I bearly have 3 people in my life who would want to be locked in a car with me....Forget 4.

 

I'm guessing sometimes even one is a little much.

 

I've been driving for 45 years and can count on one hand the number of times I've had five people in my car or been in another car with four other people. More leg room, yes.

 

On a daily basis I can count the number of cars on one hand that have five occupants in them. Personally only once since having my Volt has there been more than two people in it "including myself". If a 5th. seat is needed on a regular basis then those folks probably are not looking at the Volt (Don't hear any Corvette drivers wishing for a 3rd seat in place of the center stack/console).

Many sedans today have become basically four seaters. with a number of higher end models having only four seats with center consoles running the length of the cabin. And "Tesla" Model S not withstanding most 5th. or center occupancy seating is not anything you'd want to sit in/on for cross state travel.

What might be more sorely needed in the Volt are rear seats that actually offer more leg room regardless of seating configuration.

 

I've had 3 people in my Volt only once, other than a 4 family member demonstration ride when it was new.

 

The lack of a 5th seat for a possible use excludes the car from consideration for lots of people.

But, if you ask here I'm guessing that most will say it's unnecessary, unused and has zero influence on car shoppers. LOL, I just remembered why I couldn't buy a Vette - lack of a back seat. Available seating matters.

 

The lack of a 5th seat for a possible use excludes the car from consideration for lots of people.

But, if you ask here I'm guessing that most will say it's unnecessary, unused and has zero influence on car shoppers.

Exactly. How many consumers who rejected the Volt because of that missing seat will chime in on this forum? Me thinks they're not participating in this forum...

 

I would gladly trade more legroom for a 5th seat.

However... the lack of a 5th seat is a bit like the lack of public chargers. People who don't own electric cars think it's a much bigger deal that people who do own them.

 

Honestly don't remember the last time I needed to put 5 people in my car...

 

Exactly! I have had 4 people in my Volt on 2 occasions and that's it. 2 people 20% of the time, and the remainder it is me alone. If people want the capability to haul a bunch of other people then buy an SUV.

 

The fifth seat is like a huge pickup bed or the ability to drive 1000 miles in one clip. Most Americans likely don't need it, but because they may need it one time, any car without it won't be considered.

 

Yup. You successfully described the average American car shopper in one sentence.

I might buy a 50 ft boat some day and might decide to tow it to Pikes Peak in the winter. Therefore the Volt is not something I can consider.

 

Personally... I would rather have the extra 15 miles of range than 5 seats. I just don't need a 5th seat. I rarely take more than one or two passengers in my Volt.

One other thing to consider...

The rear seating area width of the Volt is quite narrow. A center seat is going to be very narrow. (Narrower than the width of most American butts I would guess.) If you are looking for a real 5 passenger car... A Volt is probably not a good choice.

 

Completely agree.

One more thing, if you would forgive me for being a selfish prick for a bit, I don't want the Volt to be more appealing to a wider audience, I want it to be more appealing to me

Going for the widest possible appeal results in no appeal, no personality bland cars.

 

I would have used a fifth seat maybe twice in the past year. Both of those times I really wished I had it.

People are used to a car that seats five, even uncomfortably. I had a rental Fiesta with a middle seat in the back. Nobody would want to sit there for long, but it's there.



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If I was given the option of 4 or 5 seats, I'd take 4.

In small cars, that fifth seat in the middle is only large enough when you have three kids back there. And every adult knows, crowding three kids into the back seat causes fights and distracts the driver.

 

Well, we have a 4 person family, plus several nearby family members (parents, in-laws, etc). Anytime we want to bring another person with us, we have to leave the Volt home and drive an ICE car so there are 5 seats. It happens quite often with us. Granted most of my commuting miles are just me. But for almost everything else I do, there is a potential to have 5 people in one car.

 

5 seats is a plus for us. During the summer we have relatives and friends that visit us here by the beach. It would be nice to go out to dinner in one car, instead of two....

 

Obviously most owners won't think a 5th seat is that important because they bought anyways.

