How can people sit so close to the wheel???

i'm not overly tall at 6'2, but in most cars i get into i end up with the seat as far back as it'll go then leaning the top part back a fair way to stop my head hitting the ceiling

oddly enough the best car seat i've sat in recently was a rover75.. three-way adjustment meant that i could drop the seat to the floor, all the way back, then raise the front of the seat to give me support under my knees.

unfortunately it was my dad's rover75 and i'm descended from a long line of oompa-loompas, he got in after me and there was about 7 inches between his feet and the pedals :)
 
ALLI said:
Why do people recline their seats so far back when driving. Seems to be an Asian thing.

Any ideas?
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indeed, I have tried it to see what its like after seeing some goon doing it and its frankly impossible.

I am flexible in my seating arrangements as its an auto, in a manual however it has to be spot on.
 
For me I sit so my clutch foot is still bent a little when the clutch is down. Then I have the base of my seat on the lowest setting at the rear and the highest at the front. But I have the back of the seat quite vertical, I have the wheel reached out quite a bit so when driving I have bent elbows. Makes turning the wheel easier and find I have more control that way.
 
I sit a comfortable distance from the wheel, I'm 5'10". Sometimes I do knee the wheel, but only when I'm tapping my feet along to some music. Then again, I don't need to worry about the airbag, as neither of my cars has one :D.
 
i have my seat about mid-way along the rails but lean forward so my arm is on top of the wheel. Makes it easier to take a quick drag of the fag and also my cap has plenty of room when tilted right upwards. Can adjust the cd player better this way too.
 
Tim said:
INTO ME!:D

It can cause minor womens wiplash!
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Hahahah love Alan P. :D

You know, they should make adjustable pedals. So just like you get the girly city button for the steering, have another one that like lengthens the pedals. :) Always thinking! But then... I guess... you'd have to have the steering wheel come out further as their arms wouldn't reach... hmmmmm nevermind. Woman shouldn't drive anyway. :p (j/k)
 
In the megane, i have the seat all the way back with a slight incline, and my knees are still nearly halway up the steering wheel on either side. Im not really that huge, 6 foot 3, but its quite a comfortable way to sit. Annoys the hell out of my maw getting into the car after ive been in it, she seems incapable of moving the seat forward and moving the mirror, so instead she moans about it for half an hour.
 
Clarkey said:
women drive like this, all of them. God knows why. You'll never see a man driving so ridiculously.
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There's a chap who lives near me (in his late 50's) who drives with both forearms on top of the steering wheel and his head past the wheel. He looks completely ridiculous and he drives like it all the time.

When I first saw him driving like that I thought he must have just been checking to see if the badge was still on the front of his car but upon seeing him again I decided that he's just tapped in the head.
 
Usel said:
There's a chap who lives near me (in his late 50's) who drives with both forearms on top of the steering wheel and his head past the wheel. He looks completely ridiculous and he drives like it all the time.

When I first saw him driving like that I thought he must have just been checking to see if the badge was still on the front of his car but upon seeing him again I decided that he's just tapped in the head.
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Surely it is impossible to see in the mirrors if your head is forward of the wheel? Sounds like a danger to society if you ask me :/
 
I have two positions I use. If I am in and around town I have it at a normal position but I find if I am going for a drive that involves a long motorway stretch I click the seat back one notch, seems slightly less tiring on the legs that way.

I miss the electric memory seats with 3 memorised positions in my last BMW, 1 was for driving round town, 2 was for motorway driving and 3 was all the way back for when I was hoovering the car out. Exterior mirrors were tied to the seat memory so for motorway driving you could have it set just perfect. Really screws me up getting in the car if the missus has been in it, when I unlocked with the BMW it returned to the last seat position used with that key.

Not even available as an option on the A3, yes electric seat but no memory so didn't bother buying that option.
 
Tesla said:
Is it true that the deployment force exerted by an airbag could cause serious harm such as crushed chests when sat too close?
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TBH it depends on the age of the vehicle. In older cars (maybe 5 to 10 years old) the safety systems had no means of sensing where an ocupant is sitting, how large the occupant is, or where the seat position is, so when it came to deploying the airbags they would go off with a pre determined force, that could cause serious if not fatal injuries to the occupant if they were sitting too close.
More modern vehilcles have an array of sensors that monitor where the occupants are seated, how heavy they are, where the seats are positioned, and all sorts of other things so that in the event of a deployment the explosive charges for the two stages of airbag initiator can be adjusted on the fly to give maximum protection with minimum chance of extraneous injury.
These "Smart Airbag" systems are becoming more and more common on even low end cars, they are almost universal now on mid-high end cars.

As a rough guideline I would reccomend that you sit with your chest at least 10" away from the centre of the airbag, be that steering wheel mounted, or dash mounted for passengers. You then have the most chance of the bag deploying correctly and not injuring you during deployment.
 
When I had the Civic the seats could not be lowered or made to go higher to change driving height so I got used to a very close to the road driving position. On the bmw seats you can adjust in all 6 directions but I still have the seat at its lowest height because I feel more comfortable being closer to the ground than a higher driving position.

At the lowest it's the perfect height for me (5ft 8") to be able to see the tip of the bonnet and with the back reclined to the level of the seatbelt I can fully extend my arms to hold the steering wheel. At this position the side mirrors are also in line with both blind spots behind the car and I am able to see both lower sides of the car which aids parking greatly.

The main benefit of this I found is that the armrest on the driver's door and the one on the centre console to rest on is the perfect distance and when driving it's very relaxing even in heavy traffic when most of your time is spent changing gears, it's never fatiguing or tedious due to how comfortable it is compared to the other cars I've had or driven which didn't have this type of layout.

I imagine it's even more so with the sports seats and electric memory seats as they have more detailed adjustments. Can't wait to upgrade!
 
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mrk said:
I imagine it's even more so with the sports seats and electric memory seats as they have more detailed adjustments. Can't wait to upgrade!
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The only two tings I really miss are the electric memory seats, especially when the car has two drivers on a regular basis. And the BMW independently controlled centre air vent, it was good to be able to have the heating on warm but also have a slightly cooler breeze waft over my face, I found that it kept me more refreshed on long journeys.

I know this sounds really daft but it is those little things that make me think my next car will potentially be a BMW. It is between that and the A5 which I had a blast in earlier this year and I found that to be a joy to drive. I also missed the light puddle on the centre console from the BMW but I retrofitted that with a dealer part for £15 all in so no biggie.

What model are you upgrading to? same car with better seats or a completely different model (not sure what you have just now).
 
to op:i sit very close to the steering wheel,mainly because i have short legs but also because you are in more control of the car especially with rwd.if your arms are straight to the wheel you cant apply as much force when turnign the wheel as you can with bent arms where you would use shoulder strength more.shoulders are stronger than arms!
look at rally drivers,they all sit really close to the wheel,wonder why;)
 
Back on topic....

The advice I was given was to sit as far away from the steering wheel as possible while maintaining a comfortable position to control the vehicle. You want to be as far away as you can from the explosive device in the middle of the wheel when it goes off.

As said above you should be able to rest your wrist on the top of the wheel comfortably. height and lumbar are personal preference but distance is crucial to comfortably controling the car. If you are too far back you may need to over extend the leg to hit the brakes hard, and this can be ineffective in gaining maximum pressure.
 
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