|
I can't find as comfortable a driving position in my 2013 Focus as I could in my 2003 Focus. I get the feeling that the pedals are now further forward relative to the steering wheel than in my earlier car. Even with the steering wheel adjusted as far forward as possible, I'm now nearer to the steering wheel than I would like to be. Is it because car designers have taken into account the fact that people are getting taller and have longer legs?
|
Well, you had and spurned the opportunity to buy a Volvo and now you're surprised you're not as comfortable as you'd like. You can take a snail to water...
};---)
|
>> Well, you had and spurned the opportunity to buy a Volvo ..........
In hindsight I'm pleased I didn't buy a Volvo V40. Members of a Volvo owners forum I visit are reporting having lots of reliability problems with their V40. In some cases, the dealer has been unable to solve the problem and has had to refer the matter to Volvo headquarters.
|
You would think that longer arms went with longer legs so the two would cancel out. No need to change the relative position much if at all.
Maybe you have the regional version for Yorkshire and Scotland (short arms).
|
>> You would think that longer arms went with longer legs so the two would cancel
>> out. No need to change the relative position much if at all.
>>
>> Maybe you have the regional version for Yorkshire and Scotland (short arms).
& deep door pockets?
|
|
You might think so, Manatee, but you'd be mistaken. I too often find that the steering wheel is too far away for comfort, and it's pulled right back in both cars of the Beest fleet. For your equation to be true, legs and arms would have to increase in length by the same amount with increasing height and I'd be able to scratch my knees without bending down.
|
>> You might think so, Manatee, but you'd be mistaken. I too often find that the
>> steering wheel is too far away for comfort, and it's pulled right back in both
>> cars of the Beest fleet. For your equation to be true, legs and arms would
>> have to increase in length by the same amount with increasing height and I'd be
>> able to scratch my knees without bending down.
I was thinking about population variations within a modest range, rather than lanky outliers :)
But yes, arms being generally shorter than legs anyway, even a pro rata increase would imply some increase in pedal/wheel distance.
|
People have got generally taller over the centuries, all the body, not just legs.
However, I don't think Ford has taken 10 miniscule years of human evolution into account when engineering passenger dimensions into their cars.
Making extra room for chav salad dodgers, maybe.
|
Like St Augustine (I think it was he) who had to have a curved segment cut out of the refectory table to accommodate his embonpoint. Long before the days of beer and burgers too...
No, there must have been beer.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 14 Jun 13 at 17:48
|
>> I can't find as comfortable a driving position in my 2013 Focus as I could
>> in my 2003 Focus.
Didn't you find this on the test drive?
|
Buyer's remorse looking for an outlet ;-)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer's_remorse
|
>> >> I can't find as comfortable a driving position in my 2013 Focus as I
>> could
>> >> in my 2003 Focus.
>>
>> Didn't you find this on the test drive?
Yes, but I decided that buying another Focus was a good compromise. No car purchase will ever be perfect from all aspects.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Sat 15 Jun 13 at 07:07
|
|
No, its scientific fact that your legs start to shrink at an average of 2 millimetres per year when your over 70. It can be as much as 4 millimetres in in some cases. Strangely your arm length remains constant. Totally unconnected but your ears actually get bigger.
|
>> Totally unconnected but your ears
>> actually get bigger.
And yet your hearing gets worse :)
|
>> its scientific fact that your legs start to shrink ...
I'll have to find a calculator, but now I've simply got to work out how old you'd have to live to before your knackers started dragging on the ground !
:-))
|
|
By the time that happens you won't need them.
|
>> how old you'd have to live to before your knackers started dragging on the ground !
You won't really like this Humph, but it can happen. A wheelbarrow could help, but it would be awkward.
Don't google 'elephantiasis' unless you really, really want to know. I can't recommend it for light entertainment.
|
|
ISTR there is some factor involving being in the right range of distance from the steering wheel so that the airbag functions correctly
Last edited by: Meldrew on Fri 14 Jun 13 at 20:22
|
>> some factor involving being in the right range of distance from the steering wheel so that the airbag functions correctly
But who in their right mind would give toss about that?
|
|
"It didn't take long to learn that the force of an airbag can hurt those who are too close to it. Researchers have determined that the risk zone for driver airbags is the first 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) of inflation. So, placing yourself 10 inches (25 cm) from your driver airbag gives you a clear margin of safety. Measure this distance from the center of the steering wheel to your breastbone. If you currently sit less than 10 inches away, you can adjust your driving position"
|
What I said Mellers... who in their right mind would sit 10 inches or less from the wheel?
