Recommended Yukon configuration for family of 5

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WestCoastYokel

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My theory is this...

If you're buying one of these big american SUVs (Tahoe/Yukon/Expedition/etc) you've got to accept you're driving a giant a** vehicle that's going to be hard to park in tight spaces, take up a bunch of the road, requires practice to learn it's dimensions when backing up, gets poorer gas mileage, etc/etc. Compared to a typical 7-row SUV from the European/Asian brands (or even the "regular" american ones), these giant SUVs are going a step change up in exterior dimensions that will require some learning, living with some downsides, etc.

Given you've got to make an adjustment to driving a huge vehicle, I personally don't feel it is a significantly different adjustment between the normal and XL versions of these SUVs. Is a Suburban a bit of a pain to drive around at times? Yes...but so is a Tahoe!

The primary reason people buy these giant SUVs over regular 7-rows is space. The extra cost of the XL versions is limited (driving pain, fuel economy, purchase price) but it's a huge improvement in space. If all you do is transport people and suitcases then maybe you don't gain much of this benefit. But we use our vehicle for trips with lots of "stuff" like golfing, camping, skiing, etc. With a Tahoe we'd need a roof rack or rear cargo carrier for these trips. But then why go through the trouble of driving a giant SUV? We could do the same thing on a more normal sized 7-row which would be easier to drive.

TL;DR of the above is: if you're gonna go, go all out
 

swathdiver

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This thread is hilarious. Ok my turn.

Fam of four here with 2 kids 7 and soon to be 6. My Tahoe has the bench seats and wouldn’t want to have it any other way. Why? I like to have the 8 passenger capability hauling the local family along with mine when necessary. Unfortunately with the captain chairs lose a seat.
We can fit at least 2 kids between the captain's chairs on the floor, sometimes 3 and 4 or 5 in the 3rd row depending on size! LOL
 

Dez78n

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I only have 2 kids, but my experience with those 2 is there is no way on gods green earth I would want to travel any length of time with them sitting shoulder to shoulder. Like, ever. They fight enough as it is when they can't reach each other. I can only imagine if they were actually touching.
 

Dez78n

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We can fit at least 2 kids between the captain's chairs on the floor, sometimes 3 and 4 or 5 in the 3rd row depending on size! LOL
Do people still actually do stuff like this? Like I remember being a kid 30 years ago and riding in the back of the station wagon with all the seats put down on road trips. But now?? We live 1/4 mile from daycare and even my 10 yr old better have his ass in his booster seat and buckled up before we leave that parking lot or hes gonna be in trouble lol.
 

Joseph Garcia

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Do people still actually do stuff like this? Like I remember being a kid 30 years ago and riding in the back of the station wagon with all the seats put down on road trips. But now?? We live 1/4 mile from daycare and even my 10 yr old better have his ass in his booster seat and buckled up before we leave that parking lot or hes gonna be in trouble lol.
I do remember riding in a full size station wagon with all the seats down, and all of us kids rolling around in the back. What fun! I'm still around, and all of the kids who rolled around with me are still alive, as well.

I'm going to guess that it is still done by some folks, but as you know, the standards and laws have changed regarding children riding in vehicles. And, the laws keep getting tighter, and in some cases ridiculous. For example, the laws regarding when a child seat can be turned around, so that the child faces forward, have changed to mandate an older age, before that can occur. As a result, my 3 year old grandson is still facing backwards, and his poor logs are bent upward against the back of the seat, in an incredibly uncomfortable position, and I'm guessing even painful, for trips longer than 15 minutes.
 

swathdiver

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Do people still actually do stuff like this? Like I remember being a kid 30 years ago and riding in the back of the station wagon with all the seats put down on road trips. But now?? We live 1/4 mile from daycare and even my 10 yr old better have his ass in his booster seat and buckled up before we leave that parking lot or hes gonna be in trouble lol.
Yep, when necessary. My generation never sat in any kind of "car seat" but our children have, most of the time. I even let them ride around in the back of my pick up truck! They still talk about it to this day. When we visit our relatives in New York, we can fit 12 Puerto Ricans back there, when Ubering, I've had 8 drunks back there! Kids have even ridden in the back with the rear window open. Fun stuff.

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EvergreenZ71

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I’ll throw in my $0.02 …

I have a family of 4 and have owned both swb & lwb from 3 generations of Suburban/Tahoes and my addition to the discussion hasn’t been asked yet:

How long do you intend to keep this one?

At the ages you identified I can see the value of trying to special order a swb with a bench if you replace your vehicles more frequently. This may also be wise if you’ll hold onto it for a few extra years for the oldest to eventually drive.

However the other option to consider is if this is a long term purchase that you’ll keep as the road trip vehicle for 9+ years, how much stuff or extra kids will you all be bringing to road trips, soccer (VB, Baseball, …) tournaments?

If you’re an active family you may even want both: bench seats on the XL!
 

HACK BLOCK

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I have a 2011 yukon, 3 kids and wish I had a bench seat. I find myself doing groceries and putting have the stuff between the seats because of barely any space behind the 3rd row. also if I really did need the space I could remove the 3rd row and have all 3 kids sit on the bench. if I do that now with captain chairs 1 kid is sitting in the floor or sharing a seat with another. and before you know it the are killing each other
 

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