Visiting in Europe, we twice rented small moderately priced wagons with seating for five and two fold down jump seats in the trunk area. I think at least one was an Opel.
This was a great arrangement for us, with two kids. It allowed us to add two to three more people when needed, but didn’t make us drive a van.
I have been looking for such cars in the US, but not really finding them.
Does anyone have any suggestions for getting this sort of arrangement, either in a new car, or after market?
I believe older Ford Taurus wagons (90s - early 2000s) had this feature as an option. When I looking for a 2006 Toyota Sienna, both the Highlander and the RAV4 had a 3rd row seat option. The 3rd row in these vehicles was so cramped as to be unusable, so we stayed with the minivan.
Ed B.
Mercury Sable wagon (same as Taurus mentioned above).
Like others have said, Ford did this with their Taurus wagon, but those rear facing seats were seldom used because sitting over the rear axle facing the rear tends to make people carsick, so if you plan to use those rear facing seats, make sure you put an empty bucket or two back there too, just in case.
A used Checker Cab if you can find one, will have 2 jump seats.
A Kia Rondo seats 5 and has a front-facing split bench in back that folds flat. When the seats are up, it seats 7. My BIL has one and they love it, and they have a family of 7. It was built between 2007 and 2009.