 

This is exactly what most of us should expect for this type of thread in this type of forum. Each of us (myself included) that need more than a four seater have another car. We also have a Saturn Outlook. We would not have purchased the Volt as our primary car without the Saturn Outlook, and we are only a family of four.

 

Loboc said in a comment on new Volt rumors...


Posting because I thought the Volt community was pretty much (like 100%) in agreement that a 4 passenger limitation was just that, a limitation... to broader market acceptance.

There's another thread with a poll on this subject and pretty close to 100% have no need for 5 passenger seating (I being one of them).

 

Doesn't matter much to me if it's four or five seats. I do think more legroom is in order. On advantage of the "fifth" seat that no one can sit in is that it lets the two people in the back move their legs around.

 

The problem is that GM still only makes one Voltec vehicle, so that vehicle has to do "everything".

The solution is not a 5th seat in the Volt, it is a 5th seat in another Voltec based vehicle, maybe even a crossover.

 

Ah, that is using your gray matter for something my friend. There within was the answer the whole time. Hope GM is listening...and acting on this.

 

why is it that not one person here complains about rolls royce, bently, aston martin and porsche all haveing 4 bucket seats....... chevy does something cool for once and everybody complains...... i have 2 volts and we have a suburban for people hauling, it's 4 years old and has 4 bucket seats and a third row bench. it has had 4 people in it 2 times. buy the right tool for the right job. like i said before, these people will keep complaining until gm turns the volt into a cheap, decontented boring camry. they have already decontented it to the point it's not the car my 2012's are and now we even have old ford ltd ultra light blue and brown paint....... lord have mercy.

 

Agree, those of us on the forum bought Volts knowing it has 4 seats and are therefore atleast okay with this for our needs.

So what about the people we know who do not have a Volt? Everyone I know who has a need to carry 5 people or more has an SUV or other large car... so they would not buy a Cruze or any other compact car with a center back seat belt, unless it was a second car.

IMO a center seat belt may put a car in a 5 seat class, but this does not mean you can actually put 5 humans in the car and drive more than 15 minutes. I believe more rear leg room would attract more buyers than a 5th seat. When I bought my Volt I considered the Cadillac ATS, deciding against it because of the extreemly limited rear seat leg room. Same reason I did not purchase an Audi A4 a few years ago.

 

I think the 5 seat need is so that more people will consider the car. In practice, I don't think it is needed by most, and for the others, not very often.

 

we had a poll on this yesterday with lots of thoughtful comments, why bring it up again? are you rabble rousing, or just killing time?

my comments echo those of others:

I have been watching for months now, I have yet to ever see a small sedan on the road with 5 people in it.
any "family of 5" is not going to consider a compact car as their primary full family car. so the Volt, a compact, is out of the question, so it doesn't need to have 5 seats.

in our family of 5, (3 teens now) we for the last 15 years have had a van and a 5 passenger sedan, ( a Passat) in 120,000 miles the Passat has had 5 people in it for a total of 240 miles- 1 round trip to grandma's house.

I've said the before- The volt is a bit like Popeye: " I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam..." its a great, fun, sporty, decently equipped, efficient, 4 door hatchback. It's not what it isn't! its not a :
Pickup truck
Sports car
luxury sedan
SUV
CUV
Minivan
mini station wagon
4wd or whatever else you might ask it to be. get over it. move on... only writers who don't have 3 kids, as I do, wonder if the 5th seat belt is an issue.

Yes, I would love to see the Voltec power train dropped into an equinox, (the" Veequinox") I call it. but I don't expect it to happen.

 

Storm in a Teacup!

we had a poll on this yesterday with lots of thoughtful comments, why bring it up again?
...
Yes, I would love to see the Voltec power train dropped into an equinox, (the" Veequinox") I call it. but I don't expect it to happen.

Augh! I missed the poll to be honest, I'll go find it and read through the comments. Thanks to everyone that replied.

But, many seem to have missed the point of my question. If the Volt you bought had had a 5th set of seat belts, would that have STOPPED you from buying it? ie: is it really a negative to have the 5th seat? Since I was talking about a car that hasn't been released yet: what damage would that seat do?

