My wife and I are are looking at purchasing a Defender 130 within the next few weeks. We are looking at a used 2024 and a new 2025. We would prefer to purchase the used since the 1st year depreciation has already happened, but are hitting a few roadblocks with it. The 2024 has the bench seat in the middle and the 2025 would have the new captains chairs. We have 3 children, a 9 year old in a booster seat, a 6 year old in a highback booster and an infant still in an infant carseat that will be transitioning to a convertible within a few months time. We generally keep the 9 and 6 year olds apart. The 9 year old in the 3rd row and the 6 year old in the 2nd. This is the biggest issue with the 2024. My question is: does anybody now how wide the driver side and middle seats are in the 2nd row? We are trying to figure out if we can put the 6 year old and infant in the middle/driver side seat and still be able to get our 9 year old in and out of the 3rd row. We can possibly have them go in and out of the rear door but would prefer not to do so as we live in New York with snow/salt and do not want it to be tracked everywhere in the year.

 

My first advice would be to check out the Bench seat in person and see what you think. In my opinion what you're suggesting for the Bench seat arrangement (infant on drive side, 6 year old in middle) probably would work reasonably well. The passenger side 2nd row seat folds down and slides forward individually to allow pretty easy entry into the 3rd row (for 9 year old). Additionally once 9 year old is in back you can slide the seat back into place and 6 year old could move there for more space/separation from infant. One thing I would highly recommend is Side-Steps as making the step from 2nd row entry door into the 3rd row is much much easier that way. Without them I found it cumbersome as the gap is a bit narrow, at least for a 6'3 guy (not so bad for kids though...).

Ultimately for me the bench seat arrangement has more utility as I've only got 2 kids and the middle seat is where they dump all their junk When we have friends or relatives joining us then the 3rd row does it's duty well.

 

We rented a 130 in New Zealand on a recent trip and the mechanism to operate the 2nd row moving forward for access into the 3rd row is extremely easy to use as TheMoonMan said. The middle row is visibly identical in terms of space to the 110, and it can comfortably fit 8 regular sized people. I'd go for the 24' you are looking at since it has the added utility of the bench seat and I wouldn't get the side steps as when they are wet/have snow on them they become extremely slippery. Trust me. I know.