1st Baby inbound-best car seat and #of seats!

[BigAirHarper]

We own an S, with our first baby on the way we are definitely getting an X to go with it. (Waiting until after battery day of course)

We really want the 5 seat bench version just to maximize cargo plus I’m not the biggest fan of the electric seat mechanism on the 6/7 seat.

anyone have any input on best configuration with a kid?

and are certain car seats better suited for the X than others? Thanks!

 

[sllvgl]

Congratulations!

With one kid I think any option is fine and 5-seats makes sense if you care about cargo.

The X is spacious enough to accommodate any car seat you’d like, even rear facing. If you are 6’ or taller you probably will be limited in the front (passenger or driver) if there is a rear facing child seat behind you.

 

[HappyHappy]

As sillvgl mentioned, with only 1 kid, there's pretty much no bad option. The question you have to consider is how many kids you will have (during your ownership of the X). I have 3 - 2 forward facing and 1 rear facing in a 6 seat X. My thoughts:

1. Unless you will have 5 kids constantly, I don't like the 7 seater. It's pretty cramped back there, and not easy to get to.
2. With 2 kids, both the 5 or 6 seater work well. When I had just two, they'd be in the 2nd row and the third row would be folded down. During stops, they LOVED climbing all over the insides. The folded 3rd row/trunk would be their play/picnic area. At supercharger stops, we would turn on child door locks, unbuckle them, and let them free in back. You can do this with a 5 seater, but they wouldn't have easy access to the back.
3. With 3 kids, I would say the 6 seater is best option. You're limited in the selection of car seats that can go 3 in a row to begin with. Then you have to deal with three kids in close proximity hitting each other. I value my sanity and space them out a bit. You could do this in the 7 seater with the third kid in back, but as I mentioned earlier, getting in there is difficult.
4. I use combinations of Britax Advocate (rear facing) and Britax Pinnacle (forward facing). They are big, but still fit. Rear facing can only fit in the 2nd row, and they limit the leg room of the 1st and 3rd rows.
5. You can get two forward facing in the third row. I did this for a while. The advantage is that this opens up 2nd row seats for adults. The disadvantage is the kids are in close proximity to each other, they're pretty far from the front so you can't assist them, and it limits their play area.
6. My current layout is rear facing in driver side 2nd row, and 2 forward facing in passenger side 2nd and 3rd rows with the eldest in back. The driver side third row is folded down. I can reach the two smaller ones from the front and the eldest enjoys her "table" next to her seat. At stops, they can climb around in the 3rd row/trunk. I bring compact lawn chairs for the adults, so we can even open the trunk and watch them if the weather is nice.

I can't stress enough the value of letting the kids roam free during stops. It's not realistic for them to be strapped down for the entire supercharger stop, and there are times (basically most of the time!) that I don't want to have to follow them around outside the car. Inside, they can play board games while I rest in an air conditioned environment. Yea, that's worth $6k to me.

 

[BigAirHarper]

Thanks for the thorough analysis. Ultimate plan is 2 kids in total. But lets see how this first one goes, hahahaha. As long as we can get 2 car seats at some point on the bench seat we will probably stick to the 5 seater. We had a friend just get a Yukon with the rear captains chairs and they were explaining it was nice to have aisle but at this point I don't think I can justify it. Maybe if kid 2 comes along we will just have to upgrade to the latest and greatest model X despite us hanging on to cars forever.
I think we may do the bench seat cause I am doubtful we will road trip with them often. We are blessed to have a small airplane for our long trips....but the utility of having that space in the rear for them to play sounds awesome....

 

[VikH]

As sillvgl mentioned, with only 1 kid, there's pretty much no bad option. The question you have to consider is how many kids you will have (during your ownership of the X). I have 3 - 2 forward facing and 1 rear facing in a 6 seat X. My thoughts:

