We've already had a couple posts about our long-term S5's rear seats. Dan commented about the easy-to-use latch and nifty power switch for moving the seat forward, and Caroline said she liked the amount of storage space provided. But I'm here to tell you that the S5's backseat is no good in at least one area -- fitment of a child safety seat.
If you have a baby or toddler to cart around (and what S5 owner doesn't, right?), the S5's rear seat isn't very accommodating for a safety seat. The biggest issue is that the S5's rear head restraints can't be removed. This makes it impossible to position a forward-facing child safety seat so that it's properly flush with the seatback.
Interestingly, the rear head restraints also don't come out on our A4 Avant wagon. I've always disliked that, but at least with the A4 you can position the child safety seat in the middle where there isn't a head restraint. For the S5, though, there's just rear seating for two -- no middle seat or middle seatbelt. The fixed head restraint also makes it much harder to secure the top tether point on the rear deck.
The upshot of all this is that in order to secure a safety seat for my two-year-old, I had to angle it in such a way that the base isn't flush with the seat cushion (the safety seat's instructions tell you to have the seat flush). I'm also not very keen on the Audi's seat cushion being so highly contoured (had to use a bunch of towels to equal everything out) and the way the child safety seat ends up being so close to the rear side-curtain airbag mounted in the C-pillar.
For adults and bigger kids, sure, the S5's rear seat should be just fine (though I have to disagree with Caroline in that I don't find it particularly comfortable -- not enough headroom and the outboard armrests are too hard). But this is the first coupe I've driven in our long-term fleet where locating a child safety seat on the front passenger seat actually seemed like, if not a better position, than certainly equal in terms of fitment.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor
hybris says:
10:31 AM, 09/18/09
Does Audi have their own brand of child safety seat that could fit in the car? Of course you pay a massive premium.
gobryngo says:
10:35 AM, 09/18/09
I'll have to try to get the Recaro in there. It's so tall, it might bypass the head restraints completely.
Also, I bet a rear-facing kid seat will work, so shoppers with infants and toddlers still sitting rear-facing could be in luck.
Serves as a big reminder to bring all your child safety seats with you when you're car shopping.
--Bryn
adavis2493 says:
11:35 AM, 09/18/09
I'm somewhat surprised. motherproof.com commended the S5 for great child seat fitment due to the latch connectors.
audisport says:
12:40 PM, 09/18/09
A4's have 3 rear headrests across the back. Am I missing something here? And my A4's rear restraints come all the way out.... Strange...
marcvill says:
01:08 PM, 09/18/09
As a Child Passenger Safety (CPS) technician, any coupe is difficult to install a seat. Did one today in a Honda Civic that wasn't easy. If you were a contortionist, it wouldn't have been to bad. The problem is you can't get the leverage you need to get the straps tight.
The LATCH system is in every passenger vehicle that is built in 2004 forward. Some '03 vehicles have them too. So not to sure what other qualities Motherproof.com was using to recommend the Audi. Car seat will usually ruin the leather seats if you put them in correctly and use them for awhile. Seats are also getting wider due to side impact protection.
Anytime a person comes to our office with a coupe I cringe. I know what is involved. It is going to be hard to do and hot in the process.
If Brent actually owned this car and brought it to my office, we would tell you to get a different seat or a different car because these two don't match well at all.
FYI - Use some shelf paper, the rubbery kind, before you put the towels down. It will help everything from sliding.
felonious says:
02:10 PM, 09/18/09
Thanks for the info, marcvill! What city do you work in? I could use some pointers.
desmo001 says:
02:59 PM, 09/18/09
Doesn't the white base come off? I have a similar seat (with similar fitment problems) and found it worked much better if I removed the pivoting base. On my seat it was designed to come off.
kingkhalas says:
03:06 PM, 09/18/09
Are you sure it's safe to install the seat with those towels under it?
zc1 says:
05:11 PM, 09/18/09
@Adavis: Actually, Motherproof.com voted it "best LATCH connectors," but didn't say that it was recommended because of that. They just liked how easy the connectors were to access. That said, they also mentioned that they installed booster seats (rather than full 5-point harness child seats).
insanitycheck says:
08:47 PM, 09/20/09
I was looking at the A5 convertible, which we hoped to buy as an S5 version, but we need to also have a booster for our 5 yr old daughter.
Has anyone found a booster seat that fits the S5 without "wobbling"? We tried a Graco one and she complained that it was too wobbly because it couldn't sit flat on the seat due to the "bucket" like seating surface.
Thanks for the tips!
jaguar36 says:
08:59 AM, 09/21/09
I'm very appreciative of all the car seat info. I'm gonna be buying a new car soon, and will probably need to have a baby seat in it at some point. It's amazing how much of a pain they all seem to be.
lgret13 says:
01:18 PM, 11/17/09
I also have a marathon seat, and the seat in the picture is installed incorrecly. No where does it state in the manual that britax requires the back of the car seat to be flush with the back of the seat, but the base must be flush/flat with the bottom of the seat as per britax. I have the same issue in my cars and have spoken to britax direclty on this issue, they specifically said there can be a gap along the backside along as the base is flush with the bottom of seat.
It is also common sense, because all cars do not have the same angle for everyback seat where the car seat angle is fixed.