2012 Toyota Camry: Car Seat Check

The Toyota Camry has many accolades attached to it: It’s the best-selling car in America, and it’s topped Cars.com’s American-Made Index for three years running. For 2012, Toyota redesigned the Camry, keeping its dimensions the same but making the five-seat sedan more fuel efficient.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat.

&&&&&EMBEDDED_ELEMENT_START&&&&& {“id”:1420668687065,”originalName”:”2015_03_04_17_04_35_136_http___blogs_cars_com__a_6a00d83451b3c669e2016301ca184f970d_800wi”,”name”:”MMS ID 52285 (created by CM Utility)”,”URI”:”/21/-1719957091-1425510275521.”,”createDate”:”2015-03-04 05:04:35″,”metadata”:{“AUTHOR”:”automatic-content-migration”,”KEYWORDS”:””},”href”:”https://www.cstatic-images.com/stock/1170×1170/21/-1719957091-1425510275521.”,”description”:”Came from http://blogs.cars.com/.a/6a00d83451b3c669e2016301ca184f970d-800wi”,”externalid”:”52285″,”updatedby”:”cmuadmin”,”updateddate”:1425511545297,”associations”:{}} &&&&&EMBEDDED_ELEMENT_END&&&&&

The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position 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 seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

Here’s how the 2012 Camry did in Cars.com’s Car Seat Check:

Latch system: The Camry’s two sets of lower Latch anchors are buried between the outboard seats’ cushions. Three tether anchors are found on the rear shelf behind the head restraints. The tethers sit under plastic covers and are easy to use.

Booster seat: The backseat’s fixed head restraints pushed our high-back booster seat forward just a bit, but not so far that a child would feel uncomfortable sitting in it. The seat belt buckles are nestled in the bottom seat cushion, but they’re not so low that a booster seat can run over them.

Convertible seat: It was difficult to connect this car seat to the Camry’s buried Latch anchors. The seat cushions are stiff, making it hard to locate the anchors. Once installed, both the forward- and rear-facing convertible fit well in the Camry.

Infant-safety seat: To fit this rear-facing car seat, we moved the front passenger seat forward about an inch. The front passenger still had plenty of legroom, though.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

Editor’s note: For three car seats — infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats — to fit in a car, our criterion is that a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.