Seat discomfort 2014 Advanced!! PIP

maybe trade it for a prime, i think the plus nets down close to 20k.

 

Sorry for your experience.

I'm also curious what other people think as I'm new to the PiP, although I can say it's MUCH better (in the advanced) than my old Gen 2. My wife is convinced my car seat was one of the reasons I experienced a herniated disc this past fall!

From my perspective, I feel like the seat, where my shoulders contact, pushes my top forward - even with the lumbar support - encouraging poor posture. I wish it was different but as I said, it's way better than my older Prius.

I can say that with power seats, moving the seat around with small adjustments will help. Sitting in one place for too long, regardless of the seat, will add to stiffness and sometimes pain.

Hopefully someone else will have more information!

 

it is said that gen 4 seats are much better, but it still seams to be individual taste, and physiology.

 

I have a 2013 Prius Plug-In. During our ownership, the seats have never been naked. What we have is the following:

1. Thick premium sheepskin seat covers, but only covering the middle and headrest, leaving the seat and seatback bolsters exposed. I can't seem to find a picture of this because I don't know what it's called in seat cover industry lingo.

These seat covers were actually made for a 2003 Honda CR-V that got into a bad accident. We then installed in in our following car (2005 Toyota Prius) and then the current PIP. The fit isn't 100%, especially for the seatback. But it fits the headrest snugly and the seat bottom as well via bungee straps.

2. Mesh back supports, like these:
http://www.staples-3p.com/s7/is/image/Staples/s0135906_sc7?$splssku$

We got ours from Bed Bath and Beyond, but any one works ok.

3. My parents have a bad back, so they threw in an extra throw pillow into the passenger seat underneath the mesh back support and the sheepskin cover.


Overall, since I almost always drive the car and am never a passenger, I find this setup very comfortable. The thick sheepskin covers feel nice and soft for your derriere, provide long distance comfort. The back support pushes your torso forwards preventing the dreaded "hunched over squeezed shoulders" posture that the normal naked seatbacks provide. True, you do lose the functionality of the seat bolsters, but the Prius isn't a sports car.

Also, I like to keep my seats as low as possible (I'm 6'2", and appreciate the sporty low positioning despite the sentence above :-D). Going from the low drivers seat to the fixed-height passenger seat feel so weird for me. I also prefer a bolt-upright, almost tilted forward seatback position because I'm driving, not lounging. I can never understand how anyone manages to drive in lounged position.

 

For me I thought the seats in my cloth 2005 prius were more comfortable than the 2013 Prius Soft-tex plug-in advanced seats. I like to sit more upright when driving and this definitely gives me more upper shoulder back pain than I have experienced before. (or is it that I am just getting older!) For long trips moving the position slightly back definitely helps. In either case any vehicle I have ever owned, sitting in one position too long will result in back strain.

 

For what it's worth, shoulder pain that includes the back of the neck is often easy to fix. Check your driving posture: if your ears are out in front of your shoulders, rather than directly above them, you will get pain after awhile. Sometimes you just need to get yourself closer to the steering wheel!

 

Buy a cheap memory foam mattress topper. Cut it to fit your seat.
Wrap some fabric, or fur, or sheepskin, around it, and ask your wife (real nice) to sew it together.
We put a couple grommets in the top, so we can slide the headrest onto it to hold it in
position (I'm talking about a different car- don't have access to my PIP at the moment
to see if they indeed have similar removable head rests).
We have velcro to close the lower end. That way you can add/subtract foam as/where you need it.