Most uncomfortable car seats...

[Mr A Lawrence]

08 plate vectra Sri, lovely looking car which we very nearly bought in 2008 on looks and colour alone until we sat in it.

 

Was like sitting on a piece of fabric covered cardboard!!

 

Bought a 08 skoda octavia instead, lovely comfy seats.

 

The seats in the jag S type are a nice place to sit so are the seats in the mk1 mgf.

 

The missus's abarth 595 seats are comfy too but that's only done 600 miles!!

[philibusmo]

The most uncomfortable seats of all time, whether attached to a car or not where the half vinyl brown and caramac coloured cloth covered lumps of foam that passed for seats in my old Hyundai Pony 1.3 Sonnet Tropicana.

 

Utterly dismal to sit on, giving chronic back ache in seconds, the vinyl got gotter than the centre of the sun and it couldn't be adjusted so that I was at a comforable reach for the pedals and the steering wheel. The back seat was just as bad. I had the worst night sleep ever in the back of that car.

[Lacquer Peel]

Not sure if it's the seats or the adjustment that was a problem for me on the Octavia. If it had another inch of backwards adjustment on the runners it might have been fine.

 

I'm normally quite tolerant of odd seats, you just bend yourself to fit like on a motorbike so I've had no problem in a Mini or Land Rover despite being 6'2" tall.

 

Volvo 740 and Porsche 924 were perfect for me, it's like they drew around my shape when the car's were designed so pedals, steering wheel and armrest are spot on.

 

Octavia Mk1 is by far the most uncomfortable car I've driven. Mk4 Golf GTI Recaros are supposed to help with comfort, I was going to buy a pair before mine started pressurising coolant.

I wonder if it's also a bad RHD conversion leading to a poor driving position, I don't think it was just the seats. I drove a Mk4 Golf for a bit and it didn't seem as bad.

 

I am quite tall as well, with a long back and regular legs which makes getting comfy difficult in some cars. My Volvo V70 had shagged seats and a jittery ride typical of FWD Volvos but it was a perfect fit for me.

RWD Volvos seem a bit more confined.

[Pete-M]

Special bonus mention for the Peugeot 604.

 

Comfy seats mounted in such a way that it is impossible for the driver to get comfortable, ever.

 

A particularly itchy pox on whoever it was at Peugeot decided to fit curved seat runners instead of doing the job properly. Ruined an otherwise decent car.

[brickwall]

2nd vote for Rover 25 seats being uncomfortable. I must say that the Volvo C70 gives me ache, but it just could be my size

RR cloth seats are the comfiest next to the Daimlers deer hide. Princess seats were nice too.

[Formula Autos]

Å koda Octavia seats once they've done 80+k are often terrible.

 

The cloth seats in the Ford Cougar are also awful but the worst seats of all are the electric leather top spec ones in a Granada Mk3.

 

The leather pews in my Ford Cougar are pretty uncomfortable - though I have improved the situation by re-stuffing the drivers' seat with some hardly squished seat foam from the passenger seat of another one I found in a scrappy. The drivers' seat is now borderline acceptable from a comfort point-of-view. Still useless though when you press-on a bit on a windy road, as you slide into either the door card or handbrake.

 

I looked into fitting different front seats to it, they're that bad. Trouble is they are infested with electrical gadgets, and the only other seats that could be swapped over were others from the Ford range of about the same time. This would have the unfortunate side-effect though of making it into a two-seater, as the only seats I could find were for four/five door cars and didn't tip forwards. No doubt someone could fix this problem and/or wire up suitable seats, but I don't have those skills, and wasn't going to pay someone to do this to a car worth a few hundred quid at best.

 

So the crappy seats remain in place.

 

Shame, as it's the only thing about the car I find annoying.

 

I also can't get on with the seats in Bubble Rovers. As a sufferer of Ernie Wise syndrome* I just can't get comfortable in them - by the time my feet are working the pedals properly I'm in a position that gives me lower back pain. Others don't seem to have that problem though, so maybe that's just me.

 

*Symptoms include short, fat hairy legs, and a tightening of the wallet. Discovered by a Dr. E Morecambe in the late sixties.

