This is why we went with the bench. Yeah it may be weird in a higher trim level but we have people to stick in there. My in laws have to fly when they come because of the distance so we really don’t want to have to take 2 cars everywhere we go when they are here. So to be able to use the third row we will stick a kid in their car seat back there and now grandma and granddad can each sit next to one of the kids and we can still use the tilt and slide seat feature. Problem solved.
If you only have two kids (that's what it sounds like from above) wouldn't everyone be more comfortable with the second row bench?