Bench vs captains chairs for car seats

[HillCountry]

so your car seats here are both on the 60 side of the 60/40 split bench? and you can still independently slide and tilt the 40 side to access the back row? I will still have 2 rear facing kiddos in 2nd row, 1 forward facing in the back who can’t buckle herself so I need to be able to climb back there relatively easily to secure her.

For the FF child in the 3rd row: I would keep part of 3rd row folded down so I could reach through the trunk to help her get buckled.

 

[ccallana]

I think each family has a different situation, but we've done the 2/2/3 seating in both our minivans and now the Telly as well with 3 kids.. The vans had the middle seat option in the second row but we almost never took it out of the floor cubby. It always seemed to work better with 1 of them in the 3rd row. Sit them in the small side, put the big side down, plenty of room for luggage. Now the telly has less space than the van, but we are also down 1 kid as he is off to do his own thing now - so the captains in the 2nd row still work well for us.

Good thing we have options

 

[iloqin]

so your car seats here are both on the 60 side of the 60/40 split bench? and you can still independently slide and tilt the 40 side to access the back row? I will still have 2 rear facing kiddos in 2nd row, 1 forward facing in the back who can’t buckle herself so I need to be able to climb back there relatively easily to secure her.

If both 2nd row seats fit in the 60 side of the 60/40 then you should be ok, they have to be 3 in a row seats... like Diono or something. Then you'd have access to the back after folding up the 40 side.

Or

Put 1 kid on the 40 side, and 2 in the 3rd row.

My plan is to dump all 3 kid in the 2nd row, so the 3rd is empty.

 

[HillCountry]

I think each family has a different situation, but we've done the 2/2/3 seating in both our minivans and now the Telly as well with 3 kids.. The vans had the middle seat option in the second row but we almost never took it out of the floor cubby. It always seemed to work better with 1 of them in the 3rd row. Sit them in the small side, put the big side down, plenty of room for luggage. Now the telly has less space than the van, but we are also down 1 kid as he is off to do his own thing now - so the captains in the 2nd row still work well for us.

Good thing we have options

Options are good! I like the car’s versatility overall. What worked for my family a couple years ago may not work for us today.