Discovery 2 7 Seat converted to 5 Seat??

I have recently bought an 03 Discovery 2 which has air suspension and is listed on the V5 log book as a 7 seater. However the car only has 5 seats fitted. I wondered if it had been converted to a 5 seater by having the rear seats removed and a new carpet fitted as there are no brackets in the floor in the back to take the 2 rear seats.

There are also no rear seatbelts or any holes in the back that would've accommodated the seatblets for the rear 2 seats. My questions are as follows:

Is it common to convert from 7 to 5 seats? or is it more likely to have always been a 5 seater?

How easy / difficult is it to convert back to 7 seats, or indeed juct convert to 7 seats?

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris, I have a 7 seater and I would have thought there would be signs of the seats being there. There are head restraints on the ceiling so to hide this it would have needed a new head lining. If it did have the seats before it cant be hard to fit back. To fit having not been there would be quite a difficult job and sourcing the parts woud be difficult.
Paul.

Not only the head trim over the rear door, but the side trims where the folding seats would have folded up into would have to be changed.

Seems odd!

Air suspension was part of the type approval for the 7-seater version, technically it's not legal to have 7 seats and no air, but in practice Rover also solds the seats as an accessory "occasional seat" so the conversions go on.

Our was built as a 5-seater but someone fitted all matching 3rd row seats and trim. Didn't do the fold-down headrests though.

Peter

Before owning my current 2000MY V8 ES Disco 2, I had a 2001MY V8 XS Disco 2. It had 5 seats but also stated 7 seats. It had air rear suspension. Is it possible that vehicles fitted with air suspension, yet not fitted with 7 seats still have the correct documentation so should the seats be fitted - all is well?

I am assuming that 6th and 7th seats were a factory fitted option as well as dealer option, and not only dealer upgrades? I mean all ES models are 7 seats? but not all air, are clearly 7 seats?

I think that sounds the most likely thing, the car was bought without the 6th and 7th seats fitted originally from new. the thing is, there are no holes in the trim for seat belts, no head rests and where the seats should fold up to the side, there are 2 large storage pockets.

There is however a couple of pictures on the rear door that show you how to click down the rear seats and how to stow them. I think I might leave it as is, due to the fact that I would only rarely use the rear seats anyway.

Labels??? neither of mine had the labels whether the 7seats were fitted or not, despite both having air....

When i come across quirky things like that, i just assume its a vehicle built on a friday afternoon, or one that passed a certain process just before a tea-break...

I am off to look for some labels from the dealer now..