I am genuinely freaked out by people who are totally fine with buying a car online – sight unseen, no test drive – and just having it show up. You don’t want to at least sit in an example first? I don’t know about you, but when I sit in a new or unfamiliar car, I can instantly identify ergonomic hitches that are going to annoy me to varying degrees, or may even be deal-breakers for considering the car.
Chief amongst the deal-breakers is seat comfort, of course, or lack thereof. I doubt any manufacturer is shipping cars with objectively uncomfortable seats, but not all backsides are the same, and some seats just feel off depending on one’s unique butt curvature, density, and durometer (not to mention shoulder width, torso length, etc.). I for one cannot abide an overly enthusiastic lumbar support. If I plop into the driver’s seat and feel like I forgot to take off a fanny pack, that’s an instant nope.
One of the most apparently comfortable cars I’ve owned was a Ford Country Squire wagon as seen in the topshot. I acquired it from my Dad, and fully expected its lack of dynamic driving excitement to be made up for by sheer comfort. And the big wagon was indeed comfortable as a stationary chair, but awful to actually drive. The split front bench offered no support anywhere (on top of being covered in slippery vinyl), so I had to put a hand down on the bench or brace my shoulder against the door to corner at anything over 30mph. Sadly, highway cruising wasn’t much better. After about an hour or so, the soft seats had me squirming to reposition my butt-bones to alleviate the hot, sore spots that were steadily eroding my will to live.
How about you? What car were you most surprised to find was uncomfortable as hell, or vice-versa? The Autopian is asking!
Top graphic: Imperial Motorcars
’08 Camry SE with power leather seats. Thought it would at least be comfortable, but it was possibly the least comfortable car I’ve been in. They didn’t understand where the lumbar region resides, apparently thinking it’s somewhere just under the shoulder blades (and I’m 5’11”, so it’s not a being short thing), the typically cheap leather was slippery as an eel covered in Astroglide, the base was as soft as a park bench and I sunk into it about as far, and the suspension somehow managed to both ride and handle poorly. My GR86 is a ’60s Cadillac in comparison except that it handles.
I think I would be more of a Toyota fan if it weren’t for every one of their goddamn cars. I had the same awful experience as a passenger in a 2008-era Camry LE. I was shocked at how badly it rode.
Same goes for what is now the previous-generation RAV-4. Awful ride, but at least it had a cheap and ugly interior.
Hell, I was willing to give the new 2025 Camry a chance since it’s the first one since the ’93 that doesn’t look like an embarrassment. I checked one out at the auto show, and — nope, it still felt like a tinny penalty box compared to every other sedan I looked at.
Surprisingly uncomfortable: the sport seats in my e46 sedan. They were absolutely intolerable for anything beyond a couple of hours of highway driving — they inflamed my sciatic nerve like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.
Surprisingly comfortable: The factory seats in any GMT800 (pickups and SUVs), with a preference toward the ’03-’06 models. Just supremely comfortable whether cloth or leather, with a wide range of adjustments including lumbar support, and suitable for soaking up innumerable hours on the highway without so much as a twinge of a hotspot. Nothing GM has produced since has been anywhere close.
GMT800s are pretty darn comfortable! I miss my ‘99 Silverado and am seriously considering replacing my ‘94 F150 for one with a rear seat. My wife refuses to drive the Ford because the loosey-goosey steering freaks her out even though the front end has largely been rebuilt.
Somewhat surprisingly uncomfortable: Our 2011 Escape. Seats are ROCK solid, and don’t fit your body well. I get rather uncomfortable after about 30 minutes. Every other domestic car I’ve owned has lovely seats. Surprisingly Comfortable: 2001 Tracker. Seats are also hard, but are shaped just right. I don’t get too sore after a 4+ hour drive.
My Jaguar X Type has amazing seats for some reason, I didn’t expect that based that the car has that reputation of sharing a lot of parts with Ford.
