[embee]

Voted for Bench Seats.

Bench seats are much more comfortable than Captain seats if travelling with children and there is lots of luggage. I have faced this issue when travelling with children in my Innova Crysta on highways. 5 people cannot travel together with luggage.

[PrasannaDhana]

Voted bench seats.

Purely from my experience of travelling in captain seats of the Innova crysta occasionally and on this regularly -



I find the bench seats supremely comfortable. I see members complaining about lack of armrest in the bench seats. Well, the armrest here is wide enough for 2 well-fed adult males It's wide and extremely comfortable. The seat may not have much bolstering but the contours provide excellent comfort.

[Claws]

Would prefer captain seats. Reasons:
• More comfort
• Provision for individual adjustment.
• Avoids the infamous "whose armrest is it" debacle as both the passengers get their own ones.
• As a couple others have pointed out, staves off isolation of third row passengers from the rest of the car. I should know. My family has a car with bench seats and I've spent a lot of time in the third row.
• The problem with lack of storage spaces in the arm rest can be avoided to an extent with the pockets on the front seats(although not many cars have it).
• Easier access to the third row.

[manishk123]

I have an older Innova with bench seats and the newer Crysta with Captain seats. Although the Captain seats look and feel a little more premium, comfort wise I don't think there is a big difference. We have a large family and both innovas are always chauffeur driven. Whenever there are more than 3 people, we end up taking the older innova, as no one wants to go in the third row, even for a short distance. Its really tight getting in and out, hence the resistance. For airport runs too, its the older one that mostly does duty, since with luggage the capacity is reduced to 3 persons only in the Crysta. I was in fact planning to sell my old innova after getting the new one, but because of these limitations caused by the captain seats, we have retained it.

My vote definitely goes to the bench seat as it offers a lot more versatility for marginally less comfort.

[sensible_driver]

Voted for Captain Seats. Innova 2nd row captain seats are too much comfortable for me to give the vote. For two people in 2nd row, captain seats give good back and seating comfort and hands get support on the hand rest.

[agelesstravelle]

Selection of seats depends on the family as well. I have two young kids who both go into child seats. Bench seat allow me to keep the two child seats installed ( side and middle) and leave enough space to use the third seat and the third row.

[sam264_2000]

Have voted for Bench Seats.
Captain seats are great for comfort - I love them while hiring an Innova (in fact I specifically ask for captain seat variant when I hire) but I do that only when we are 3 adults in the car. IMHO, captain seats beat the primary purpose of buying a 7 seater. The versatility provided by Bench Seats = true value.

[Drlmtukkar]

I've voted for the captain seats and own a Feb 2020 Hexa XTA with captain seats
90% of the times we are only 4 people traveling:
1) So thinking for the 5th passenger didn't make sense.
2) The comfort they offer is unparalleled
But there was only one annoying issue I have faced, that's the small luggage tends to spill over into the space between the two captain seats and I am unable to have a stable luggage cover due to the gap.

[HrB]

Voted for Captain Seats. We're a family of 6 with 2 kids who can always sit on the 3rd row. Captain seats provide more comfort and space. Bench seats make the 3rd row appear claustrophobic IMO. Moreover, it's not always that all six of us are going out together. So, a six seater is perfect fit for us.

[venkats2001]

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

It's been done. Honda Magic Slide Seat Easy Access Mode.

Attachment 2122476

This seems to be the perfect solution, both bench+captain! Which car offers this?

[nathanjdias]

Bench Seat for me.

I had the option when getting my Tata Hexa back in 2018 and I went for the bench setup primarily because of the redundancy. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

[raghukodali]

Voted for Captain seats.

I had bench seats on my ex-XUV 500 and I have captain seats on my current Crysta.
The captain seats are supremely comfortable and I will not go back to bench seats.

This is also based on my usage where we are always 4 people in the car and practically never even used the third row.

[sridhar24]

I voted in for the Bench seats as I myself have a 7 seater SUV. I love the flexibility and practicality it offers in terms of seating and luggage space primarily, also easier ingress & egress to the 3rd row as well. On the whole bench seat offers me much more practicality when considering the car is used mainly for family use.

But I would definitely prefer captain seats in 2nd row if the car is going to be chauffer driven most of the time. There is no denying the comfort that the captain seats offer. Why should driver and co-passenger have all the fun

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by venkats2001

This seems to be the perfect solution, both bench+captain! Which car offers this?

Honda Odyssey. Chrysler Pacifica and Toyota Sienna may have something similar too.

[Shimnith]

I vote for bench seats.

I have undergone through the same dilemma during my purchase of Renault Lodgy. The variant had both the captain and bench seat options available at the same price and I have opted for the bench seat. Reasons are

1) It can accommodate one extra person incase needed. (My vehicle is registered as 8 seater).
2) Lodgy has split seats in the second row which can be individually reclined and adjusted back and forth.
3) It can be tilted completely to have additional storage space.

But it lacks the premium looks of the captain seats, something we have to trade off for the practicality of bench seats