Hypothetically, if David and Goliath had owned a small car together...

How would they have made the driver's seat mutually agreeable without adding the weight of 3-axis power seats?

Wife (5'3") and I (6'5") are planning a LOOOOONG roadtrip vacation in a few months in my old VW Beetle. Have finally found a set of seats she finds comfortable, and now I'm ready to figure out how to mount them so that we can both be happy driving the car.

Ideally, our eye levels would be about the same. She wants her seat back pretty much vertical and the seat bottom pretty much horizontal. I like a bit of backward lean to both. We're willing to compromise. Mostly wondering if there's a brilliant solution for such a predicament.

Requirements: no power adjustment, no tedious roadside seat adjustment requiring tools.

My '95 Volvo 850, manually adjusted leather seats did everything you asked and they are/were amazingly comfortable. Volvo seats are pretty much the benchmark by which all other seats are judged.

If you go this route, the Volvo 850 offered tan or charcoal colored leather. The quality and thickness of the charcoal color is far superior to the tan color. The tan will crack/split/tear/wear much quicker.
There was a cloth option too (which is very good) but the leather was actually more prevalent.

This repair guide might help to give you some more insight into how these seats work.
https://volvo850wagon.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/49-front-seat-height-adjustment/
The front of the cushion and the rear of the cushion raise independently.
Your wife can have a seat bottom that is raised high in both the front and the back of the seat bottom creating a tall but flat seat bottom.
Another option that a short drive might like is a high in the back of the seat bottom but slightly lower in the front of the seat bottom creating a seat that slopes downward making it easier of short legs to point toward the peddles.

Given your height, you can have the rear of the seat bottom low and the front of the seat bottom high creating a very deep bucket which helps to create room for long legs.

If you find the seat comfort to be ok, you're good to go. Your height difference with hers is too great to worry about matching it up.

I was just reading about the ND Miata's solution to this problem. They mounted the seat slider so that as the seat moves forward (for shorter drivers) it also raises up. Seems like it would be a simple matter to getting the angle right and you could both be happy. I thought it seemed like a brilliantly simple answer to the problem you proposed.

My MINI Cooper seats have a manual height adjustment that you just push or pull,and I used to own an A2 VW GTI that did ,too. Scour junkyards looking for a seat track with the appropriate tracks and fit them to the Beetle. IIRC a Beetle seat sits a fair distance above the floor. There should be enough vertical height to fit a track that suits you in the lowest position.

Have almost the same issue. I'm 5'11" and SWMBO is 5' even. She likes upright back and high base. I prefer low base and angled back. I have to move the seat back just to get in the car. Only have the issue with her car as she won't drive mine. She's never been in my cars. Her Sonata has full power seats. My RX8 has manual like you desire and fully adjustable, base has a handle that "jacks" it up & down and back reclines manually.

kazoospec wrote: I was just reading about the ND Miata's solution to this problem. They mounted the seat slider so that as the seat moves forward (for shorter drivers) it also raises up. Seems like it would be a simple matter to getting the angle right and you could both be happy. I thought it seemed like a brilliantly simple answer to the problem you proposed.

Since you like the backward lean and she likes it flat, can you use this miata idea and ever so slightly bend the tracks down at the back? That way when you slide forward its flat but when you slide back it is lower?

Might be enough play in the track to have a 1 inch bend over 12-15 or so inches of track and not have bad binding issues as long as the tracks are clean and greased. Maybe?

BMW Sport Package manual seats do almost all of that too. You can adjust base height, fore-aft position, seatback rake, and thigh bolster length. The only thing you can't do is adjust the base rake, I think. I've never sat in the Volvo seats, but I like the BMW fixtures.

kazoospec wrote: I was just reading about the ND Miata's solution to this problem. They mounted the seat slider so that as the seat moves forward (for shorter drivers) it also raises up. Seems like it would be a simple matter to getting the angle right and you could both be happy. I thought it seemed like a brilliantly simple answer to the problem you proposed.

Mk4 VW's do this and have been doing it since 1999.5.

Adapt into beetle?