[andy18s]

If you can manage without the heated bit surely any seat can be made to fit onto the electric subframe?

 

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[Formula Autos]

If you can manage without the heated bit surely any seat can be made to fit onto the electric subframe?

 

I've been talking to people on a Cougar forum who tried it. There's airbags in the seats too, and if these aren't connected up the whole of the safety systems ECU throws a wobbly. Anyone who's put anything other than Ford seats in with the same connectors for the electrics has had to give up and revert back to the originals. I seem to recall tales of the car going into limp home mode, or similar, because of SRS faults or something. Was a few years back though, so I may have misremembered some of this.

 

Basically some other Ford/ Mazda seats will go in fine, but they don't tip forwards. Or are from an MX-6, and just as uncomfortable.

 

Interesting* fact that I found when taking the seats apart in my Cougar: the leather covers were made by the Lear corporation.

 

Therefore I haz obvierselee got a personal jet for the road.

 

Shame I couldn't just swap them over for something else - I'm not in any way arsed about having heated seats, and would happily risk OMGINSTANTDEATH and not bother with side airbags. It's a 15 year old Ford so will probably leave a pile of plastic bumpers, running gear, Lear jet seats, me, and ferrous oxide in the event of an accident anyway.

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[andy18s]

If you don't worry about the seat airbags then maplins can supply various inline resistors to wire into the seat sensors to tell the ecu all is well....

 

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[NorfolkNWeigh]

I had a Mercedes e220d manual in W211 flavour a couple of years ago, I found it so uncomfortable it put me off driving it. In fact Mrs N hated it too , so my plan of keeping it a a work backup car went out of the window and I sold it.

Fast forward to this September , I needed a car urgently and I was skint so looking at older ( cheaper ) cars than if I was replacing on my usual 3 year cycle. Quite a few W211 eclasses fitted the bill, I test drove one , fully expecting it to be as horrible as that 220, but it was great, more comfortable than the 5 Series I had before and close to my old Chrysler 300. I bought it immediately .

Ok it' a few years newer with leather not cloth, but the main reason is that it's an auto and I don't notice the slightly offset pedals, also I can move the seat forward a bit if a passenger needs to sit behind me, in the manual that wasn't possible .

[wuvvum]

I find the seats in the CX lack back support after a long run, but for local running around they're GR9.

 

Apart from daft stuff like the Reliant Regal, probably the worst seats I've sat in for any period of time are those in LDVs, which offer no discernible support to any part of the anatomy.  The Maxus is slightly better to be fair, but still pretty poor.  Even the (somewhat tired) seats in the little Subaru van were better than an LDV Convoy.

 

As far as cars go, I found the seats in the Mazda 626 quite unpleasant for some reason, and the driver's seat in my dad's old Volvo 240 used to give me a numb left arse cheek after a while.   I don't think I've got anything really bad in the current fleet though - even the Innocenti's seats aren't bad, it's the rest of the driving position that makes that a bit of a chore on a long run.

[lincolndanny]

Mk3 & mk4 Scrote seats. Horrible for anything more than 10 miles.

[Guest bangerfan101]

New shaped corsa's are terrible . Its like they've delibiratly put a support rite where your cheeks sit . Did a trip to kingslynn an back from sunny yorkshire an woke of the next morning feeling like id been bummed .

[Formula Autos]

If you don't worry about the seat airbags then maplins can supply various inline resistors to wire into the seat sensors to tell the ecu all is well....

 

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Interesting.

 

My long term plan of fitting seats from a 3 door Saab 900/9-3 may come to pass. They seem properly comfortable, and I suspect would be a vast improvement to my Cougar.

[twosmoke300]

Mk3 & mk4 Scrote seats. Horrible for anything more than 10 miles.

Proof of how personal seats are . I did 750 miles in one day in a mk4 1.6d and found them very comfy . In fact I found all ford seats of that era comfy . Pity about the metal around them mind!

[greengartside]

Worst seats I've ever sat in are Mk5 Escort - basically two bits of plywood nailed to each other, the seat backing which was made out of cardboard used to come away from the seat all the time.

 

Best seats I've sat on were mk4 Golf GTTDi from 2002. Ultra comfortable and supportive for my bad back.