My Polestar 2 ugh, hard as a rock, the vegan leather very sticky on hot weather, and I am surprised by this since Volvo has that fame of comfortable seats.
Surprisingly comfortable = Golf MK3
Surprisingly Uncomfortable = my 1st gen Mazda cx-9
Surprisingly comfortable — 1985 Toyota Celica. Drove it about 3 hours each way to cars shows and couldn’t believe how comfortable it was.
I’m with you there – I drove one from Sacramento to SFO and back years ago – very comfortable drive.
Real-estate agent had a Honda pilot. It was frankly a dump truck in the straights, and a town car with blown shocks in the corners.
So the exact opposite of what you want.
The only car that’s left me in physical pain after driving for a couple hours was a 2010ish Nissan Altima, just could not adjust the lower cushion to make it better. It was a perfectly adequate car otherwise, but stood out as I don’t normally have big comfort issues.
Comfort-adjacent, I tried sitting in a couple Alfa Giulias at work, and although I’m 5’8 (mostly torso though), my head was against the ceiling (at least in the ones with the sunroof) no matter how low I adjusted the seat. And of course they basically all have the sunroof. It’s not a ridiculously sleek or low-slung car, which made it a bit surprising.
Strangely comfortable, Smart Fortwo, I remember going to the local car show and sitting in all kinds of cars(I’m 6′ fairly girthy), not finding any cars that felt comfy, as a joke I tell my wife, let’s try the Smart, and I fit amazingly well. We both still laugh about it.
Strangely uncomfortable, just sat in the Rav4 last year at the car show and surprised at how cramped I felt, it’s about the size of our 10 year old Forester that I actually have to pull the seat forward a little if I move it all the way down, but seat all the way back and down in the Rav and just felt squeezed in.
Ugh – back seat of the Rav4 is terrible for adults. Actually, back of most SUV’s are cramped, uncomfortable with terrible lower seat cushions and too high a knee point.
Surprisingly uncomfortable?
Lincoln LS – rented one when new, zero butt padding, hard leather/leatherette, terrible on longer drives.
Surprisingly comfortable?
Fiat 500 Abarth – Drove 18 hours from CA to CO in one. I felt great afterwards.
The most uncomfortable car I ever rode in was a 2010 Toyota Camry. It was only about 20 minutes of moving a rental car but I have sat on more comfortable park benches. I wasn’t alone in my feelings about it everyone that I ever talked to about those gen of Camry complained about those garbage seats.
Luckily, I think that’s a generation of Camrys we can generally abandon because they have one of Toyota’s few bad engines.
Stretch Limos are generally uncomfortable.
You’re either one some bench seat bolted to the floor at an awkward angle with your knees in your chest, or facing backwards unless you get one of the factory seats… and let’s be real…town cars ride nice but it’s not anything that special.
Even the SUV limos, which are better, aren’t anything to write home about… especially if you cram the number of people limo companies say fit inside.
I guess the exception is personal limos but in general, I consider the wedding limo a widely overhyped experience.
For “Take Your Children to Work Day” when I was young, my dad’s workplace took us between the two factory locations in what was probably a Town Car limo. Yeah, even as a freakin’ 12-year-old (or so) getting into the “middle” seats meant crawling, basically. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.
There’s a reason party buses are picking up steam for that role now.
Surprisingly uncomfortable: 2013-17 Honda Accord Sport. On paper, it was practically built for me. I am a big guy, and it had just enough headroom, plenty of legroom, and it was a family sedan that came with a stick. JOY!
…except for the seats. I test drove these on two occasions, and just couldn’t not find a comfortable seating position. No support for the thighs no matter what I did.
Surprisingly comfortable: 2013-ish Mini Cooper. My wife rented one for a few days while her folks were in town. Despite my largesse, I had no problem finding a comfortable seating position, and no trouble driving it (automatic). The thing was an absolute hoot.
Body type? I am of average proportions and weight. Seats on a 2013 – 2017 Accord Sport are quite comfortable for extended drives in my book. My wife and daughters are more in the 5’3″ range and they love the seats in that car.
