I went to Vegas over the weekend with 6 other people, and our long-term 2011 Toyota Sienna SE can be configured to seat either 7 or 8 passengers. The Sienna has a clever 8th seat that fits between the 2nd row Captain's chairs, and when removed stores conveniently in the cargo area.
Instructions printed on the removable seat make installation pretty easy: just unfold and snap in the bottom and the seatback (you also have to pull 2 small straps.)
I didn't have a scale handy, but would estimate that 8th seat weighs about 15~20 lb.
You can see...
You can see that the 8th seat bottom doesn't match perfectly with the 2nd row seats due to their slight bolstering. So that center position isn't very comfortable. We left that seat out for our Vegas trip and sat three in the back, instead of 3 in the 2nd row. Everybody back there was OK.
The 2nd row Captain's chairs, however, were road trip bliss.
Albert Austria, Senior VE Engineer @ 6,200 miles
htr_hardtech says:
12:42 PM, 01/31/11
I wond hate to be the 7th or 8th person. I think I would take my own car.
hybris says:
01:54 PM, 01/31/11
At least its not a jump seat like what the Ranger has. Beyond that its your stereotypical middle seat.
speedynk says:
01:58 PM, 01/31/11
I've spent time in the 3rd row seat of my daughters previous gen. Sienna - I'm 5'11 and its very tight - no way would I sit there for trip to Vegas
ahightower says:
02:14 PM, 01/31/11
Interesting. Did you have the 2nd row captain chairs in their "outboard" position? Wouldn't that free up at least a little space for the poor sucker in the middle?
firstwagon says:
04:38 PM, 01/31/11
Well that has to rival the Outlanders 3rd row seat as a poor design idea.
crzelite says:
07:26 PM, 01/31/11
Man, Toyota keeps making the same mistake. My parents were looking at a Highlander Hybrid last year and they decided against it just because of that uncomfortable middle seat. Seems like Toyota did the same thing with the Sienna...
paublo73 says:
07:53 PM, 01/31/11
The AWD version of the XLE is not available with the 8 passenger option. I'm thinking it's because the additional track in the floor must interfere with the rear driveshaft of the AWD. When we got our XLE AWD, I was irked that the option was not available. Not that I see these pictures, I'm not so upset about it anymore. With our 7 passenger captain's chairs (with the awesome recliners), we can either sneak between them or use the slide forward feature to gain access to the 3rd row. It works pretty slick. With that console that have in the middle for the 8th seat, you can forget about going between the middle seats.
creeper says:
08:51 AM, 02/ 1/11
@ ahightower: it's not an odyssey. seats only go fore and aft. the middle might be able to move foreward a little more to reduce pressure on the kidneys, but i'm not sure about that...