A lot of people perhaps. But not many normal-sized proper drivers.
|
|
Well obviously one does have to care about it and I guess some bulky athletes and some ladies with their own built in airbags might have to give matter some thought!
|
|
Now we've dished out the regulation ribbing, l'Es, let's see if we can be helpful. I wonder if there's more to this than simple fore-and-aft distance, so have you experimented with the height as well as the reach of the wheel and the seat? I sometimes find raising the seat is more effective than moving it back if I feel short of legroom, so might the same - or the opposite - possibly work for you?
|
|
^^ Particularly if you can raise or lower the front and back of the seat independently.
|
>> ^^ Particularly if you can raise or lower the front and back of the seat
>> independently.
>>
The seat cushion can be tilted independently of its fore and aft position, and I've tried altering that as well.
|
>> Now we've dished out the regulation ribbing, l'Es, let's see if we can be helpful.
>> I wonder if there's more to this than simple fore-and-aft distance, so have you experimented
>> with the height as well as the reach of the wheel and the seat? I
>> sometimes find raising the seat is more effective than moving it back if I feel
>> short of legroom, so might the same - or the opposite - possibly work for
>> you?
>>
I've tried every possible adjustment of the steering wheel and the seat. The steering wheel is as high as I can get it and as far forward as I can get it. If I raised the seat any more the steering wheel would be touching my thighs ~ and I haven't got fat thighs. The fore and aft position of the seat is governed by me being able to depress the clutch pedal. No, it appears that the relative position of the steering wheel and the pedals is different from in the Mk I Focus.
I have a similar problem now with shirts ~ at one time standard shirt sleeve lengths were the correct length for me, but now they're too long. Manufacturers have to size their products according to the average size of the younger generation ~ which is getting taller. And this factor must be applied to car design as well as to clothes.
|
|
It sounds more logical to lower the seat squab rather than raise it, get the leg distance right, then fiddle with the wheel reach and seat back rake.
|
When I was taught to drive I was told to adjust the seat so that I could just comfortably press the clutch pedal to the floor and then adjust everything else to fit. Works for me.
I do concede that there were fewer adjustments in those days. :-)
|
I could never get really comfortable driving my Nissan Almera, and I owned it for 4.5 years :)
Even the Mitsubishi Lancer didn't really suit me - comfort wise.
But as soon as I sat in the Subaru Forester I knew I had arrived, I drove it back to Cornwall from Hampshire, only stopping once for a pee and a tea, and felt refreshed when I stepped out of the car.
My mark 1 Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec was well suited to me too ISTR, I'm 6ft and about 13 st in my knickers.
|
Funny old science ergonomics. Different folks different strokes I guess. I'm definitely Ford shaped. Which is probably no surprise as I'm pretty average in most directions and dimensions !
I'm definitely not Volvo shaped. People say they find them wonderfully comfortable but I used to get out of both my 940 and my 850 in kinks after a long run. I'm not VW shaped either, or Citroen for that matter but BMWs suit me and the Merc isn't bad if not perfect. Vauxhalls crease me, I used to get cramp in the Signum.
Sitty up cars, like my Galaxy, Espace and Qashqai were comfy enough for boodling about locally but were crap on a long run. I always felt like I was sitting on a wobbly bar stool instead of slacked in an armchair in those.
|
Yes, this can be a real problem: I have an average-sized body but short legs, and although I haven't tried a Focus recently it means I can't get comfortable in a BMW 3-series, which I've test driven several times. The resulting driving position is 'sit-up-and-beg' - just like an old Ford Popular. It seems that BMW want you to sit low with the wheel close to your chest: SWMBO's Mini Roadster is similar, although you don't mind quite so much in a roadster.
VAG and Toyota suit me best: Renaults were good too when I had them in the 1980s and 1990s.
(Edit - Humph's post just shows that we're all different shapes - it's a matter of the relative length of one's arms and legs. The trouble with test drives, particularly if you like the car in general, is that you think you can live with something that isn't quite right: you buy the car and then fins it annoying. Having juts test-driven a Golf GTI, I'm almost thinking I could live with the electronic handbrake......)
Last edited by: Avant on Sat 15 Jun 13 at 12:30
|
|
Not driven a modern GTi but the two I had back in the 80's could be forgiven many things. Can't say comfort was their best feature though. For me anyway.
|
>>an average-sized body but short legs...
A good pal of mine has the same dimensions. He also has mild latent chav tendencies and as a result never tucks his shirt in. This is bad enough, but as he's also a little bit fat and therefore has to buy large shirts which are by default too long for him and splay out at the bottom coupled with keeping his hair close cropped he can tend to look pretty much like a dalek when he's moving about.
|
>> he can tend to look pretty much like a dalek
>> when he's moving about.
