Chevy Traverse

i am in love with this cross over, and it seats 8! does anyone have one? how does it handle? how are car seats in it? i have one in a harness and 2 in hbbs, but some times drive a friend and kids. also have an 11 in adult belt and a 17 yr old stepson every weekend so we all need to fit comfy. how many tether anchors does it have? how many latch? i don't find these things on the website.. i can't shop for a seat till next year at the earliest but i want to know if i really will like it! lol

Remember to cross shop GMC and even Buick. You may be able to get the same price or a better deal on one of those.

From what I remember, there is no headrest in the middle third row. If that is in fact the case, it would only be safe for a car seat or boostered child to be there (assuming no lap belt).

It irks me that car manufacturers do this. My current vehicle seats 7, but only 6 safely unless you want to literally climb over a car seat.

oh good point i need to check and see what it has in the center, thats on reason i want a new car is my 03 caravan only has center lapbelt no head rest in the back row which when we have stepson makes it really hard because boosters don't fit next to marathon/tfp in the back so then i have to have him and dd1 smushed in... its a pain

just looked at the pics and it has shoulder belts in both center seats but not head rest.. but at least i could but a hbb in those spots not just the carseat, but still a bummer.

also looked at the gmc Arcadia which i think is its match, but its base model is 2k more, i would for sure shop around

I think that's the same as my saturn outlook...

I like the car - but I wouldn't buy it as an 8 passenger car... I bought it for that reason and it is an extremely tight squeeze.

The middle of the second row you can fit a marathon or britax that sits up high on a base... but otherwise, the carseats are almost too wide for the distance between the belt and the seatbelt. I can puzzle some 3 across situations, but it's not easy.

The third row is even harder to fit three across because you loose about 5" of space due to the cup holders back there... and the wheel wells.

Not that it's not doable... but I know in my outlook, it's not as easy as it is in say a minivan...

My husband's Toyota Sequoia is awesome at fitting a full 8 passengers in it... but it's a huge car. (its a work car and he got it after we had my lease... my next car will be a sedan!)

And the headrests are a PITA... you can remove them loosing tools, but it's not like other cars where you can pop them back in when you have an adult there too.

Just FYI, my grandparents rented a 7 seater (middle Captians chairs) last month when they were here.

I was able to get 3 in the back row. I had a SGGo center (no headrest, only rear TA, l/s install) Corroco rf drivers side with belt (RA fit too, but very, very, tight!) and there was room for a Parkway on the other side- more room than where the Coco was due to the split seat. DH or I sat there most of the time and it wasn't any worse than the back of a 2 door car. Neither of us are large.

So, I'd imagine that it can seat 8- but it's not going to be easy with a lot of seats and that back center seat has no headrest if you have all older kids out of seats.

We did like it, but would go with the Saturn since in the Traverse the back windows are so little that DS couldn't see out in his seat!

I have a 7 passenger Outlook and while I LOVE my crossover I am glad to not be wrestling carseats in it regularly. When my brownie troop goes anywhere I can not get three boosters across the 3rd row. It's just not possible with the seats they have. Overall i really love it. Make sure to try your stroller out in he trunk.

I have the Acadia, but the 7 passenger version. There are two full sets of LATCH in my car (captain's chairs) and a top tether only in the middle seating position in the 3rd row. I would assume that the 8 pass. version has the same number of LATCH and top tethers. Mine has shoulder belts in every seating position. I can also fit a double Tike Tech Trax 360 stroller in the back, but I need to remove the cargo tray in order for it to fit.

I also drive an 8 passenger Outlook and it's identical to the Traverse.

I agree with the sentiment that you're better off with a 7 passenger - in which case I'd go Acadia because the Acadia base model is 7 passenger while I believe you'd pay more to go to the 7 passenger in the Traverse..

There are shoulder belts in all seating positions, but the middle positions of each bench don't have a headrest. The headrests do stick forward somewhat, and are not meant to be removed, but I have been able to install most seats ff'ing in there. I've also had seats in the center of the 2nd row, some more easily than others, but I've only had 1 so far that was completely incompatible there. 2nd row has top tether anchors in all 3 seating positions, 3rd row just in the center position. I do find the center position of the 3rd row to be less than ideal for installing some seats because of the way the seat is contoured.

I've never tried 3 across in the 3rd row but have had 3 across in the 2nd row. With a radian in the middle of the 2nd row, you'd be able to choose from a good variety of seats for the other 2 seats in a 3 across. Of course ff'ing radian is hard in that position, and rf'ing radian is incompatible in that position, so that does cause some difficulty... but it's doable anyways.

We've been really happy with our Outlook overall. We have just over a year left on the lease, and will strongly consider getting an Acadia when the lease runs out on the Outlook. We will go with a 7 passenger next time though since it makes 3rd row access much easier if we ever want to use it regularly.

We just rented the 8 passenger version of the Traverse and it was very nice. We have two Regents and were able to get solid installs in the second row in the outboard positions via latch but w/ a seatbelt it was really hard and couldn't get a tight install. If I were you, I would try your carseats out before you buy. For us the headrests pushed the carseats forward b/c of the forward slanted non-removable headrests (w/out special tools). In order to account for this we had to recline the seat a little to get the Regents in which reduced the space in the third row.

As for latch, there are 3 latch positions (2 outboard second row and 1 middle in third row). There are 4 TA's, 3 second row and one in third row middle position. When we were car shopping we looked at the Traverse and liked it alot but the headrests were a major turn-off for us. I swear people who design cars have no kids or are just clueless! The Jeep Grand Cherokee was the same way and it was a pain to put any carseat in there also b/c of the headrests.

Bottom line: I would NOT get this car as an 8 passenger if I had kids in carseats. The middle bench was not usable for anyone else b/c of the two Regents outboard. Plus not much storage area if all seating positions are in use. Yes, it has more storage then most crossovers but still this would be very difficult w/seats installed and trunk in use in the 8 passenger version to get in and out. I would have really considered ithe 7 passenger version had it have had two latch/TAs outboard in the third row but with only 1 it is not practical for us.

HTH ~ Jen

As far as drive-ability...it handled really nice and had decent visability and got better gas mileage then our current SUV.

vermontmoms said:

We just rented the 8 passenger version of the Traverse and it was very nice. We have two Regents and were able to get solid installs in the second row in the outboard positions via latch but w/ a seatbelt it was really hard and couldn't get a tight install. If I were you, I would try your carseats out before you buy. For us the headrests pushed the carseats forward b/c of the forward slanted non-removable headrests (w/out special tools). In order to account for this we had to recline the seat a little to get the Regents in which reduced the space in the third row.

Click to expand...

Just to let you know in case you rent this vehicle again, the 2nd row seats have to be reclined when a ff'ing carseat is installed in the outboard position or when LATCH is used. I know it's not possible to have time to read a rental manual, and sometimes the manuals aren't even there, so I thought I'd just let you know. This removes the headrest interference in most cases, though not all. :thumbsup:

In terms of the headrests - since tools have been mentioned a couple times in the thread, they're not designed to be removed. I have had enough ff'ing seats in there to verify that there are multiple models which fit well and install well even with the headrests. (TF, Radian, EFTA, MA, Nautilus to name some off the top of my head.) If the headrests were to cause a problem with a seat, I would replace the seat. Headrests serve too integral a part to passenger safety once the carseat is no longer being used and a seatbelt passenger is relying on them.