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

What amazes me is people defending a clearly bad design with all kinds of irrelevant excuses from "works for me" to "designed for average". Clearly there are a lot of complaints about the seats and it is poorly done.

Better for Toyota to fix it and fix their design process if it produced such a bad product.

 

So the people who find the seats comfortable are just misguided? Got it!

 

The ones trying to convince the "vast majority" of people that the seats are comfortable for them when they are not are certainly misguided.

 

That is not the way that I have read it here on PC. The "vast majority" seem to find the seats to be comfortable. There are a vocal minority that seems to be trying to convince the majority that they are not comfortable.

 

OK, one last time; YOU are in the minority, if you hate the car so much, quit your whining and get a different one. I am not misguided, I am comfortable.

 

if the OP and others who find the seat lousy are like me I understand. having owned around 50 cars and never having one that hurt my back, why would I have considered a long test drive or renting one first? It was only after a couple weeks that I realized that the seats were killing my back. I have put a pad under me and behind my back and this has made it tolerable, although still uncomfortable. I don't HATE the car or see it as a POS. I actually like the car alot but wish it were more comfortable...bob

 

Every car I've ever owned, or considered buying, I found owners complaining about the seats. It didn't matter if it was an econocar like the Prius, or a Dodge, or a Volkswagen Passat. There's always some person dissatisfied.

I guess I've been fortunate because I'm small and lightweight. I don't need much support, so every seat works for me.

 

Instead of a "Sleep Number Mattress" they need a "Butt Number Seat" so you can dial in your own setting. That's the only way they (manufacturers) will get any closer to satisfying
seating critics. Actually, it's a lost cause .

 

Interesting you would say those words. I have had no less than 2 spinal fusions at L-4 -L-5 and C-6-C-7. That said I find the Prius seats in my 2011 to be perfectly fine for my damaged spine.

I will say that I owned a Mercedes 500SL-R and it felt like my butt was on the pavement when I drove it, little or no padding at all in the seat bottoms. In spite of the seats being adjustable in all directions, being power ventilated with massage, driving the car to Fl. was a miserable journey to say the least.

Maybe keep the car and replace the seats with something more substantial?

Good luck with it!

ES44AC

 

All this talk about replacing seats. Is it possible to simply but the power adjust seat and replace the non-power adjust seat?

 

You'd have to be Toyota or a research firm to know the statistics of owner satisfaction of Prius. There are millions of them on the road and only a few post up here.

I've noticed Toyota does far less post sale research than another brand. I did 2 online surveys from a research firm about what I liked / didn't like about Accord coupe and an extensive written survey in the mail.

I don't recall any survey of what I like or don't like about all aspects of this Prius. Only a short survey about the purchase process which means nothing about the car itself.

The above seems bad. How does Toyota find out what people like and don't like about prius or other models? Do they just wait for people who might call in to corporate? I'll bet tons of people don't have time to report dissatisfaction with seats or what not.

I've looked at the connectors underneath, and they are different between the two. Power adjust seat has 3 connectors, non power has 2, so some electrical work involved.

Other problem is I'll bet the cost of a Softex power adjust driver's seat unit is over $3,000 new, and I've reason to believe it might be difficult to locate a good used one, especially in one's color.

I priced out a 2nd gen driver's seat from Toyota and it was over $2,300 from dealer at discount. That's how they make money. I bought a used one from a junkyard for $300, but it was very hard to find.

I guess a whole lot of people here are not over 6 ft. tall. A bit disturbing how few people mention the puny 1 1/2" wheel scope (and tilt) range which is supposed to accomodate the massive 11" driver's seat travel fore/aft. This is classic budget parts and accounting department shaving costs in wrong place. Not hating car, but could be better.

It was a minor deal to just recline my seatback 1 single notch cause that steering wheel became a bit tougher to reach. then came putting thick pad on door and center armrest to get elbows up to reach better. Wanna see how long my arms are, BluRay? Hardly like T-Rex.





Maybe Toyota is trying to get tall people to buy larger cars. Maybe they're putting new college grads on interior design . Maybe it's planned obsolescence, I don't know. They improved the seat on 3rd gen, but will improve the rest on 4th gen to gain more trade ins and sales?

Isn't it possible some people are putting the seatback more upright than it ought to be in order to get a shorter reach to steering wheel? heck yes. Seatback too upright is not pleasant IMO. Feels like sitting in a hole and puts more pressure on spine cause all the weight is on yer butt.

 

I get different surveys from Toyota themselves about one every month.

 

have never got a survey

 

One last time. YOU are in the minority.

Now back to the large number of complaints about the ergonomics of the Prius seats.

 

So lets say hundreds of complaints. Or even thousands. That is still a fraction of percent. Million sold, 1000 complaints, 0.1%.

Math says YOU are the minority. And the complaints are far fewer than 1000. It is a couple vocal loudmouths who the seat doesn't work for. It works fine for the majority of people, but nothing works for everyone.

 

But those 1,000's represent millions who are silent. You never heard of the silent majority?

No the math says YOU are the minority.

Now that we have that silliness out of the way we can focus on the fact that we see a lot of message on PriusChat about the bad seats.

 

There are a handful of threads on here total about seats. Tens. Thousands of complaints total is pushing it. You either have no idea what math is, or are a fool.

You can find a fraction of a percent angry with anything.

 

I'm 6'6 230lbs. The seats are fine.

 

Seating & driving position are very personal items. I had a used Lexus LS430, which accoring to (then future) Ford CEO Alan Mulally was the finest car in the world, and I could never find a completely comfortable position in the seat. (Probably overly compressed by the large previous owner.)

Currently, I have two very practical vehicles, but both have minor ergonomic challenges. The Prius has a so-so driver's seat and plenty of legroom and a Ridgeline has a great driver's seat but cramped legroom.

 

Whew! That fixes the problem of the poorly designed seats. We can all go home now.