Many new cars in the current market have what is called a bench seat at the rear, assuming of course there’s rear passenger seating in the cabin. In this guide, we explain what exactly a car’s bench seat is and what motorists need to know about them.
A bench seat has one or two-piece pad which runs across the full width of the cabin and provides the back support for all passengers at the rear whether there’s one, two or three of them.
A lot of news cars with bench seats, particularly family cars, tend to come with a 60/40 split in the rear of the back seat, allowing the seat backs to be folded down to increase the rear loading space.
Something which some modern cars may have for the rear bench as an alternative is known as a “ski hatch”, which allows a long load to go through the back of the seat and lie flat across the middle of the bench seat between the two rear passengers.
Some cars have rear seats which are more individual by each having their own pad which can be upright or folded on its own. Some of the most famous large family cars current on sale even opt for this layout, but the vast majority still opts for a far-reaching rear bench which is still very practical for most situations.
Are bench seats used for the front of the cabin?
Decades ago, a fair number of cars, particularly from American manufacturers, featured a bench seat for front passengers.
That meant things like the gearstick and handbrake were located around the middle part of the seat bench and these controls would be located near or as part of the centre console as a result.
Front bench seats became rapidly less popular in new cars during the nineties, however, due largely to safety concerns. The design has declined to the point virtually no cars now have such a configuration at the front. Bench seats do though remain a popular feature at the rear of cabins for now.
