2nd row capts chairs or bench in suv/minivan?

Which would you choose and why?: capt.'s chairs in 2nd row OR bench seat

We've narrowed down our selection for a new vehicle but are still waffling on which type of seats to get in the 2nd (of 3 rows). The captain's chairs would give us one less seat overall, but I've heard that the ability to move "through" the vehicle is nice if you need to pull off on long road trips (without getting out) or even sometimes when loading everyone in and closing the door behind you to keep the kids corralled.

Any experiences/suggestions would be welcome help here. Thanks in advance for your input! :)

I like Captain's Chairs.

I'm currently driving my MIL's hand-me-down minivan and if (when!) I get a new one, I will opt for the Captain's Chairs. Precisely for the reason you give. Actually, wanna know what I use it for most? DD falls asleep in captains chair, I pull over in a parking lot and take a nap in the shade in the back seat or just in the bed of the "trunk." Ahhhh. :) The windows are so dark that nobody can see us. Love it!

When she was younger, I often used the 3rd row for nursing. It was nice not to have a carseat on it, so I could have arm room and the tinted windows.

I guess I don't see much difference in a minivan with 2nd row bench and an SUV with 3 rows? The walk-through is so valuable to me that I'm looking into minivans and not SUVs.

The one drawback: DD's carseat is RF on an outboard seat, since there's no middle seat in the 2nd row. This means that the front passenger seat can't go back very far. It's a Dodge Grand Caravan and a Britax Marathon. Not sure if this is an issue in other cars or with other seats.

Good luck and congrats on the new car purchase. I'm totally envious! }( ;-)

Captain's chairs!

For the reasons you gave, and a couple others. One is that to put in a bench, the side seats get moved out closer to the doors, and potentially closer to a side impact. Another is that with a bench you can't access the 3rd row without moving a second row seat - difficult to impossible with a child seat installed. Also, it is difficult to actually seat three on the middle bench, especially if two or more are in carseats. If you have one in the second row and an adult wants to sit next to them, the captain's chair is much more comfortable.

I might consider something like the Honda Odyssey "plus one" seat - it can be removed and stored when not needed, but if you had people in town or something you could put it in. I don't think that they move the seats out on the Honda (Toyota does).

Thank you both for your replies. Anyone out there with a preference for the 2nd row bench and/or reasons other than just having one more seat available at some point?

Well I don't have a minivan - I have a Yukon XL SUV and I specifically wanted a 2nd row bench and not captains chairs. I actually had a heck of a time finding the vehicle I wanted with a bench and not captains chairs.

Anway - my reason for the bench was a 2 part deal - first (and most importantly for me) - I wanted to be able to put our son's carseat in the middle and not in one of the outboard positions - secondly - I wanted to be able to fold the bench down flat for when I go hunting so I have a nice large flat area to put all our "stuff".

This doesn't apply to SUV that I know of, but for most minivans, you have the option of moving the passenger side chair to the center. We have our this way so DS1 is in the middle and DS2 is outboard.

I'm a bench seat person too. In our Odyssey when we only had DS1 he was in the center of the bench and it was easier for people to get into the 3rd row since there was a space right beside the passenger side. Now that we've changed the bench into captain's it's WAY harder for someone y=to get into the 3rd row because the rear facing car seat leans too far back and you have to squeeze past that and then go in between 2 seats.

I also had a truck and preferred the 40/60 bench front seats to buckets.

As a child, my family had both a bench seat minivan (probably before they had captains chairs at all) and then a minivan with captains chairs.

I remember LOVING getting the captain chairs when I was 13, becuase my sister and I didn't have to fight over who got the window seat anymore (luckily I won, because I'm older). As an adult, I also find it easier to move from the front of the van to the 3rd row easily. I don't do it often, but I like having the easy access.

Like PP mentioned, having a bench seat makes for easier entry from the passenger side sliding door. But with captain chairs, once you lean the back down, you can easily climb in the back (unless there is a carseat in that chair).

