2011 Lexus IS 250C and IS 350C: Car Seat Check

The 2011 Lexus IS 250C is the hardtop convertible version of the IS 250, a sporty sedan. While the IS sedan can hold five passengers, the IS 250C carries four. There’s also a significant difference in rear legroom between the two models. The sedan has 30.6 inches of legroom in the second row; the convertible has only 25.9 inches, which made it difficult to install rear-facing child-safety seats in it. Our results can also be applied to the 2011 Lexus IS 350C, which offers a more powerful V-6 engine than its 250C sibling.
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. 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 2011 IS 250C and IS 350C did in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check:
Latch system: There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the convertible’s two-person backseat. The anchors are deeply buried in the seat bight, where the back and bottom cushions meet. The seats have significant seat bolsters and the anchors are set close together, making it difficult to install a car seat.
Two tether anchors sit under hinged covers at the base of the roll bars. The covers make it difficult to use the anchors. We had to flop the head restraints forward to get at the anchors.

Booster seat: The seat bolsters helped give our high-back booster seat a good fit in the convertible. However, the limited legroom in the second row will create problems for a child sitting in the seat. The seat belt buckles are well-anchored and sit high enough that kids in boosters can easily use them.


Convertible seat: To get the rear-facing convertible to fit in the IS 250C, we had to move the front passenger seat all the way forward. This left no room for the front passenger. We also had fit problems with the forward-facing convertible. The rear seatback has little to no recline, which pushed the convertible far forward. At least half of the convertible’s base was off of the bottom seat cushion. This shows yet again that not every car seat fits in every car.

Infant-safety seat: We also had to move the front passenger seat all the way forward to get this rear-facing car seat to fit in the convertible. As with the rear-facing convertible, there wasn’t enough room for the front passenger.

How many car seats fit? 2, but they’ll need to be forward-facing
Editor’s note: For three car seats—infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats—to fit in a car, our criteria 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.
by motherproof.com