For a car that stands out from the automotive crowd, look no further than the 2010 Nissan Cube. The box-shaped hatchback can fit five passengers.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a rear-facing infant-safety seat, a convertible child-safety seat and a high-back booster seat, all made by Graco. The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The child seats are installed in the second row and, if available, third row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat.

Here’s how the 2010 Nissan Cube scored in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check:

Latch system: There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats. They’re difficult to reach because they’re buried under stiff seat cushions. Three tether anchors sit at the base of the second row’s seatbacks. This position, which I usually don’t like because it can be a big stretch to connect the tether anchor, works well in the Cube because the cargo area is so short.

Booster seat: The high-back booster seat fit well on the flat seat cushion in the second row. The seatback reclines and makes car-seat installation easier. The seat belt receptors can be inserted into slits in the seat cushion to make them less floppy. Floppy seat belt receptors are often difficult for kids to manage when buckling independently.

Convertible child-safety seat: The difficult-to-find Latch anchors made installing a convertible car seat a chore. However, there was enough room in the second row to install a rear-facing convertible seat without moving the front passenger seat forward. 

Rear-facing infant-safety seat: I had to move the front passenger seat forward an inch or so to get the rear-facing infant seat to fit. However, there was still plenty of legroom for the front passenger.

Do two car seats fit? Yes

Do three car seats fit? No

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 11:40 am and is filed under auto brochure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.