Mercedes seats fit me pretty much perfectly. My best friend's 2006 ML500 with the sport package has seats that are firm at first but super comfortable and supportive on long hauls and the alcantara centres are grippy enough for speedy sideways snow shenanigans
In reply to Sonic :
I would also agree. The seats in my wife’s R class are just firm enough to be comfortable all day.
The seats in my 9-5 are up there but just behind.
I loved the seats in my Subaru ('88), I loved the seats in my Golf ('89), I loved the seats in my Quantum ('86), which curiously had much more side bolstering than the Golf had.
I parked my butt for about 80,000mi in the driver's seat of an '85 RX-7. I bought an '84 to replace it, and found that I had less headroom. So I swapped the seats and put another 80k on them. 160k in one driver's seat, continuously since 2001. It's literally molded to my body at this point.
For cars that I haven't owned, I really like the seats in Mk5 and Mk6 GTIs, as well as '08-up WRXs.
When I had that Subaru, and first got that '85 RX-7, I was 6'5 and 180lb. I'm closer to 6'3 and 215 nowadays. Not really shaped like a triangle anymore so much as an oblate spheroid, but hell, I ain't 20 anymore.
I've never had an opportunity to spend any significant time in a Mercedes seat. From my own stable , the best ever was my '04 Yukon XL captains chairs. Very supportive, yet soft seating that seemed to wrap around you. I could drive that for hours with zero discomfort. My present '14 Suburban has seats that I think were designed by the same guys that built buck boards back in the 1800s. Pretty sure there is no foam under the material, just wood and rocks.
In reply to imgon :
My experiences with Mercedes seats have almost been universally unpleasant. Like sitting on bleacher seats, with hard leather glued on.
Teh S60R has me spoiled. I absolutely hated leather seats until I got this car. Mind you, I think the seats suck, but the material gracing them is the softest, most compliant leather I have ever had the opportunity to sample. (And I got to drive a Rolls-Royce once. Well, a '60s Rolls...) I always thought of leather as like vinyl, but smells bad. But then this car, which makes me appreciate the term "supple". And it doesn't reek.
The seats still suck, mind you. But the last time I experienced leather like this was on a Barcalounger.
I loved the seats in my Volvo. It was an 850 but the seats were junkyard pulls from an early V70. The electrics and memory were all contained in the seat so you supply +12v and you have power memory seats. The heat is separate so you’ll need a relay and switch to control that. The side airbags on the 850s were totally self contained with an air switch of sorts that tied into the airbag. The V70 went to a remote electric sensor so it’s not as easy to leave functional.
They were so comfortable but not soft - soft seats tend to leave you with aches and pains. They were pliable but supportive.
oh when looking for junkyard seats, the dark gray holds up way better than the beige or light gray. I don’t know why but every one of the lighter colored interiors tends to tear over time. The dark holds up great.
95 buick riviera. Like driving your favorite recliner.
tr8todd said:TR7 and TR8 seats are great, plus they are about the lowest seat/slider combo you will ever find. Great things if your a tall guy that likes sports cars. The seats in my TVR 280i combined with the seating position were actually too comfy. Fell asleep driving that car twice. Have to disagree with Nick on the 320is seats. Too narrow at the shoulders for me and didn't allow me to snug into the back. Dodge Neon seats were the absolute worst. The Kirkey race seat I replaced them with was more comfy than those things.
Fiat spider seats (original spider, not the new one) have the sliders up above the bottom of the seat pan. I don't think you can even get your fingers between the bottom of the seat and the floor
For me, no contest. I have done a 1300 mile nonstop and turn round and do it again the next day in this seat. And I was comfy and rested and didn't hurt at all at the end of it. The seats in our Foretravel 36' diesel pusher road condo are awfully nice but the seats in my silly E55 can be told to adjust *just so* and they do the heat/ventilated massage/active side bolsters in corners thing. Nothing but win at a mere what... 80 lb each?
car39 said:Volvo. Hands down, the best.
I will second that V70 of the 2000's
Most comfortable? Hands down, a 1987 Lincoln Town Car with the cloth seats. Like taking a ride in a living room.
The seats in my 07 Silverado are pretty comfortable as well. I did 5 hours in them today without a complaint.
For the most part, sport seats are built too narrow for me. Or I'm built too wide for them. The seats in the G35 aren't horrible though. It's a 03.
Agree with the Volvo votes. My experience was with the 945T and 850 from the early-to-mid 90's.
All of my Mazdas have had good to excellent seats.