I'm intrigued :)
I find it's not as simple as 'Toyotas fit me, VAG don't'.
I was never really comfortable in my Avensis with my long legs, which would probably suit Avant more than me. But the Yaris is far better, because the pedals are lower in relation to the seat, which gives you somewhere to put your legs, rather than around your ears.
BMW's are better for me when they have the sports seats.
VAG I find comfortable.
I always found Rovers good.
My Forester seat could do with more lumber support, but the basic driving position is great.
|
|
The only cars I have owned in 50 years that have given me any grief were a MkIII Zodiac with a bench front seat and 307 in which I got sciatica type pains in my right hip/thigh, starting almost exactly after 50 minutes driving. Current 07 plate focus is good
|
Is it not a question of what looks or feels comfortable, but what is comfortable.
The best I've experienced were an old HA Viva van that had a solid seat with what looked like a quarter inch of padding and a Maxi that felt like sitting on a bar stool behind a bus steering wheel.
|
|
The most comfortable seat / driving position for me was in my 1972 Chrysler 180.
|
>> ........... and 307 in which I got
>> sciatica type pains in my right hip/thigh, starting almost exactly after 50 minutes driving. Current
>> 07 plate focus is good
>>
I had a Peugeot 306 XSi which had heavily bolstered seats which pressed on my thighs and gave me painful bursitis. The bursitis only disappeared after I sold the car and bought my first (2003) Focus Ghia which had much flatter seats.
|
It's just occured to me that the higher the seat is in relation to the pedals the less critical the adjustment, because one's legs are sort of dangling rather than being stretched out.
The Landrover seat is not adjustable in any respect, nor is the steering wheel, yet it seems to accommodate people of different sizes and proportions. Operating the pedals is done by bending the knees.
I once had a low-slung sports tourer with non-adjustable bench seat where my legs were out straight, and I operated the pedals by bending my ankles rather than my knees. Shorter people, such as a small MOT tester on one occasion, were unable to drive the car at all.
Perhaps the answer to the problem is to fit wooden blocks on the pedals, like a child's tricycle. :)
|
|
Most manufacturers build their cars around AVERAGE people!
|
Very few people are average.
Nobody I know has the average number of legs.
|
Wasn't there some survey or other where when asked to rate their own abilities and standards as a driver most people described themselves as "average" or "above average" and when asked to rate others described most of them as "below average" ?
Selective perception lives and breathes of course. My mother-in-law (who resembles a space hopper) claims to eat a "below average" amount of food...
|
|
When I worked in sales for a time, we had a regional director whose mission was to get everybody 'performing' above average. As far as I could tell, he was quite serious.
|
|
I've solved the problem. I'm now sitting a comfortable distance from the steering wheel. Previously I was trying to get as good a view of the bonnet as I could in my previous car. However, because the bonnet is much higher in my current car that in my previous car it required the seat to be in a position which didn't suit me. I've now lowered the seat, and accepted that I can't see the bonnet as well, and in the process got myself into a comfortable distance from the steering wheel. Don't ask me how it worked, but it just did.
|
|
Don't worry, the bonnet is still there and you will see it if you hit something, it has a weak area across the middle and it will fold up :-)
|
>>Don't ask me how it worked, but it just did.
Happy to help :)
|
|
Well done for working it out in the end, l'Es. Sometimes we don't realize what our 'comfort cues' are. Seeing the bonnet is one I wouldn't have thought of; even I see very little of the Volvo's bonnet, and not much more than the star on the LEC's. I'm surprised you could see so much of the old Focus's.
|
|
That's what I like about my Sub - I can see the bonnet, it reminds me of the Fords before they introduced the jelly mould.
|
>> and accepted that I can't see the
>> bonnet
>>
Sounds a bit unsafe - do you look through the steering wheel, or over it?
Perhaps you need a booster cushion?
|
|
Driving the LEC home tonight I realized I can see quite a lot of the bonnet. Perhaps it's just that the radiator star is such a good visual reference that when I need one I use that and don't notice the rest. Perhaps if I had one of these new ones with the dinner plate grille instead...no, let's not go there.
|
>> the radiator star is such a good visual reference
The gunsight.
|
|
That gunsight and the square back end of the estate make all the fancy parking sensors a bit redundant. Hate the beepy naggy things. When they're screaming blue murder at you there's still a good 6" of room left to use. I ignore them or turn them off when I remember to. It's like having a permanent mother-in-law in the back.
|
Ford Focus III - Steering wheel to pedals distance - Zero
