Question to anyone who has a HCH '06: Do the rear seats fold down to allow big things to go in the trunk? And how flat is the surface when folded down? I was told the previous model years did not allow rear seat to fold down because of battery placement, and that is a major drawback.

 

Hi Obi Wan Ryobi:

___The 06 HCH’s rear seats do not fold down either unfortunately. The pack has to go somewhere and that is about the best Honda could do …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

 

No, they do not. It's a bummer, but we can always use either my truck or my wife's Highlander Hybrid to move junk around....

Don

50.1mpg this morning on (first) 42 mile commute in 06' Mag Pearl w/o Navi.

 

the '05 doesn't fold down either, but i guess it consider it an inconvenience rather than a major drawback. i could carry 9 bags of wood shavings in my crv, but it took me twice as many trips to the gas station to do it........

 

Hey, really folks, that need of a split folding rear seat-back is WAY overstated. Example:

Me. I have owned about 14 cars since 1979. None of them have had SFRSB.

The one time I needed to carry something large like that in my HCH, I ran it through the rolled down front passenger window into the back rear seat on the driver side. About 2 feet sticking out of the window, not a problem.

People get roof racks, bike carriers, ski carriers, etc. Or borrow a friend's car, or a family member's car.

The only person who should reject a sedan because of lack of a SFRSB is someone who has HAD one, has USED IT FREQUENTLY, and has become spoiled by it.

That's a VERY small portion of the population. I think that's why Honda's Marketing Types decided it was not something the Hybrids needed to become successful.

 

Exactly ! As dshelman said..

My 16 year old son summed it up (while talking with the Toyota salesman after our test drive)....With the folding rear seat you can either:

1) Leave the seat up, carry 4 people and only have enough room to carry luggage for 2

2) Fold the seat down, carry 2 people and have enough room to carry luggage for 4

 

But with a split rear seat you can seat 3 and have luggage for 3, but that's not the point. I totally fit the description above, my last car was a saturn SL1 (37mpg) and I folded down the seats all the time and got spoiled, but different folks have different needs, I'm not knocking the civic. For me personally I saw the prius and civic as nearly identical in price, mpg etc, but all other things being equal I chose the prius because of the extra cargo space allowed by the seats. A friend of mine went with a jetta tdi because of the rear seat issue. I hate for anyone to turn away from hybrids so I was just hoping the new model would eliminate that variable.