1. Unless you will have 5 kids constantly, I don't like the 7 seater. It's pretty cramped back there, and not easy to get to.
2. With 2 kids, both the 5 or 6 seater work well. When I had just two, they'd be in the 2nd row and the third row would be folded down. During stops, they LOVED climbing all over the insides. The folded 3rd row/trunk would be their play/picnic area. At supercharger stops, we would turn on child door locks, unbuckle them, and let them free in back. You can do this with a 5 seater, but they wouldn't have easy access to the back.
3. With 3 kids, I would say the 6 seater is best option. You're limited in the selection of car seats that can go 3 in a row to begin with. Then you have to deal with three kids in close proximity hitting each other. I value my sanity and space them out a bit. You could do this in the 7 seater with the third kid in back, but as I mentioned earlier, getting in there is difficult.
4. I use combinations of Britax Advocate (rear facing) and Britax Pinnacle (forward facing). They are big, but still fit. Rear facing can only fit in the 2nd row, and they limit the leg room of the 1st and 3rd rows.
5. You can get two forward facing in the third row. I did this for a while. The advantage is that this opens up 2nd row seats for adults. The disadvantage is the kids are in close proximity to each other, they're pretty far from the front so you can't assist them, and it limits their play area.
6. My current layout is rear facing in driver side 2nd row, and 2 forward facing in passenger side 2nd and 3rd rows with the eldest in back. The driver side third row is folded down. I can reach the two smaller ones from the front and the eldest enjoys her "table" next to her seat. At stops, they can climb around in the 3rd row/trunk. I bring compact lawn chairs for the adults, so we can even open the trunk and watch them if the weather is nice.

I can't stress enough the value of letting the kids roam free during stops. It's not realistic for them to be strapped down for the entire supercharger stop, and there are times (basically most of the time!) that I don't want to have to follow them around outside the car. Inside, they can play board games while I rest in an air conditioned environment. Yea, that's worth $6k to me.

This is a good summary. Seconded on the Britax carseat setup. Britax Advocate/Marathon/etc. work well rear-facing since they are not very long (front to back). This helps with front seat comfort. The Britax front facing seats (Grow with You) are great for Teslas since the rear tether loops around the unmovable Tesla headrests. Britax will also send you a free extension for the 2nd row captains chairs. I am big fan of their ClickTight system which makes installing and uninstalling very easy.

We have done thousands of miles of road trips in our Model X 6-seat and it has been a great road trip car. There is tons of space on the floor and under the seats. The third row is more useable since you can put your feet in the middle area.

A few other things to note:
1. The 5-seat X does not have a separate air conditioning system for the rear (6 and 7 seat does). Some say that the system is not powerful enough to keep things cool/warm in the back, but I will let other 5-seaters chime in here.
2. If considering one with a third row, note that new MX cars do not have LATCH in the third row.
3. Don't get the 6-seat if you want to haul any long or wide items since the 2nd row does not fold.

 

[mxnym]

We really want the 5 seat bench version just to maximize cargo plus I’m not the biggest fan of the electric seat mechanism on the 6/7 seat.

It seems unlikely to be something you've overlooked 3 years later, but the 7 seat has a bench and not three pedestals since sometime in 2017. That isn't to say there isn't more electrical in them than the 5 seater, but if you're thinking motors and pedestals, you've looked at an pretty early X for your comparison. Also, the bench in the 7 seat does fold down, so cargo difference is minimal (if any, it would be due to a lower floor behind the bench).

As long as we can get 2 car seats at some point on the bench seat we will probably stick to the 5 seater.

Unless you get tiny car seats, they're not going to fit I the third row, so you're probably going to have to make them fit in the middle regardless of which version you get. FWIW, I've fit three pretty bulky car seats in the middle row at the same time in my 7-seat with bench, but you should be aware the latch system is only on the outboard seats, so the seat belt must be used for the middle seat. Also, someone on this forum recommended the Ride Safer Travel Vest instead of a booster for use in the X, and I chose to go that route for my kids after some research.

FWIW, I currently have one in a forward facing car seat and 3 in the travel vests. We rarely have the kids in the car for more than an hour at a time, and I wish I got the 6 seat version instead of the 7 seat version.

 

[SUP THO]

Having purchased a 6 seater this year specifically for our newborn son I have the following feedback for the OP.

When my wife/son are in the middle row, they are really distant. In a 5 seater car or even a 5 seater X, my wife would definitely feel much more intimate as opposed to the gap that she has now. She has to reach over pretty far to reach him in the rear facing car seat. Additionally, the captains chairs don't actually feel right for us. Without the armrest, it feels a bit lacking compared to the "true" captains chairs that I've sat in in some minivans.

As others have stated, a 7 seat configuration would have yielded a completely flat area for storage. Much easier to haul around stuff and even a 7 foot ladder. Because of this reason alone, we are likely keeping our Range Rover as our 2nd vehicle.

Lastly, with the rear facing infant car seat behind the passenger seat, it does limit the recline of the passenger seat. I'm 6'1 and I fit just right in there. I would definitely prefer more recline but I don't have many people sitting "shotgun" anymore so it's not a huge issue.