6 seat versus 7 seat - need HELP please

[RSFTes]

With 4 children and the occasional need to print someone along, I ordered the 7 seat configuration.
As my delivery nears and I obsess over the Tesla forum, I worry tha tI have made the wrong choice and the extra seat will result in a claustrophobic 3rd row and children being reluctant to get into it.

Like some others I have read about, my children tend to get car sick in the back of my P90DL which may be in part due to the acceleration and the twisty roads we live on.

Can anyone with experience of more than a test drive share their thoughts on my dilemma. In particular, the amount of space for 5'6" children, ease/speed of access and claustrophobia concerns.

My sincere thanks in advance

 

[vandacca]

My wife (~5'4") sat in the 2nd row of the 7-seat display model at the test-drive event and felt extremely claustrophobic when the doors were shut. She does have a mild issue with claustrophobia. However, on the actual test-drive, we had a 6-seater and she was totally fine with sitting in the 2nd row.

 

[mikevbf]

With 4 children and the occasional need to print someone along,

I didn't realize 3D printers could do that these days.

 

[Jon]

We have four children and opted to order the six seat version. We haven't received our Signature X yet (it's in Canadian purgatory) but figured that although we would have the occasional passenger, that would be unlikely to happen when we had all four kids and the two of us onboard.

Hope that helps figure it out a bit. What ages are yours?

Cheers,

Jon

 

[RSFTes]

Mine are 10, 9, 8 &4 but about 2 years taller than their average age so 2 oldest already grown out of rearward facing seats of Model S.
Any experience with 7 seat configuration is greatly appreciated as I fear we may have made a mistake here.
Thank you!

 

[grommet]

Not sure what you are expecting to see here. We don't know your children. Anyway, a single mostly useless data point: a lanky 5'10" 14 year and a 5'5" 12 year old quite happily asked to sit in the back of a 7 seat configuration and didn't have any issues being tossed around.

 

[DarrinR]

With 4 children and the occasional need to print someone along, I ordered the 7 seat configuration.
As my delivery nears and I obsess over the Tesla forum, I worry tha tI have made the wrong choice and the extra seat will result in a claustrophobic 3rd row and children being reluctant to get into it.

Like some others I have read about, my children tend to get car sick in the back of my P90DL which may be in part due to the acceleration and the twisty roads we live on.

Can anyone with experience of more than a test drive share their thoughts on my dilemma. In particular, the amount of space for 5'6" children, ease/speed of access and claustrophobia concerns.

My sincere thanks in advance

I own 2 Model X's, one with 6 seats (mine) and the other with 7( my wife's). I also have 3 kids. It is definitely a snug fit for anyone in the back 2 seats but especially so with the 7 seat configuration. Little kids seem to love the back seats and don't seem to mind the fact they are bit more enclosed. 5'6" may be the maximum height of anyone sitting comfortably in the back row of the 7 seat configuration. Our youngest loves the middle second row seat the most as he has great view of the large touchscreen and the road ahead. Personally I think the 6 seat option is more spacious and significantly less claustrophobic than the 7 seat option.

 

[MiddKid]

We were "only" on a test drive but my wife and I were convinced we were going 7-seat for our family of 5 until we sat in the 7-seater. While the third row seats are comfortable, we felt extremely claustrophobic at 5'8" and 5'4" due to the size and height of the second row. My wife specifically (5'4") was emphatic about switching to the 6 seat despite us having 3 kids...

 

[RSFTes]

DarrinR and Middkid, thank you very much. I fear I'm going to have to reorder and eat the $5k and next week's delivery but better than having a useless vehicle.
Thank you

 

[Mr.science3000]

One more thought on 7 seats... I just received my 7-seater and took my two kids and my sister --who has a wheelchair-- on a road trip. We ended up needing to fold down the third row to fit in her wheelchair, but were able to fit all five of us since we had the 7-seater. So if you think you may need to take five passengers plus enough luggage to fold down the third row, the 7-seater is a great option.

 

[Redshift]

My 6'3" son says he thinks the third row may actually be more comfortable for him than the second row in the six seat version , due to room to stretch his legs between the seats.

I also think headliner color may make a difference in how the third row feels. I sat in a seven seat, black headliner X briefly and felt very closed in in the third row. I did not have that feeling in the six seat, light headliner X.

 

[Blastphemy]

Now that we have the 7-seat model, I have decided that I would have preferred the 6-seat configuration instead.

