Warning: Gen III front seats are a torture device...

It costs as much to make poorly designed seat as it does to make a well designed seat. The issue is not cost but design.

I tell people, tell myself, remember to buy another car next time with comfortable seats. My plug-in in 2015 will most likely not be a Prius because the Prius seats are not well designed.

 

OP should spend a couple hours being water boarded. Then he can opine whether the plush car seats are 'torture.'

 

And when you decide you hate the kitchen counter tops in the house you just bought, you sell the house and buy one with nicer counter tops; right?

 

Kneel down and have a look at all the electrical cords and devices underneath the passenger seat - occupant detection ECU, seat position sensor, airbag wiring, and more.... driver's seat too. Most likely lose all that capability in aftermarket seat, have to passify warning lights on dash, side airbag(s) gone, fab new mounts to adapt aftermarket seat into chassis, but the seat won't we bolted into chassis, only the mounts, less crashworthy.

Will those junkyard Volvo seats fit into Prius? Have to attach Prius seatbelt latch to it.

Good luck finding a shop that wants to and can deal with that. You will be signing their invoice to wave any rights in an accident and you'll want to check if insurance still covers you or your passenger if the seat lets go and flies around the cabin.

I was quoted $1700 for a bare bones Recaro driver's seat only installed in 2nd gen Prius several years ago. Those are final sales and then you have no idea how good it will be until installed in the car and and hopefully they don't mess up your OEM mounts. Need to switch back to sell.

You'd be hard pressed to find some individuals out of millions who've changed seats in their 3rd Gen Prius. Try to find anyone here who's changed out a 3rd gen seat. Haven't heard of it yet.

If really can't stand seats in your car, sell it, rent your next choice for several days, buy that model.

And it may not be just 'the seat'. Could be the seating, cockpit, what have you or everything your butt, back, hands and feet come into contact with.

Can't compare a kitchen counter top to car, plus you don't drive your kitchen down freeway at 70+ MPH with 50,000 lb big rigs in the next lane.

+1. Seems a hit and run post by OP anyway.

 

I'd contend that a seat designed for orthopedic considerations would be more costly than one designed by the accounting department.

 

+1 I'm seeing things I really don't like out of Toyota, not just Prius. 2013 Avalon XLE: I'm lowered full down for headroom, steering doesn't tilt down much. Baffling. I'd buy it at half cost only.

How much of \/ goes into Prius?

Engineering the BMW Driver's Seat - YouTube

 

You buy new counter tops. AFAIK, you can't just run out and buy replacement seats.

Analogy fail.

 

The seat is already designed for "orthopedic consideration" unless Toyota was designing for invertebrates. It is just poorly designed. The cost to design is the same for a bad seat vs. a good seat. Toyota simply did a bad job.

 

Actually, you CAN just go out and buy replacement seats. After market shops do it every day. Have you seriously never seen a modded out Civic? You can even have your replacement seats upholstered to perfectly match your cars interior...just like your new sofa at home

 

What bothers me the most about the 3rd gen manual adjust driver's seat is the tilt varies from 12 degrees at height full up to 20 degrees full down. That's a lot. I adjust most of the way down being 6'2" tall and seat cushion presses too much on my thighs, plus, no way to lessen tilt in manual seat. Power seat, yes, can adjust tilt seperately.

What year of Civic? Not talking about those old CR-X's are ya?

New model seats are more complicated. Side airbags. Seatbelt sensors, seat position sensors, passenger occupant detection. Aftermarket seats not designed to work with any of that.

I visited a shop that put a number of Recaro Specialist M's into 2nd gen Prius. Said they somehow use the OEM airbag, but I doubt it was placed into Recaro.

sure, drop Sparco's or Recaros into old Civic CR-X or what not and do track days.

Anyone here know of replacement seats into 3rd gen Prius?

 

Seating in an automobile is such a subjective matter, it's impossible to make a seat to suit every individual. Comfortable shoes are a matter of fit and finish. The same applied to seats. Unfortunately when you go to buy a car there is no shelf full of seat choices. So, it's a good idea (if you are a seat critic) to test the seats before you purchase. Buyers remorse is no body's fault but your own.

 

One more time ...

Anyone have link to thread of aftermarket seat installed into 3rd gen 2010+ Prius?

doubt it.

Edmunds wrote an article years ago including driver is in a way 'wearing the car'. Not just sitting there like in a chair. Driver has to steer, operate accelerator, brake, be subject to bumps, sways, be constantly vigilant.

