JohnBike wrote:Many reasons:
- - Seats only 5-1/2, not 6;
- Nissan would have to relocate some central console gear to left or right side of dash to accommodate middle airbag;
...
The airbag regulation should be amended to allow the occasional middle seat driver. People should be allowed to asses risk and take risk if they want to.
>There would be a well-known safety problem with center passenger's feet close to gas pedal
Again people should be allowed to take risks if they chose to do so. In my case would be a non issue since would be small child in the seat and wouldn't reach the peddles.
> a bench seat would add weight to the Leaf due to additional stiffening required to accommodate the inertial weight of a center passenger in an accident;
Yes, added weight. Much less weight then the SUV people with big families are pushed to buy. This is proposed as an option and not something for everyone.
> Like everyone said before, the bench seat became a dinosaur and is even missing from a lot of today's pick-up trucks. I would not want to be the head of Nissan Marketing having to explain why the Leaf took a step backward in seat design.
I would call it a step forward in flexibility.