Caroline
mommy to Kaylin 6/5/04

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The captain's chairs would give us one less seat
>overall
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I'm not sure how captains chairs would give you one less seat. The second row bench seat in all the minivans that I have been in only seats 2, for a total of 7 seats. In the Ody and Sienna there are options for 8th seats when you have captains chairs. My preference is for captains chairs as long as you can slide the passenger side toward the middle of the vehicle.

Thanks for all of your responses. They are helpful. I realize from reading your input that there are more differences in this question based on whether we're looking at a minivan or suv and even the length of the suv. We are looking at an suv -- trying to meet a variety of needs.

After considering our options and the comments offered here, we've been leaning toward captains chairs in the 2nd row -- new problem though is that we're looking at an "expired" but new suv (no longer made) and it seems that the captain's chairs are proving more elusive than we'd expected. If we don't find one soon, we may wind up with the bench after all.

We're still looking for now.

I love having the captains chairs. I used to have a 2nd and 3rd row bench seat in my last 2 minivans and this one has the captains chairs and a 60/40 split bench in the 3rd row and I absolutely love the combo!! We also have the little 8th mini seat too, but we took it out for now. We weren't using it and it gave us that "through" room, which is great!!

We have an 05 Ody so we have the "plus one" seat in between the 2 regular seats. I actually use it all of the time. DS hates, hates, hates the car, and so I sometimes nurse him in the car, (yes, while both of us are buckled in...don't worry ;) ) which is a pain but far better than hearing him crying in the carseat.

When we drive back and forth to PA from NC, it is a long trip and I nurse him to sleep that way in his carseat. So I actually use the "plus one" seat quite a bit. I'm only 5'2" and pretty small though so I guess that's why I don't mind the "plus one." I know a lot of people say they don't use theirs, but ours has been a lifesaver.

We just bought a Nissan Armada (full size SUV) and originally wanted captain's chairs in the middle and the dealer talked us out of it. He said he had had a few customers who had purchased the captain's chairs who came back wanting the bench, but it is a really expensive conversion. His rationale is if you are getting such a big SUV it is worth it to have the extra seat (8 instead of 7). I also met a woman who drove a Lincoln Navigator (I think) with captain's chairs, and she didn't like it because she had 3 kids, and couldn't put her stoller in the car when all of her kids were with her (her stroller didn't fit in the very back with the third row up).

Anyway, we ended up buying one with a bench seat and have liked it. I think I might feel differently in a minivan where it is easier to move around, but even with the open middle in the SUV I think it would be hard to get to the back especially around carseats. Each seat in our middle bench folds independently of the others and folds flat. The third row folds in a 60/40 split which is also really nice. The drawback (as other PPs mentioned) is if you have 2 carseats in the outboard positions, it is impossible to get to the third row. We have put one carseat in the middle row and one in the back (DS can climb back there by himself, and then I reach in to buckle him up), and that is an ok solution. I think the downside of a SUV in general is you have to help the kids in or lift them up into the seats, and then climb in yourself to get them buckled. It isn't perfect but works ok.

Good luck deciding!

Chiming in late, we will soon have 5 children so we opted for the bench to get the extra seat. The salemans tried hard to sell DH on Captain's chairs but with a car seat installed rf or ff it would have been difficult for my older children to squeeze by. Maybe not so bad with the ff seat if my son was not in the car but for doing school p/u or drop off it would have been tough. My older kids are very adept at slinding the out board 2nd row seat forward to enter/exit the 3rd row at 11 & 7. I guess it really depends on your needs and the needs of your passengers. One other thing to consider some of the older vehicles and even 2006s only have a lap belt in the 3rd row center position which does not offer adequate protection for anyone other than a child in a harnessed car seat so that may eliminate a seating position as well.

Jodi, Child Passenger Safety Technician, Mom to 3 in seats almost 4 :)

Jodi,

Thanks for the mention about the 3rd row center position seat belt. I'll definately check on that!

Finding our preferred vehicle is taking longer than we'd expected. We may have to re-group here.

I see many people like the Oddysey and friends of our do too. Unfortunately it doesn't meet all of our needs right now. It does seem like a nice mini-van.

Thanks again to everyone who's shared their experiences here. I'll continue to check back since we're still looking now.