That's exactly what the Model Y is.
Model Y's seating position ruins the whole car for me - you go back and forth between a 3 and a Y and it just feels wrong around a corner. Still a great car in a vacuum, but, there it is, that's why the world has so much variety. I'm seriously lower in my X on Low than the drivers I see bopping around in Y's. It's a more carlike driving position in the X IMO. With commensurately worse 2nd-row footroom, Model Y's footroom is business jet-like
For big SUVs, I’d add is our Q7 is big and my kids hate the third row. They can’t fit there. They ask to go in the X mainly because their legs can go under the second row. I don’t know if that’s true with the newer 7 seat config, but it’s awesome for my 2016. My Q7 third row is useless - not to mention really hard to get into.
Totally. The German 3-rows 3rd row is a penalty box for adults, for sure, and not as comfy for kids either, though the seat slide/tilt feature is easier on X7/GLS/Q7 beecause (at least on X7/GLS) wheelbase is longer so the rear wheelwell doesn't inhibit egress, and the mechanism wasn't the german company's very first crack at a tilt/fold seat...but once you're back there, footroom sucks and headroom, while good, isn't great. And the cargo well behind the 3rd row is a game changer, minivans have it usually, but not the SUV's that use that space to make sure the thing doesn't fall apart towing 7000+lb like they're all rated for.
I'm comfy at 5'11" behind the (non-pedestal, but still roomy footroom) 2nd row if it's slid forward, can even cross my legs if 2nd row isn't reclined too much, can sit in the 2nd row comfortably behind myself in the driver's seat even if 2nd row is slid forward. The packaging efficiency allowed by the skateboard design is something you really have to climb around in to apprecaite, and I hate it when cars are bigger outside than they need to be.
Where I think the Germans (South Carolinians?) have Tesla licked is build quality, Extra Interior Space and Captain of Industry Ride Height for Extra Luxury, and the little ergonomic and storage things that make cars easier to live with. Also, heat that doesn't chop your range in half. heh.
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