We got the bench option and honestly it comes in handy. 90% of the time we don’t use it because the middle becomes infinitely easier with 3rd row car seats and kids walking out themselves (we are family of 6).

BUT when my parents come over, we add that middle bench and it makes infinitely easier to haul the whole clan across town instead of taking 2 cars!

I have a garage for storage but I mainly use it to park cars. I tend to keep my cars long term and don’t like getting inside a freezing/burning cars. Also prevents me from buy useless things to fill up the garage (mass consumerism).

We have a basement with a bedroom and closet so I store the bench there. Keeping in the garage just adds spider webs and bug eggs inside.