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Green Lotus Evora GT

These Cars Have Back Seats, But You Probably Don’t Want To Sit There

When it comes to having a practical car we often think about the amount of cargo we can hold, and the number of passengers we can have. We expect cars like sedans and SUVs to have a higher passenger capacity but usually, sports cars and coupes have less space and fewer seats. There are, however, …

When it comes to having a practical car we often think about the amount of cargo we can hold, and the number of passengers we can have. We expect cars like sedans and SUVs to have a higher passenger capacity but usually, sports cars and coupes have less space and fewer seats. There are, however, some cars that surprisingly have back seats, but they are so impractical that most people, or even children, couldn’t sit back there comfortably.

There are some surprising benefits to having back seats besides having additional passengers, like increasing an already limited cargo space and being able to at least say you have back seats. You probably won’t be volunteering to drive your group of friends anywhere in these though.

BMW i8

The BMW I8 is a space-ship like car that has hybrid power wrapped into a beautiful BMW package, and you wouldn’t know it from looking at it, but it actually seats four. The two back seats aren’t necessarily comfortable, and you probably wouldn’t choose to ask someone to sit there unless it was absolutely necessary.

Instead of traditional seats, the back of the i8 is covered in the carpet material that wraps up around the rear of the cabin, and there are two leather-wrapped pads that made up the cushion. There is very limited legroom, and headspace is limited.

The front end of an orange 2020 BMW i8 hybrid supercar.
2020 BMW i8 | Wang Jianyu/VCG via Getty Images

RELATED: BMW Kills Flagship i8: What Replaces It?

Lotus Evora

The Lotus Evora is another car that is deceiving in size. From the outside, it looks like the small and sporty track-oriented cars that Lotus is so popular for, but it also has back seats. Unlike the BMW i8, the Evora has actual leather back seats, but they aren’t very comfortable. In fact, they are barely padded, and they aren’t really fastened to the car either. You can remove the back seats within a few minutes, as they just velcro into place.

A friend stands admiring the scenery of the Angeles Crest Highway as we admire our new Lotus Evora | Gabrielle R DeSantis

Similar to the i8, unfortunately, is that the Evora’s backseat is almost completely useless. The driver and passenger seats slide so far back that they touch the back seats, which isn’t ideal if you have a tall, or even averaged sized, driver and passenger. There isn’t an ample amount of headspace, and you wouldn’t be able to fit a car seat in the back even if you could fasten them to the removable seats – which you can’t.

While both of these cars have back seats, chances are you probably don’t want to put anyone back there. They aren’t practical enough for car seats, or for anyone larger than a small child to sit. They do allow you to carry additional cargo, which is about the only practical use for the backseat.

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