andyrebele
Member
I have the 7-seat version.
The reasons it's harder:
1) leg-crushing mode, as described above. Every time you use the seat tilt function to get the 2nd row seats to slide forward tor 3rd row entry, they forget the front-back set position, and return to the default position of back 100%. If you try to avoid this problem by holding the tilt back button down to try to stop early, then the car warns you that you can't drive without the 2nd row seat locked in position. So upon every entry into the car, you have to try to save your kids' legs. With the 6-seat version, you could use the center to have the kids move to the 3rd row, but you would have more difficulty personally assisting them to get into the seat and lock them in without being able to tilt the 2nd row seats forward.
2) The 2nd row center seat slides forward when either side seat is tilted forward; however, it only slides less than half as far, so it remains an impediment to getting from one side to the other, so if you have kids on both 3rd row seats, you have to tilt both 2nd row seats forward and get the kids in both sides, and therefore you have to do the leg-crushing avoidance twice each time you load the car.
3) We use a car seat base (Chicco) in the 2nd row. When we tilt the associated seat forward, to get to the 3rd row, it touches the 1st row seat, and I suspect it will scratch it up over time.
4) The total front-back space feels smaller than the S. With our 2 and 3 year olds in the 3rd row, if we adjust the 2nd row to accommodate them, and we put a normal size person in the 2nd row, then they would be very cramped sitting behind the driver (me) with the front seat adjusted fully rear. I think one reason is that the seats are thicker than I would have anticipated.
Reasons 1 and 2 are enough to make it far more time-consuming to get into our X than our S.
We could not put our 2 and 3 year olds in the 2nd row, because we would not have room for the rear-facing Chicco seat in the 3rd row.
The reasons it's harder:
1) leg-crushing mode, as described above. Every time you use the seat tilt function to get the 2nd row seats to slide forward tor 3rd row entry, they forget the front-back set position, and return to the default position of back 100%. If you try to avoid this problem by holding the tilt back button down to try to stop early, then the car warns you that you can't drive without the 2nd row seat locked in position. So upon every entry into the car, you have to try to save your kids' legs. With the 6-seat version, you could use the center to have the kids move to the 3rd row, but you would have more difficulty personally assisting them to get into the seat and lock them in without being able to tilt the 2nd row seats forward.
2) The 2nd row center seat slides forward when either side seat is tilted forward; however, it only slides less than half as far, so it remains an impediment to getting from one side to the other, so if you have kids on both 3rd row seats, you have to tilt both 2nd row seats forward and get the kids in both sides, and therefore you have to do the leg-crushing avoidance twice each time you load the car.
3) We use a car seat base (Chicco) in the 2nd row. When we tilt the associated seat forward, to get to the 3rd row, it touches the 1st row seat, and I suspect it will scratch it up over time.
4) The total front-back space feels smaller than the S. With our 2 and 3 year olds in the 3rd row, if we adjust the 2nd row to accommodate them, and we put a normal size person in the 2nd row, then they would be very cramped sitting behind the driver (me) with the front seat adjusted fully rear. I think one reason is that the seats are thicker than I would have anticipated.
Reasons 1 and 2 are enough to make it far more time-consuming to get into our X than our S.
We could not put our 2 and 3 year olds in the 2nd row, because we would not have room for the rear-facing Chicco seat in the 3rd row.