I will offer my personal use cases. I'm mid-40s, nearly married, with friends (as far as you know), one car and a 52mi roundtrip commute. I love my Volt! So it saddens me when these would happen.

1) Car seat in the middle of the car
Try to tell new parents that the car is "safe enough". I have sold at least 3 Volts, but two expecting parents both wanted to put the car seat in the middle of the back seat. Rational or not, long arm from the from or not, for diaper bag convenience or not, the Volt was a fit in every way for them except they wanted that foot+ clearance between the door and the seat.

2) Lunch time at work
I used to have a Honda Fit. Took 5 people all the time. Everyone liked the introductory ride in the Volt at my office. But when the team goes to lunch, we never take Volt. Then the habit set in and it almost never gets taken anymore at all. Can't show off the reliability of the car if it drops off the usability radar.

3) Weddings/Funerals
Well I would offer you a ride Aunt Beatrice, but my 4 seater is full. This has happened to me more than once. Again, could have made it work with the Fit. :/

See, I don't buy the argument that people just don't want some flexibilty in a vehicle. You can count non-HOV lane occupancy all day long - but that can never prove that an owner MAY need a 5th seat at crucial times in the service life of the vehicle.

I bought the Volt over the Leaf because of range anxiety. But the hell-no-5th-seat position seems to me like the "just go rent a car if you own a BEV" position. I call it the Let-them-eat-cake position. It is exclusionary when to grow the EV market penetration, we need to see products that are inclusive.

You guys may not NEED one, maybe never need one. But no one has offered a reason why HAVING a 5th seat, as usable as other cars it's size, is a bad thing for the model/brand. I was just trying to ask for comment on this one, narrow, question.

*I do completely feel/agree there is a need to expand the brand: like a Voltec powered XUV. I could see this argument: that the Volt completely filled it's niche, and we just need new vehicle types to expand into other markets. Since we don't seem to make station-wagons anymore, and there are buyers we could be turning electric. A sports version of the Volt would be great too, maybe even a 2 seater while we are dreaming.

Thanks again for your thoughts everyone!

 

you can't even put 3 baby seats across the back of a honda civic and here is your proof........but it has a rear bench and seats belts for 3...... just try to seat 3 adults back there. i owned one, it don't work. and a cruse has no more room in the back than a civic so it is also out.

 

Yup , all those cars have one thing in common with the Volt . They comfortably fit four people . I remember seeing 5 older folks riding in a mid sized sedan a few months ago and it seemed awkward .

 

Wow. An unneeded cascading post to complement the unneeded seat. Maaavalous.

 

When are they going to put a rear seat in the back of a Corvette, so it will have more appeal?

 

Exactly! Not all cars are designed for the "mass market".

 

I was one of 5 passengers in a 5-seater (bench in back) car sometime this year... or was it last year? well, once in the past good number of years.
Anyway, can't say I was comfortable.

Maybe 90% of the time it's just me.
Maybe 8% more of the time it's me + 1 other person.
On rare occasion there's me + 2 other people.

Occasionally I'll need to drive me + 5 other people, 5 seater won't do...
Can always be short by one, I guess.


I'd call a 5th seat overrated. I would agree that more people might consider the volt if it were a 5-seater (though if they have gripes with that, there's a good chance they have other excuses for why they don't want it). There's a lot of things that people get that they probably don't actually need or will actually be using much of any if at all. I myself happen to like having a bit more available than I actually need for a lot of things, just to give some buffer room... (With some thought regarding the tradeoffs) And for what it's worth, I suppose I do have an extra seat than I need in my car... though it's a full seat, not a half seat.

There's a lot of that though, like all the trucks on the road that are just being used for commuting... Be it perceived usefulness, or image...

 

A couple of years ago I took my Volt to pick up my two sons from their high school . When I arrived , there were two friends that needed a ride home . The Volt carried five of us home by putting two skinny ones in the rear passenger side seat . That's about the only time I really would have needed the 5th seat .