Welcome to the cheap seats

The whole raison d’être of our Lexus RX L is the 11cm stretch that’s squeezed in an extra row of seats. But what are chairs six and seven like to use? With just the two kids, I don’t use the third row often, but it’s been pressed into action for a couple of school runs and drives back from the pub.

These are not supersized, frontrow cinematic thrones – think instead pop-up occasional cheap seats out back. They’re nowhere near as spacious as those in the Land Rover Discovery, but they’re beautifully engineered, rising at the touch of a button in the boot; pre-teens will be just fine. And when stowed, this loadbay is HUGE, at 966 litres.

TIM POLLARD

@TimPollardCars