Seat Fixes?

[diver110]

I have now driven the X, the S, and the 3. In terms of handling and general performance, I liked the high-performance 3 the best. I might have already bought it, except for the seats. After maybe a 30 minute test drive, my back and my girlfriend's back both started hurting. (I did not have this problem with the S or the X.) Then I read that others were having problems with 3 seats as well. So I thought I would start a thread on possible fixes. Relax the Back has the following item:

BetterBack® Seat Support

Anyone tried this or anything else?

 

[Manitoba Keith]

There is already a thread on this. More head rest but it also talks about posture.

 

[airpor41]

I got my 3 about 3 weeks ago. I initially had some discomfort after an hour of driving. It took me an unusually long time -- over a week and 1000 miles -- to get the seat adjusted to what I like but, once I did, it is fine. I am 6'6" (+) so my position is different than most. The lumbar support in particular was hard to get right and more important than I expected.

So, my experience is stick with it and get it right but that might not work for you. BTW, my recent experience with 2018 Golf R and 2018 Volvo V60 is that it took me about 2 minutes to get the seat right. The 3 is apparently just a lot different.

I still dislike the fact that the seat depth (front to back dimension of the base) is less than other cars. Another inch would be much better but I like all the other stuff so much I live with it.

I also have driver profiles for: my normal position, more comfort (further back from the wheel on the freeway i.e. almost straight arms because the wheel doesn't come out enough and this lets me straighten my legs a bit more), me with somebody behind me (seat and seat back further forward than normal = a little cramped but still safe) and Easy Entry. I really like the profiles and Easy Entry, although I haven't used the comfort or back passenger profiles to speak of yet.

 

[diver110]

There is already a thread on this. More head rest but it also talks about posture.

Thanks. I saw that thread, but it is almost exclusively about the headrest. My problem was the rest of the seat.

 

[diver110]

Well, judging from the low level of thread interest, perhaps this is not a common problem. FWIW, I ran across this well reviewed seat insert:

Premium Sacro-Ease Back Support

Have not tried it yet. Will report when I do, which, given my current workload and the fact that a Relax the Back store is 45 minutes away, might be awhile.

 

[diver110]

I feel a little silly answering my own thread (again), but today I called a couple of upholstery shops to see if they might help me with the seat issue. Interestingly, both said the same thing. These days the seats have gotten so complicated, most have airbags, that they don't want to mess with them. Just wanted to pass that along.

 

[MasterMace]

Strange. Although I'm far away from Baltimore/USA, in my country (the Netherlands) we've got several big specialist shops that do just that, adjusting the original seats of new cars. If you know what you are doing, nothing really can go wrong. They just have to disconnect the airbags. As long as they don't put a chainsaw in your seating position (where the sensor matte for detection of someone sitting in the chair) then all will be fine.