Same here
I honestly don’t get the captains chairs thing. Im the dad that hauls the kids 99.9999% of the time.
I also haul club Volleyball kids 10yrs old and my sons sports buddies 8 yrs old.
captains chairs cause a few issues I never see anyone mention which seems to be tied to one major factor they are hauling kids less than 10 miles and rarely ever if at all travel farther than a short local trip.
lets talk car sickness sensitivity. Yup lots of kids seem to have this now days. Mine do not but many kids I’ve hauled do. The third row regardless of vehicle unless we are talking full sized van with huge custom van windows pretty much suck when it comes to people who are sensitive to being car sick.
when given the choice of 2nd row bench seat or climbing into a 3rd row Everyone wants the 2nd row bench seats.
lets talk seats vs gear yup 5 people can travel in a vehicle with a bench 2nd row with dogs, gear, tools etc safely stowed in the back. Not so much in captains chairs.
Now Ford has done something smart. Their new 2nd row bench actually is 40/20/40! Yep so now when you need captains chairs you have them and when you don’t need them you don’t have them.
I get it, I really do many people are way into this captains chair thing. What’s funny is that I’m seeing many early addopters who are replacing their first captains chairs suv opt out and getting bench again. For all the reasons I just listed.
If you don’t travel very far, don’t haul very many kids captains chairs “might” be ok for you. For those of us that haul a wide range of kids and adults and do longer trips captain chairs are very limiting and don’t work well at all.
I completely agree. I think captains chairs were just about looks or more like a status symbol that seemed more elegant. You know it took you further away from the station wagon mentality which is really what an SUV is... a raised station wagon.
When hauling people, it's absolutely stupid to have a second row that only holds two but a third row that holds three. When you have three people to haul and the rear parts of the vehicle you have to cut through or flip a seat. So much nicer to have three spots available in the second row and you only need to worry about using the third row if you have a fourth. Often times and picking up kids and friends you will have three but you rarely have four.
This is where the Explorer does a better job then the expedition.
That I only have first and second gens because I'm cheap and old school but I'm sure the new ones aren't much different dot. It seems a shame to me to make such a large vehicle but then not have much room inside of it!
My wife's daily driver and the vehicle I drive most often is a Chevy Trailblazer. It is a much smaller vehicle than my second gen Navigator but when you sit on the seats there is little difference. I think the Trailblazer actually has a wider bottom seat than the Navigator which is a real shame!
In both vehicles the door is right on top of your thigh and you can hardly reach your hand between the door and the seat. This is quite ridiculous. What they've done is the Trailblazer has a very narrow console but still large enough for my purposes. It's a fine little armrest. Where the Navigator has a giant console that you could put two gallons of milk in. Just like the one in the rear between the seats.
I would much rather have a wider more comfortable seat and an a narrower console.
Once again, I will say I don't really think the manufacturers have any idea what we want. They're not having people come out and having focus groups sit in two different vehicles with different width of seats and different sized consoles. There's simply not. They're having people sitting vehicles that are already designed and comparing vehicle Aid a vehicle be like anachronox or a Tahoe and comparing it to an Explorer or an Expedition.
They keep building what they have in building or what they want to build or just making small little changes because they're bored and we have to choose from what's available which is mostly what has already been available.
If we could start with more of a clean slate and let people say what they really want in the design we could get vehicles we really and truly like more.