[twosmoke300]

Ahh the mk5 escort - a car where every single part was made by the cheapest supplier - and felt like it !

[Tamworthbay]

Proof of how personal seats are . I did 750 miles in one day in a mk4 1.6d and found them very comfy . In fact I found all ford seats of that era comfy . Pity about the metal around them mind!

+1 I had a mk3 escort and a mk4 orion and did tens of thousands of miles without any issues including driving from the Midlands to the middle of the continent in one hit with only an hour break on the ferry with no problems. I was younger and fitter then though.

[stripped fred]

Following this survey of opinions it is clear that there are some cars which come out quite well and others that fare worse but no overall consensus. One man's comfy seat is another's instrument of torture. Some good info there though which I will certainly have a read of when contemplating my next purchase so thanks for that.

 

Back to my 406 I think I've found out what's causing the main problem. There's something hard and probably metal underneath on the left side that presses into my left buttock, not nice. Will have a look and get some foam in there or something.

[garethj]

It's probably a 20p piece that's come out of the handbrake mechanism

[Asimo]

It is crazy that car makers have this one seat fits all approach. As far as I know no car is available new with a selection of seats to suit a selection of drivers which is fucking ridiculous. No one has an average anything.

Seat needs to fit a person just as much as a shoe. Comfort just never figures nowadays in car design, just luxury and gimmicks and none of the bastards offers comfort oriented anything.

 

A big loss to comfort was when fixed seatbelts were replaced by inertia belts. With a fixed belt adjusted properly many of the support functions of a seat are complemented or at least made easier to get right. And also the driver can't slump so posture remains good even when fatigued.

 

--back pain fired rant-mode. Sorry.

[chodweaver]

Most instantly uncomfortable seat? I found these to be in the 1st gen Audi TT - a mate at work had one when he opted out of the company car scheme and he loved it. On me though, it cut blood supply/pinched nerves so effectively that due to not being able to feel anything in my abdomen at all after just 20 minutes in the idiotic car, I was quite worried I had become incontinent on the passenger seat. My mate however was an ex Royal Marine so I suspect this level of discomfort was acceptable after fast-roping or whatever other unhealthy activities he was expected to perform to protect Queen and country.

 

Worst for general seating position? Alas, wifey's cast off ZX Avantage 1.9D. I came to the conclusion that the continentals it was designed for were all well under 5'6 tall with short legs to boot, as the pedals seemed to be directly underneath the steering wheel, there being no fore-aft offset between these controls. At 6'2 and with much of my height being in my legs, I need that offset, otherwise I struggle to close the door, my knees are bent to such an acute angle, and I can knock the stick out of 5th gear with my other leg. Huge shame, that - I really liked the ZX in every other respect - the level of equipment was ok, that sliding back seat was useful for tip runs and I still don't know why so many other cars fail to deliver that spritely performance while doing 50mpg...

 

But the prize for 'best at bringing on back pain'? Perhaps surprisingly, a W202 - a past boss of mine chose it from the company list because his previous company car was a Rover 420GSi and he was taking any opportunity to get something with a three pointed star on the bonnet - he'd considered the Rover to be an insult to his burgeoning middle management status. Now at the time, I regarded the 420 as being the least rewarding drive evah, but at least the seat didn't add 50 years to the apparent age of my spine - which is what the Merc did. I had to drive this under-specced luxo* barge from Bristol to Haverfordwest and back several times and I failed through the whole journey, every time, to find a position that didn't cause me discomfort during the drive or convinced me it had done me lasting injury for a day afterwards. Please note that my boss was over-reaching himself - the only W202 he could get on the company was a C220 Diesel with cloth seats and a tape deck. I'm not even sure it had electric windows in the front, but I stand to be corrected here. So it might be that the povo spec seats were a particular problem in 1999. Also, at 6' 2, the problem might be more to do with my lanky frame, but my boss was similarly built* so perhaps it was no more comfortable for him, but he was too proud to admit his choice was a massive fail. In fact, perhaps that's why I got to drive it so much, cos it was crippling him too...

