Seat Lowering

At 6'1", I sit too high in the Prius. I have to crouch down to see red lights, vision out the rearview mirror is cut off and the top of the speedometer is sometimes cut off by the dashboard. I would like to be at least an inch lower in the car. Does anyone know if it's possible to lower the driver's seat?

I went to an handicap retrofitter. They extended by seat rails, so the seats slide back an extra 3 inches. But they said lowering the seat would be harder. Any ideas?

Thanks, Frank

 

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

Regarding moving the seats back, I took the car to New England Wheels in Billerica, MA. There's a guy there who's done this to many cars. They did an excellent job. I had the front seats done. The work involved drilling out the rivets that hold the two pedastals to each seat rail (two for each front seat). Then they welded about 4 inches of heavy duty steel (a lot thicker than the seat rails) to the bottom front of the seat rail. Then they welded the pedastals back on the rails, three inches forward from the original position. Now the seats slide back a full three inches more. It feels very luxurious.

I don't know why they didn't design the car this way in the first place. Even with the seat 3 inches back, there's still enough leg room in the back seat for a tall person. On the rare occasion when a super tall person sits there, I could slide my seat up a little.

Re the airbags, they come out from the side of the seat I believe. So moving them has no impact on safety. The bags that come out of the roof molding have some extra room in them to accomodate different accidents I"m sure. So they'd likely work well too. Even if they worked a little less well, that is definitely a trade off I'd make to have comfort all the time. In my other cars, I never had side airbags and I'm still around.

Re lowering the seat. I bet it could be done. The move back didn't affect the Nav system (I have a 2005 Prius BC, #6 package). The seat could be lowered at least an inch without hitting the nav system I believe. If you look under the seat, you'll see two triangular pieces of metal coming up from each seat rail. These support the seat. It looks like you could take out the seat, unbolt the bolt at the top of the triangular piece of metal and drill a hole 1 inch lower in the triangle piece then rebolt the seat to it. I think nothing would obstruct this. The metal I'm sure is designed to shear a certain way in an accident. I don't think this mod would affect accident performance.

Cheers, Frank

 

It's a good point. While I'm not sure, it seems it wouldn't make that big a difference. A short person for example, would have the seat more forward, with or without the mod. I doubt if a three inch shift in seat position would change bag pressure much. It seems the larger shift in pressure would come with a large seat move, say 6 inches or more. A tall person would have the seat back with or without the mod. They'll get full or near full pressure either way.

I agree there might be a trade off. If the issue is greater comfort every minute I'm in the car versus slightly reduced functionality of an air bag that may never deploy over the life of the car. I'll take the comfort. I've got the seat and shoulder belt on anyway.

I'm sure they over-engineer the airbags. These things are designed to have 0% failure rates. They also have to take into account the size of the driver. For example, a fat short person will be a lot closer to the wheel than a skinny short person. The air bag has to work for both the fat and the skinny. Therefore, I think it is highly unlikely that moving the seat back 3 inches would significantly affect airbag performance.