Best Third Rows Around
SUVs have long since supplanted minivans as the rides of choice among American families. Their upright design affords a commanding view of the road and makes for easy entering and exiting. SUVs can be fitted with extensive lists of comfort, convenience, and the latest accident-avoidance features, along with all-wheel drive (on car-based crossovers) or four-wheel drive (on large truck-based models) for added stability over slick roads, and off-road abilities with the latter. Best of all, many midsize and most large models come with three rows of seats to fit as many as eight passengers at a time, depending on the configuration. When the third row is not needed, it can be folded flat to create a spacious cargo hold.
But some three-row SUVs do a better job of accommodating riders in the rearmost row than others. The best deliver sufficient legroom to seat even taller adults in comfort, with easy ingress and egress, while others are so cramped in the back that they’re useful only to hold small children.
We took a deep look at the current crop of mainstream three-row SUVs to determine which offer the best accommodations in this regard. We considered each model’s rearmost legroom, interior quality, available amenities, and other variables to create this slideshow.
