We're looking at buying a new Ascent, but also comparing with other 3-row SUVs. I'm a bit concerned about the ability of the third row to seat two adults for long trips. I'm 6'4" and they are not comfortable for to sit in, but in general they'll be used for folks 5'9" and shorter. Would love to have some real world data points from owners who've taken 7/8 people on longer trips in the Ascent, including adults in the third row.
My 2 cents here. I'm 5'7" and did comparison shopping with the Atlas, and I had an old Traverse for comparison.
The Atlas has huge leg room for the 3rd room. More than any other vehicle out there. The third row has only 2 seats, quite comfortable but also quite wide.
The Ascent has 2 narrow seats and a flat zone in the middle. The 2 people going in the seats will be quite comfortable, the third person in the flat area much less, so that position is probably not for a long trip unless it's a kid in a booster or something like that.
The actual seats in the Ascent are much more comfortable than the Atlas for people my size. The narrower seats make it a better fit for me (unless you are a wide person, then go with the Atlas, no doubt there). The comfort comes from the shape of the seat but mainly because it reclines. Both the Atlas and the Traverse suffer from the same issue: to give you more cargo space behind the third row, the third row seats are quite vertical. My first impression when I reclined the third row in the Ascent was "ahhhhhh.... this is how it's supposed to be". Since I'm not huge I don't care about extra leg room, as long as there's enough for my legs, anything else is just wasted space. If you have long legs, go with the Atlas.
I only tested with captain chairs on all vehicles. One of my tests was to see how easy it is for me to get into the car without folding any seats, walk between the captain chairs and into the 3rd row. The Ascent has one big disadvantage: I cannot walk with my legs extended or my back hits the roof. This doesn't happen in the Traverse or the Atlas. This is due to two things: the moonroof lowers the ceiling by a couple of inches while at the same time there's a 3" to 4" step up on the Ascent floor. Both the Traverse and the Atlas have flat floors and this is not a problem for me.
And now that I have the Ascent with the kids chairs on both 2nd row chairs, I can say it's not so easy for an adult to do this maneuver. The captain chairs in the Ascent are higher from the floor than the Traverse I had (with the exact same children seats, so I compare apples to apples). In the Traverse I was able to fold my body over the kids chairs, but they are higher now so I can't do that and need to squeeze myself in front of the seats. I still managed to do it, but used to be a lot easier.
I did long trips (11 hrs) with the Traverse. My mother in law didn't like the 3rd row after 5 or 6 hours, so I moved one of the kids chairs to the back and her to one of the captain chairs. I haven't done any long trips on the Ascent yet so no data to report.
FYI, we went with the Ascent because rear seats (2nd and 3rd row) are overall more comfortable than the other vehicles, especially the third row when reclined. The extra leg room is unnecessary in my family and the walk to the third row is only affecting me, so I can solve the problem by sending my wife...:grin: