On the Bench

Q: We have a 2006 Ford Taurus with three seatbelts in the front seat. When our children visit from out of town it is very nice to have the extra seat in the front. We would like to buy a new moderately priced sedan with the same seating, called a bench seat, in the front. Do you know of any sedans with that? We don’t want an SUV or van. A: I think you’ll have to do a considerable amount of legwork and try to locate a Chevrolet Impala from 2013 or earlier. Chevy offered the front bench seat on the Impala until the 2013 model year (as a $195 option) but demand was so small it has not been offered since. Other car markers (small in number) that continued to offer the once-popular bench front seats after the turn of this century (such as Buick’s Lucerne and Century and Toyota’s Avalon), discontinued that seat option years earlier. A word of caution: Don’t assume that every Impala you find in the proper year range necessarily has the bench seat. In the years leading up to the discontinuation, only about 10 percent of buyers requested the bench seat in their Impalas. So finding a car with such seating won’t be easy. Q: Our son called from college to say a front tire of his car had a small nail and he would have to take it in for repair, which he had been told on the phone would probably be about $20. The next day he tells us that suddenly the $20 repair has turned into a need for a new tire because the nail was on the sidewall of the tire. He (we) got rooked, right? A: No. The tire person did the right thing by you and your son if the nail was indeed on the side of the tire. The tire’s integrity had been compromised and a repair was not possible. There are a few people who say that a very specific kind of puncture on a sidewall can be repaired, but the tire folks I trust most don’t agree, and given the importance of having tires that won’t blow up, I take no chances, and I side with them. What’s your question? Sharon Peters would like to hear about what’s on your mind when it comes to caring for, driving and repairing your vehicle. Email Sharon@ctwfeatures.com.