Lowering the Driver's Seat

At 6'1", I feel the Prius driver's seat is too high. I like to ride with the seat back up all the way since it's more comfortable for my back on long trips. When the seat back is leaned all the way forward, I often must crouch down to look up at traffic lights. Also, my vision out the rear view mirror is restricted by the sloping roof. If there's a slight upward slope on the road behind me, I can't see very far behind me. I must use the side mirror instead (ie: if the seat was lower, I would have much better visibility out of the front and rear windshields). Also, the top of the speedometer numbers are cut off by the dash due to my high angle over the dash. And my head is too close to the roof of the car, which makes me feel more cramped than necessary.

I was told the interior of the Prius was designed by a Japanese woman. This seems to make sense, as I can't understand why Toyota would not provide seat height adjustment. Manual adjustment on the drivers seat only would be great. Given Toyota's scale, the incremental cost would be low. Even the Corolla has seat height adustment. The Prius has so many excellent features. It's too bad they missed this one. I bet most people over 5'10" would immediately lower the seat once they got in the car if they had the option.

I had a retrofitter move my seat back three inches, which makes the car way more comfortable and luxurious feeling. (The specifics of how I did this and safety issues are discussed in other posts.)

Lowering the seats seems to be more difficult. Four triangular pieces of metal rise up from the seat rails to support the seat. The seat is secured by one bolt at the top of each triangular piece. It looks like you could drill holes in the triangles one inch below the existing holes and re-attach the seat.

Has anyone tried this or figured out a different way to lower the driver's seat?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ Jul 25 2006, 10:29 AM) [snapback]291940[/snapback]</div>

Did you see what I mean about the seat being attached to 4 triangular pieces of metal by 4 bolts, one for each piece? Sounds like you've looked at it more closely than I. Do you think you could drill lower holes for the bolts? It didn't look like anything would get in the way. There seems to be room above the triangular pieces so that they could stick up an inch higher. Also, there's much more than an inch clearance over the nav system. Since the same metal pieces would be used to hold the seat in place, it doesn't seem shearing or any other safety feature would be affected in an accident. Lowering the seat an inch wouldn't affect airbag performance since they're over-engineered to handle people of all sizes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brandon @ Jul 25 2006, 09:58 AM) [snapback]291923[/snapback]</div>

Yes, it is a duplicate post under a different title. I posted it late in the day and it quickly disappeared from the new posts list. So I reposted it thinking the issue might be important to tall Prius drivers. Some tall drivers might deal with the lack of seat height adustment by leaning their seats back. However, for those of us that don't like the Barko Lounger mode of driving, this is not an acceptable option.

It's hard to understand why our wonderful cars with so many great features lack this very basic feature. Even low end cars often have it. The position of the driver in the car has a big influence on driver satisfaction. The first time I sat in a Prius, I felt the seat was too far forward (even when back all the way) and too high. Since I love everything else about the car, I bought it anyway. I think Toyota made a big mistake by not providing seat height adjustment. It's a feature that would greatly increase driver satisfaction for many drivers, yet cost very little, especially if they only provided manual adjustment on the driver's seat.

I've taken care of the too far forward issue by having a retrofitter move the seats back. But I haven't been able to figure out how to lower the seat yet. I can't imagine that I'm the only Prius driver that would like to have the driver's seat a little lower. I'm hoping that the collective wisdom and experience of this group might be able to come up with an answer, or at least provide a few ideas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dpower @ Jul 26 2006, 11:23 PM) [snapback]292972[/snapback]</div>

I'm pretty sure the track does slope down a little toward the back, so that when you move the seat back it goes a little lower. I had a retrofitter weld steel onto the front of my seat rails, so the movement of my front seats is shifted back three inches. I think this has lowered them a little. The dashboard numbers are no longer cut off, but I think that's mostly because I'm back from the dash more.

I would still like to lower the seat about .5 to 1 inch. I was hoping people on this site might have some ideas. There must be many others like you and I who would like the seat lower, given that the seat lacks height adjustment. However, I haven't gotten much feedback. So I suppose no one's found a solution.

I had to figure out how to move the seat back on my own. It took a while. I first went to one retrofitter. I didn't like their work, so I had them put the seat back. The second retrofitter knew what they were doing, since they'd done the job many times before on other cars. They did an excellent job.

Looks like I might have to figure out the seat height issue too. The only thing I can think of is drilling lower holes on the support brackets. I'd rather pay someone to do the job, someone who's done similar work before. Any suggestions about people that could do the job or ideas on how to lower the seat would be greatly appreciated.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jul 27 2006, 04:57 PM) [snapback]293404[/snapback]</div>

Good idea Darell. When I brought the car in, I did ask him to lower the seat as well as move it back if possible. I didn't push it too hard on the lowering because I wasn't sure I'd still need it once the seat was back more. Plus he indicated that lowering the seat was not something he'd done often. Moving the seat back is a straight forward mod that they've done on many cars. But I suspect the means to lower a seat varies car to car. Plus with seat lowering you start getting into metal designed to be sheered off in an accident. The seat rails are solid and meant to stay in place during an accident. So it's easier to modify them without affecting seat safety.

Maybe I'll call the guy back and see if he's willing to take a shot at it. The work seems fairly easy. I could probably do it myself. In my teens and 20's, I used to spend a lot of time doing extensive car repairs. Now with my work I don't have the time or inclination. I'd rather pay someone to do it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tnthub @ Jul 30 2006, 01:35 PM) [snapback]294660[/snapback]</div>

Thanks! I considered getting Recaro seats. I hear they're great. But then I wouldn't have the side airbags in the seats, as I have now. Also, I wonder if the seatbelt and steering wheel airbag systems would integrate with a non-Toyota seat. The best would be if there was an aftermarket seat made specifically for the Prius. I'd also like to avoid spending $1000+ if possible.

If I'm feeling adventurous one day, I may pull out my drivers seat, unbolt the seat from the four pieces of metal that hold it to the seat rail, drill four new holes about 1" lower, and reattach the seat. I think that will work. The seat would still sheer as designed, the slight lowering wouldn't affect performance of the front airbag since it's over-engineered and designed to handle people of various shapes and sizes, and there's plenty of clearance for the navigation system.