I'll be honest, when I first brought this car home and showed my wife the "trunk" space and the 2-seats-per-row layout (Heck, my old '92 Ford Taurus sedan had 6 seats), we weren't sure this vehicle would work for us.
But I must admit- I've been really pleasantly surprised! This vehicle is a lot more capable than it seems at first...
This past week, I had a lot of family visiting. I needed to borrow chairs, tables, and even hit home depot up for some light construction supplies to build a temporary hut outside (long story).
So, the 16 chairs and 2 folding tables fit without a problem (I wasn't really worried about that fitting), but the 8' long 2 x 4's from Home Depot were something that I was concerned about. The rear window doesn't open, which means that if the boards are too long to fit in the car, I have to drive with the trunk totally open.
Well, turns out all the wood I needed to transport fit perfectly between the seats, with the front of the beams just barely touching the shifter (I put a blanket in between to protect the console from being scratched by the wood boards), and the trunk closed just fine!
Not only that, but I could leave the 2nd row seats up and take a couple of people along to help carry the lumber. Nice.
Then, just yesterday, the 8 of us who were still in the house (my immediate family plus a few of my in laws) wanted to all go out for lunch. We were about to take 2 cars, when I said- hang on, I want to try something STUPID.
I'm not going to get into the details of how we did it, because obviously with only 6 seat belts this whole ordeal was questionably legal, but we fit 5 adults, one kindergarten-aged child, one 3 year old, and an infant in the car safely at the same time. I say safely because I am confident that everyone was safely secured, however much like the European model that offers the 3rd seat in the middle of the 2nd row, the US safety standards would probably argue with me.
In any case, that's a total of 8 people. And aside from one person who complained it was "stuffy" in the back, we did this rather comfortably (easy to say from the driver's seat, I suppose)!
Anyway, obviously you have to use your own judgement when it comes to creative seating- I'm not condoning anyone break the law, and although I'm confident everyone was safe the way we arranged it, someone else might not think it through as carefully and create a potentially dangerous situation.
But... my point is, it CAN BE DONE physically if the need arises. And the car drove like a champ- didn't feel bogged down or anything!
Now that I've found a double stroller (Joovy sit and stand Caboose) that fits behind the third row, I see no reason to need a full sized van for day to day driving.
So, my hat is off to you, Mazda. You proved my initial feelings wrong and have given me a car that I continue to appreciate more each day!
But I must admit- I've been really pleasantly surprised! This vehicle is a lot more capable than it seems at first...
This past week, I had a lot of family visiting. I needed to borrow chairs, tables, and even hit home depot up for some light construction supplies to build a temporary hut outside (long story).
So, the 16 chairs and 2 folding tables fit without a problem (I wasn't really worried about that fitting), but the 8' long 2 x 4's from Home Depot were something that I was concerned about. The rear window doesn't open, which means that if the boards are too long to fit in the car, I have to drive with the trunk totally open.
Well, turns out all the wood I needed to transport fit perfectly between the seats, with the front of the beams just barely touching the shifter (I put a blanket in between to protect the console from being scratched by the wood boards), and the trunk closed just fine!
Not only that, but I could leave the 2nd row seats up and take a couple of people along to help carry the lumber. Nice.
Then, just yesterday, the 8 of us who were still in the house (my immediate family plus a few of my in laws) wanted to all go out for lunch. We were about to take 2 cars, when I said- hang on, I want to try something STUPID.
I'm not going to get into the details of how we did it, because obviously with only 6 seat belts this whole ordeal was questionably legal, but we fit 5 adults, one kindergarten-aged child, one 3 year old, and an infant in the car safely at the same time. I say safely because I am confident that everyone was safely secured, however much like the European model that offers the 3rd seat in the middle of the 2nd row, the US safety standards would probably argue with me.
In any case, that's a total of 8 people. And aside from one person who complained it was "stuffy" in the back, we did this rather comfortably (easy to say from the driver's seat, I suppose)!
Anyway, obviously you have to use your own judgement when it comes to creative seating- I'm not condoning anyone break the law, and although I'm confident everyone was safe the way we arranged it, someone else might not think it through as carefully and create a potentially dangerous situation.
But... my point is, it CAN BE DONE physically if the need arises. And the car drove like a champ- didn't feel bogged down or anything!
Now that I've found a double stroller (Joovy sit and stand Caboose) that fits behind the third row, I see no reason to need a full sized van for day to day driving.
So, my hat is off to you, Mazda. You proved my initial feelings wrong and have given me a car that I continue to appreciate more each day!
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