The middle seat blocks the view out the rear window; the middle seat seems to have a mind of its own, crushing people's legs in the back seat when you adjust one of the left or right seats; it would be much easier to access the 3rd row seats without the middle seat; and I could carry longer items in the car without the middle seat. But we've got a 7-seater, so that's what we'll learn to live with for the next three years. It's not the end of the world. What would have made me order the 6-seat configuration instead at the time of configuration was if the left/right seats had come with interior armrests.

 

[Marcos]

Our car is a soccer-team mover, so we needed all seven seats. But my 12 and 9 year olds love the back row. And if they have friends with them they fight over who gets to go in back. I hate the blocked view put the back window,cut other than at I like having the extra seat.

But like I said, I needed a people mover, not a cargo mover.

 

[grommet]

In a nut shell, both the 7 and 6 seat configurations are flawed in their own ways. The 7 isn't great because of the "surprise" inflexible non-folding design of the 2nd row. The 6 isn't great because it's clearly an engineering afterthought; they just deleted the center seat to give back some utility, and didn't make any enhancements like adding arm rests, or moving them ever so slightly closer together. As mentioned above, it also turns your huge vehicle into a 4 seater with cargo loaded in the back.

If they had put a normal "ugly" foldable seat in the center middle between the two "sculptural works of art" seats, I bet the 6 seat wouldn't be half as popular.

 

[flar]

If they had put a normal "ugly" foldable seat in the center middle between the two "sculptural works of art" seats, I bet the 6 seat wouldn't be half as popular.

This. Times 10. It doesn't have to be ugly, though. Just foldable and with a headrest that retracts so as not to block the view. I have retractable head rests in my back row that most of my passengers just adjust to suit them as they get in without any thought to it...

 

[Nototrader]

Mine are 10, 9, 8 &4 but about 2 years taller than their average age so 2 oldest already grown out of rearward facing seats of Model S.
Any experience with 7 seat configuration is greatly appreciated as I fear we may have made a mistake here.
Thank you!

I had the same issue you had. I read all the forums and thought my 7 seater was a huge mistake. Guess what? It's fine. My three girls sit in the second row together. Sometimes one goes back to the third row. It's pretty comfortable. Trust me, the kids will love it. It will be fine. Stop reading all the forums on opinions. It will drive you crazy. Nobody has complained yet. The only issue is all my kids' friends want to get into my car cause it's the "coolest". It becomes a real zoo at times.

 

[gpetti]

Wow, this is difficult. Great points for 6 and 7 seats. I'm leaning towards 6 at present though I am replacing a 7 seater. I was starting to rule out the 7 seater because for us having 7 occupants is a real rarity and the benefits of having the open middle seat would be advantageous to us 90% of the time; however, having 5 occupants is relatively common and having the 5th occupant in the more comfortable middle row centre seat seems like a benefit we would enjoy frequently. On top of that we have <1 year old twins who will occupy the two outer seats and having an adult in between them can be useful. So difficult to decide. Really wish the folding center seat idea was implemented.

 

[rallykeeper]

FWIW, skis....

It may not be helpful in your case, but I like the 6 seater (and it was just delivered yesterday!) because of skis.

As I've looked more and more into the accessory-hitch bicycle/ski carriers, I've become pretty disenchanted with the idea of putting skis on the rack. Both the Thule and Yakima solutions seem like pretty lame compromises. While I'm hoping Tesla will come up with something better, I'm not holding my breath.

With the middle seat missing, however, I think we will most likely just slot skis straight down the middle for most of our ski trips.

That being said, we only have 2 kids, so 4 seats isn't a problem.

 

[loganintx]

Why wouldn't you put the twins in the very back?? They have LATCH system back there and FWD make it very easy to get them in and out.

 

[gpetti]

Why wouldn't you put the twins in the very back?? They have LATCH system back there and FWD make it very easy to get them in and out.

Well that is a good point, I had discounted it because its further away from us. Although we can't really see them anyway (they are rear facing) we can normally hear them and talk to them. We could just put them there when there is a 5th occupant (or one of them) but connecting and disconnecting the bases often would not be optimum. I understand that these are all more nuisances than obstacles but the object of this exercise is to pick a configuration that works best for our most common cases. Putting the twins in the third row seat or swapping them around frequently seem less convenient and we would probably just opt to put the 5th occupant in the back row.