 

Alas, the above experience with a Merc casts a shadow over much of my chod-acquiring musings. A W124 estate ticks loads of boxes for me, but is any Merc going to try to break me like a medieval rack in Salem when the devil-worshipping female-hysteria got going? That would result in a very short purchase-to-roffle cycle...

[R9UKE]

I'm not a fussy person when it comes to seats, but there's one car whose seats were so bad I couldn't drive the thing. In fact, after a week with it, even looking at pictures of it again is giving me back ache.

 

The 1998 Sonata. Headrests non-adjustable and fixed in a forward position and the seats curve forward towards the top. Result - you sit like a hunchback and get out looking like a paper clip. Shame because a V6 in this shape Sonata is top shite, I just wouldn't be able to drive it.

[Luxxo Waftybarger]

Mitsubishi Lancer. Felt like someone jabbing a bowling ball in my back. Way too much lumbar support. Volvo V70 p2 leather are agony but base spec fine. Mostly in old cars it comes down to pie consumption of previous owner. Weird idea but I prefer base spec because they were usually driven by younger or giffer i.e. lighter drivers. Top spec barges usually driven by fat arse execs so knackered seats.

[HH-R]

I have to settle for being uncomfortable in most cars. Seat doesn't go back far enough and my left knee is where the dashboard is, or 5th gear if I'm unlucky. Feet are bent back at a very uncomfortable angle when near pedals but not pressing them. I sometimes fudge changing gear smoothly because my knee is hitting something when lifting off the clutch so it ends up being pressed slightly when I think I've come off it completely. I'd be much better off in a bigger car (can drive Vectra Cs fine for example) but I like driving smaller ones! Even some bigger ones (Rover 75) I found the seat could have done with going back another 6 inches or so.

[Negative Creep]

Datsun Vanette, not helped by the fact it was so narrow my left knee was against the window winder

[forddeliveryboy]

I reckon VW/Skoda do badly because not only are their seats often poor but the ride is pretty shonky too, on real-world English roads. It's bizarre that with amazing ride quality (pre-mid 80s), Citroën still fitted some of the most sumptuous seats known, bar poverty spec CXs.

 

Good comment on not having seats to suit individual body styles, especially when the list of options for every other possibility is almost endless. Comfort, like real luxury, is something of the past. It doesn't get people spending money in a showroom, so it doesn't feature.

[Ghosty]

Ah, man.

 

Sad face Fiesta - just a wire frame with some nylon over it. Crap.

Mk5 Fiesta - front are just solid slabs, rear, I've never got so much lower back pain from anything. No headroom either.

Everything German we've had has sub-par seats - mum didn't like the 190E, I'm not qualified to comment on it as I was about 10 when we had it.

Polo was awful - the back seats were nice spongy bucket things, but they were only spongy to make up for the fact that the rear was a beam axle and the body roll was disastrous - if the seat was flat you'd fall over every time you went round a corner.

A4's sport seats have too much lumbar support for my liking. It's adjustable but you can't turn it fully down. Not too bad but not great.

Bini is tolerable(!).

 

The most comfortable things I've been in are Mk2 Fiestas, an early velour seated 206, and the back of a 3 door Civic, although it was a pretty much unused rear bench in fairness.

[georgeinabz]

The 406 killed my back at 33yrs old , my 2 405s were excellent in support although looked cheap.

 

 

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[stripped fred]

I had a thought about the 406 seat and how I could improve it. I considered taking it apart and maybe putting some more foam inside. Or maybe swapping for another seat. However, I then started reading about products that could improve it. I settled on this:

 

http://www.medesign.co.uk/MEDesign-Backfriend?gclid=Cj0KEQiA4eqyBRDUh7Omv9vCtsoBEiQAspfs8h93ApV3XPe8Sd9X2RUhE_7sm81l70-aR0fKEu9HdN8aAoBs8P8HAQ

 

It's not cheap but sounds like it might help. It doesn't look that comfy but apparently most people find it is as it supports in the right places. I'd like to keep the car as it suits my needs and I'm becoming quite fond of it. if it works it will still have been a cheap car and I can use this in any other chod I buy which has the same problem. If it's a bit rubbish I'll send it back. I'll let you know how I get on.