Dumb question re 40/20/40 folding rear seats

[MrT-Man]

The manual, brochure etc. say that the X1's rear seats fold in a 40/20/40 configuration. I've had my X1 for a while now, but I've only been able to get the left side back rest to fold together with the the center back rest... so I can get the right back rest to fold independently, & the center back rest to fold independently, but not the left one.

I just thought I'd ask you guys to confirm whether this is how it's supposed to work? Or is there some trick to getting the left back rest to fold down on its own that I'm not aware of?

[wombat7]

I don't think you can get the left to fold down on its own, but once the left and middle fold down you can put the middle back up.

[MrT-Man]

Ha -- thanks!! Too bad that doesn't help me though. My problem is that I've got an infant car seat on the right side, but it extends a little into the center, so I can't get get the center all the way down.

Anyway, that explains why I never figured out the trick...

[scottomfg]

As far as I can tell, it's impossible to have just the driver-side rear seatback down--it can never be lower then the center section, but it can be higher. This is SUPER annoying, and really befuddling as to why BMW thought this was ok. Like OP, we have car seat on passenger side, so in that configuration we can't really have any of the seats down since the center one can't clear the car seat.

The only solution really is to move car seat to driver side and put the passenger side down by itself. This will work in a pinch, but I definitely prefer to have kiddo on passenger side so driver can see him.