I chauffeured my teenage son and his date to prom in a borrowed 2017 Mercedes Benz S550. Without considering too deeply the value of such a car, it was truly amazing. The driver's seat however, I found to be extremely uncomfortable. So much so, that after about 40 minutes in it, I was in pain from a lack of lower back support. To be fair, I was not able to decipher the hopelessly confusing comfort settings that presumably made fine-tuning the seats a possibility.
My Mercedes CL600. So many adjustments I can get them perfect. I have long legs, so like to sit way back, then adjust the seat bottom to the back of my knees while telescoping the steering wheel towards me. I’ve owned a lot of cars and those are the best so far.
The innards and controls of the electric seats in our 1995 Volvo 855 and 2007 are very Similar and both are very comfortable- better at splitting cruising and chucking the car a little than any other seat I have sat in. As noted 12v and you are good and there are manual versions. Besides the seat itself I like Volvos BMWs and Mercs (Audi not so much) because I am still well in the ergonomic range of the cockpit at 6'4" 220, particularly the Volvos.
I had to custom mount it low in the back of the seat pan really high in the front, but the Honda S2000 seat in my 96 civic is surprisingly comfortable and very laterally supportive. Unfortunately It offers me NO neck or head protection and Im kinda spooked.... The Volvos seat excel at that. Hmmm.
I really like the sport seats in my 1986 BMW M535i (as well as the nearly identical sport seats in my '88 325iX.)
The bench seat in the 1971 Catalina I owned eons ago was also great, in a sofa sort of way.
I did several all-day drives in my 2011 F-150 with zero pain or issues. Of course, that's not just the seats, it's also all the spreading-out space. For just the seats, the 05 GTO had some pretty great ones, but the ones in the Contour SVT were sneaky good. In fact, sitting in Adrian's car was a big reason I ended up getting one.
6'0" Tall, 145lbs, 32" inseam
BMW Vaders make my legs fall asleep but they look so cool! I find my 96 XJ seats really comfy but they have no lateral support, although it's not a performance car so it's not that big of a deal. Renault Fuego seats are pretty darn comfy too, especially installed in my friend's Austin Mini.
for what it is worth, I kept the passenger seat out of my old 318ti before it went to the scrappers. Standard BMW 3 series seat in black fabric. It makes a surprisingly comfy office chair
Man looks like i need to Test Drive a Volvo just to experience the seats lol.
the early Volvo v70xc looks like my cup of tea. I'll start there.
For comfort, I loved the seats in my '94 Chevy K1500 (back when Silverado was just a trim package). All-around, I loved the stock seats in my friend's B13 SE-R. Even when they were 15 years old, they were comfortable - even while driving 29 hours straight from somewhere in OK to CT.
How about motorcycle seats? The stock seats on both my BMW k1200s and k1300s sucked....bad. The stock seat on my old Yamaha yzf600 was great and I could ride until I needed fuel, then fill up and get right back on.
Easy one for me. Volvo V70XC all day long.
I'll throw another vote in for Volvo.
The most comfy seats in a car I ever owned would have to be my wife's Bonnevillle SSEi. Those were some awesome thrones.
By far, worst seats ever are in the NC Miata. Whoever designed those should be forced to sit in one every day for the rest of their lives.
Shaun said:I had to custom mount it low in the back of the seat pan really high in the front, but the Honda S2000 seat in my 96 civic is surprisingly comfortable and very laterally supportive. Unfortunately It offers me NO neck or head protection and Im kinda spooked.... The Volvos seat excel at that. Hmmm.
Read an article a ways back about safety engineers at Volvo. Apparently, they would go visit with people who had collisions in Volvos and would inquire about their injuries, because they had already done so much to prevent deaths that their new focus was on that. They did some interesting things, like a cardboard tube in the door panel of one model: It damped and delayed the blow of a 7-millisecond side hit by one millisecond, and this was the difference between a broken arm or not.
The article writer noted that everybody on this team of analysts had the headrest tilted as far forward as possible.
This commenter notes that his S40 was the only car he ever owned that had a headrest that could actually be used as a headrest. On everything else, it was just something that was on the top of the seat. The seats themselves sucked, and it took 10,000mi of driving with the seatbelt pulled super-tight to break it in to where it sucked less, and then the stitching holding the hard leather broke apart, but the headrest was a nice feature.
My ex's 96 Volvo 850. Those seats are to die for. When the car was totaled after the next owner got rear-ended, I tried to get those seats as I've seen them fitted into an 1800ES.
I have a set of E30 sport seats that are not bad. Those are option #2 to go into the 1800ES.
The leather seats in my 2017 Grand Caravan GT are pretty good. Better than the seats that were in my '07 GC.
The sport seats in my R53 are OK. I've been sitting in those seats since 2003 (my ex- bought one new), so I know them well.
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