Seats too narrow :(
 

I'm pretty bummed right now. I've been absolutely agog over the twins since I first read about them a couple of years ago. I finally got my greedy little mitts on one about 3 weeks ago.

First: damn. Hands down the most fun car I've ever driven. Granted, that may not be saying a hell of a lot, but I daylied a Miata for a year and a half and put 20,000 miles on motorcycles. I know fun. This is fun.

Second: the seats don't work for me. At all. Getting in, they're OK. It feels like I just need to adjust myself a bit, and we'll be good. But then... I never manage to adjust right. After half an hour, they're remarkably uncomfortable, and after an hour, they're flat-out painful.

Basically, my shoulders are too wide. I'm 6' and 230 lbs, with wide shoulders. When I sit in the seat with my shoulders in a neutral position, my back is about an inch off the seat. When I push my seat back, it forces my shoulders into a hunch. I'm not new to cars not fitting me (Jeep Cherokee: my head brushed the ceiling. Miata: seat all the way back wasn't quite far enough for long trips. Civic: Had to adjust the seat *just so* and get my head positioned in the sunroof), but this is the first time a seat has been too narrow.

So here's my options, as I see them:

1) Live with it. Not really an option, it's my only vehicle and needs to be comfortable for multi-hour drives, which isn't absolutely not right now.

2) Get some sort of seat pad that increases the flat middle portion of the seat back an inch or so. This'll have to be a custom piece.

3) Have the seats re-shaped. I'm not thrilled about this idea, since it's likely to be expensive and ruins resale value.

4) Aftermarket seats or a seat swap. I'm not thrilled about this either- expensive, work-intensive, and I'll lose the airbags. In the Bay Area, air bags are a good idea.

5) Heave a deep sigh, and sell it off. I got a decent deal on it, I'm sure I can recoup my money on it. For comparison, I *loved* the tC seats when I test drove those. Yes, I know- not proper sport seats. I don't care, 90% of what I do is commute, AND I come from a Miata seat that has basically no bolster.

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope. :iono:

1) if it really is that much of inconvenience bordering with pain during long drives, probably not an option?
2) might be simplest-cheapest .. but probably will compromise side bolstering for track use. For daily driven only car i'd consider though some pillow/pad to hang from headrest due simplicity/cheapness.
3) resale value, will lessen side support for future owners of narrower build (2.) and it will be expensive. Imho not worth to invest much in stock seats. If it had been some cheap fix, yes, but something $500-1K .. i'd rather invest that with adding some in better aftermarket seat ..
4) expensive. Will it be airbags that you'll loose? Imho you'll just have to disable sitting sensors due difficulty to move seating sensors from OE seats, not airbag deployment functionality itself. And possibly seat heating in some of trims.
But probably this is what i'd do, if i liked car a lot otherwise.
BTW, aftermarket seats don't consist from bucket seats only. There are also adjustable ones, there are also with more compliant side supports vs narrow/deep race bucketseats with compromised rear visibility, there are also wider ones. I'd try to find one that would fit better first. Especially you have to replace only one, driver-side, if you are not anal on both of them being same for symmetry in looks, that will help to keep budget reasonable.

Weird do hear that fun wise twins seemed even better then miata (maybe very old miata then, if you mentioned no side bolstering at all)? When i test drove 2016 miata it seemed even more fun purely driving fun-wise .. not by much and it went alongside fitment issues (even w/o helmet too little headroom and couldn't get seat for ideal steering wheel/hands/legs position) and practicality compromises that made it below minimum acceptable treshold for daily driven only car, but just fun factor wise imho it was slightly ahead.

Re-shaping is generally not too expensive, and these cars don't really have resale value to worry about. That would probably be my pick if you don't want to swap to a sport seat.


Either that or just keep smashing yourself in and eventually the bolsters will wear down to fit.

"reshaping" - doesn't it involve cutting padding or bending seat frame?

Do you have any idea how many of these cars get modded or totaled?

You can pick up oem seats for under $100 if you look hard...

Pick up a spare drivers seat if you are worried about resale...

Reshape your seat and have fun!!!

If you love the car that much, I'd start with this option. Buy an OEM seat for cheap that someone is offloading (should be easy to get your paws on one for $150-or-so.) Have whatever modifications done to that seat, and install. If it's STILL impossible to live with the car, THEN maybe consider selling it with the original, un-modified seat...?

OEM seat by dealership prices is VERY expensive.
Used ones .. googling returns price from 500, 599, 800 and alike prices (for two though).
That doesn't look for me like $100.
And if it's $500, why not $1K for new aftermarket that fits exactly like one wants? And if anything, unmodified OE one can be bolted back, if car is sold in future.

I see stock seats go for under 200 all the time. Recyclers and ebay vendors...maybe not. People parting out cars on the forums and FB groups, yeah. Especially if you find a local deal.

That's INSANELY overpriced. People ROUTINELY sell pairs of front seats for $3-400 for both. I just bought a driver's seat in like-new shape for $150 for a racing sim. My friend bought a like-new driver's seat for $150 for his racing sim. His friend bought a like-new passenger seat for $150 for HIS racing sim.

I just hopped on our FRS/BRZ/GT86 Marketplace on Facebook and found three sets of seats. Each pair had an asking price of $200, $400, and $400... for the PAIR.

My point exactly... if you want a to click a mouse and have ups deliver you will pay for the service! Do some leg work and deals can be found.

It was a super different ride. My Miata was a 2000, so significantly softer ride than the FR-S, and way down on power. It was a different animal- you really had to carry speed in corners, or it would dog horribly on the exit. The FR-S is more like a motorcycle- hit the brakes as much as you want, then punch it on the exit and try to keep the rear in line. Total gigglefest.

I'll say this, though- no way I'm driving the FR-S even 6/10s on the roads around here. The Miata I could push pretty hard, though.

Good points all around about buying a stock seat and modding that- hadn't thought about that. I'm new to vehicles with pretty much any electronics at all- are they plug-and-play for things like seat sensors, airbags, etc, or does the car recognize the "right" seat and freak out if it's a different one? Hand me an engine to rebuild, and I don't blink. Screw an ECU to it, and my eyes glaze over. Help me out here. :P

You can swap them without any issues. It's just four bolts (E-Torx, but you can use a regular socket on them) and a few harnesses to unplug underneath depending on what options you have.

Also this car's got piss poor lumbar support, which is especially evident if you have a bad back or if you did deadlifts at the gym the day prior lol.

I would honestly start with some generic pads. I saw on the FT86Speedfactory website some STI cushions for the lower back.

Like this: http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/rsp-...l#.WeeJ5F-s-nM

And this: http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/rsp-...l#.WeeKC1-s-nM

Or this: http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/rsp-...l#.WeeKMl-s-nM

I would start there, as these options are relatively inexpensive. Like you I also find the seats uncomfortable but admittedly I'm pretty good at solving back pain. Proper exercise, stretching, and having a good mattress (especially) is essential.

Good luck!

I have taken the seat totally apart. There really is not much padding over a metal frame. And especially, with the side airbag it has, I WOULD NOT try and modify it. Get a seat that is the right size, or at least de-activate the airbag. No telling what it would do after you bend the seat frame. Just my $0.02