so I completely forgot to come back to this thread. But I'm glad to hear that the car we're looking at shouldn't give us too much trouble. I'm sure I will have more questions again at some point!

Thanks again!
Juli

Question Is Honda CR-V a good car for car seats?

Juliana

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