I think it's a bit ludicrous (sp?) to be expected to choose a car in even a half hour test drive. Would be best if most cars are a) available to rent for several days or b) Be like Toyota Sunnyvale and offer a 3 day 250 mile no questions asked full refund policy on any new Toyota, 7 day exchange.

 

Actually you can't. Your safety warranty for the car is gone. Any accident with injury the other party can say your "custom seat" was the cause. The actual safety of the seat is likely gone which gets back to the fact that Toyota spent a lot of time and money designing a bad seat.

 

Your best bet would be to find seats from another Toyota / Lexus model that you like and put those in as it would likely be plug and play. It would have to be a similar model year and you might have to have them recovered to match your color interior. Outside of that you'll have to add cushions or try to change the seat height/rake with the addition of washers, etc.

 

Wnat to sell it? The seats have GOT to be more comfortable than the bucket seats in my Beetle.... constantly pushng my shoulders forward in an uncomfortable manner. Worst seats ever, and the prius has got to be an improvement.

 

Changing car seats is likely a dangerous thing to do. The car safety is built around the car seat, anchors, seat belt position, air bags, crumple zones, active head rest for rear endings.

Literally better to LIVE with the car seats.

But better to buy a car with well designed comfortable seats. Poorly designed seats create health issues and driver safety issues with fatigue and discomfort. A badly designed seat is unfixable and large negative for a car.

At best with Prius it means you are forced to spend $2K more to get the model with the power seats which provide some means of reducing the problem.

 

Hate to dig this thread up again, but here it is. Scroll down a lot. Tons of photos of dr seat removed, stripped to frame, etc... yay -

Making a Height Adjustable Driver's Seat for 2009 Prius | PriusChat

I used this custom seat for about a year, didn't work well enough, pulled it, put pristine original seat back in, sold car outright. Sold seat for few bucks to another PC year later. RobH (?) IIR, nice guy.

Highly unlikely. 'We' went through a similar ordeal with 2nd gen Prius years ago. Forgot the PCers name, but he researched, found only a Corolla seat was similar enough to adapt into 2nd gen Prius to get the much wanted height adjust the Corolla had, but no Prius had.

Mod required having a Prius seat and Corolla seat, stripping both to bare frame, moving Prius feet to Corolla frame, headrest bar also, took me almost a month every day after work to do it.

Toyota does NOT want customers swapping seats between models of cars therefore I'm 99% sure every Toyota has different footprint, fit and electrical connections.

 

It always amazes me the number of times I have read posts from folks blaming Toyota for bad this, or poorly designed that. This thread has the same thing; with some of you acting like Toyota was designing seats to ruin your back on purpose. The seats are designed based on averages. They are designed to work for the average persons body, and designed to meet a price point where the highest possible numbers of people can afford the car; nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes a person comes along that falls outside the averages; for them the seats will be uncomfortable. There are only two choices in this case; find an aftermarket product to make the seat more comfortable for you, or find a different car where the seats match your body type. Luxury cars don’t have to meet the same price point as other vehicles, so they can spend more to make the seats match more people that are outside the average curves, it is that simple. The seats in my Cobalt were terrible compared to the Prius seats; I didn’t blame GM for it; it was my fault for limiting myself to a GM only product at a low price point. I got what I paid for; so instead of complaining, I bought a lumbar support and made do. I drove it till the wheels fell off; I got my money out of it and bought a better car. We are ultimately responsible for the choices we make. That brings us to the importance of the test drive. If you feel that a standard test drive is not long enough to get a good feel for the car, ask for an extended one. Dealers who are worth their salt, who want to sell cars will most likely be able to work something out. You can also rent a car you are interested in to spend some real time checking it out. It’s your money, your time, your choice, and your responsibility.

 

LOL. Reminds me of an insight discussion where some guy said the seats are crap. I commented that I had just driven 3000 miles in 4 days and the seats were comfortable the whole trip.

Then I dug a bit and found the guy's photo and I replied, "Ya know, I think I see the problem. You have a massive stomach. Your backpain is not from the seats, but from that excess weight pulling-down on your spine and hurting you back." ------ The guy admitted that he does need to lose some weight, and it does hurt him to sit even in the office.

YEP.

As for the extended drive I had two different dealers (Honda and Toyota) in Orange County tell me I cannot drive further than one exit on the interstate. They gave me some nonsense about "insurance won't less us go further than this". On the east coast I've driven upto an hour to thoroughly test a car, but here in California I guess they lack enough confidence in their product to let the customer do a proper test, and I told them that as I walked off.

 

The seat belt buckle in my Jetta would poke into my side.