"For small families looking for an eco-friendly car for zipping around town, the 2011 Nissan Leaf could be the answer. While the all-electric Leaf claims to hold five passengers, we found it only held two child-safety seats in the backseat. The Leaf has a range of about 100 miles. Cars.com recently purchased a 2011 Leaf for a long-term test drive. For more coverage of the Leaf, go to Cars.com’s blog, KickingTires or follow Cars.com’s Leaf and 2011 Chevy Volt on Twitter @CarsComGreen.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Cosco rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Graco convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back booster seat. 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 2011 Leaf scored in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check:
Latch system: The Leaf has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats. The anchors are deeply buried in the seat bight, where the back and bottom cushions meet. There are three tether anchors midway down the second-row seatbacks. They sit under hinged plastic covers and were easy to use.
Booster seat: We removed the Leaf’s head restraint behind our high-back booster seat because it interfered with the car seat’s fit. Without the head restraint behind it, the booster seat fit well in the Leaf’s backseat. The seat belt buckles can be either recessed or floppy. If they’re pushed into buckle pockets in the seat cushions, they become stable but recessed. Or you can pull the buckles out of the pockets, making them floppy. It’s hard to say if either position will work well for kids in booster seats trying to buckle independently.
Convertible child-safety seat: The head restraint also blocked the fit of the forward-facing convertible. We removed it to give the convertible a better fit. However, we struggled for a few minutes to get the car seat’s Latch connectors attached to the lower anchors. To fit the rear-facing convertible, we had to move the front passenger seat forward about an inch. This left the front passenger with just enough legroom to sit comfortably.
Rear-facing infant-safety seat: The infant seat fit well.
Do two car seats fit? Yes
Do three car seats fit? No"
Em: http://www.motherproof.com/news-rants/s ... eat-check/