In 2018 I got a Malibu as a rental for a 3 week work trip. I had to drive it 7 hours to my destination. One thing I hate is lumbar support. To me any lumbar support feels like a bar breaking my back in half. This car had lumbar support that felt like it was still sticking out a mile even when it was at the lowest setting.
I’d made this 7 hour drive before and normally just stop once whenever I needed gas. I couldn’t make it more than an hour in this car without my back being wrecked. I considered trying to get it replaced, but I never needed to drive it more than a couple minutes back and forth from my hotel to the office those 3 weeks. Of course I regretted that on the trip back.
Surprisingly Comfortable: 2008 Volvo C30. My goodness, I underestimated HOW GOOD Volvo seats are. Could easily do a 15 hour drive in that car and not regret it.
Shockingly Uncomfortable: My Brother’s 2005 Tacoma Single Cab w/ Bench seats. Drove it for something like 30 hours across the country and had to buy a comfort pillow due to having no support AT ALL.
Unshockingly Uncomfortable: 2007 Mazdaspeed3 on Coilovers. My back will never recover.
I forgot how good my Slovo’s seats were. Good call!
Most uncomfortable for me was a 2014 Toyota Tundra. I just hated the seat. Most surprisingly comfortable was a Scion iQ(which also is in my top 5 cars I have driven funnily enough).
Current Volvo V60. I’ve had many people tell me Volvo made the best car seats of all for comfort, but I just could not get comfortable driving one however I adjusted the seat.
Volvo is winning this contest.
I feel like the current batch of Volvos (starting 2016ish, anything with the Thor’s Hammer headlights) took a step back in comfort – older Volvos had reasonably plush, but still very supportive seats, while the newer ones seem a bit firm and cheaper.
The ones with nonadjustable headrests are a hard no for me. They always project too far forward, and my neck doesn’t work that way.
Most uncomfortable: BMW seats. I know they’re supposed to be great, but my back hates them. Maybe my shoulder blades are too wide.
Surprisingly comfortable: old Mopar FWDs like the K-cars and the Omnirizon. Big, well-upholstered seats that held up over a long drive. One of the few upsides to these cars.
Most comfortable: My Buick LeSabre. Yes, the seats are flat AF, but they’re Barcaloungers. Total comfort even when driving across the country in 16-hour stints. I may never be able to be comfortable in another car thanks to this car’s seats, window seals, and sound insulation. I will find out soon as the LeSabre’s transmission is now in ticking-time-bomb mode.
Surprisingly comfortable – 2014 Ram Ecodiesel work truck. I’m talking bare bones, crank windows, mat instead of carpet, etc. There’s plenty of room, your right leg doesn’t hit a center console, door side armrest is at the right height, the left hand armrest/Seat back is at the right height.
Frankly, if it had power windows, locks, mirrors, bluetooth phone, 4wd (it is a pig in the snow) and navigation, it’d be perfect.
Mazda CX-5, Jeep Patriot, and Toyota Tercel. Just a bad fit for me. That Patriot can burn in hell.
I worked at an auto auction that did all the off lease Chrysler products in my area. As in had a special weekly auction of just 3 year old Chrysler products. Hated the Compass and Patriot the most of any car I drove there, including the absolutely destroyed repos, because the way the trim under the steering column would smash my knee unless I was very careful getting in and out.
+++Comfort: Air-cooled VW bugs. I’m a tall and wide dude with short legs and a tall torso, so many smaller cars don’t work for me, but old Bugs fit me fine and the seats are pretty comfortable.
—-comfort: Toyota Tacomas and 4-Runners. The seats are too close to the floor and the roof is strangely low for such a trucklike vehicle. I have yet to drive or ride in the new generation; perhaps it will be an improvement.
It was a tie between my 99 civic and my 03 s10
Neither could be sat in for longer than 20 minutes or my ass would go numb and my lower back would hurt.
So the civic, initially i looked for dc integra seats but those were sought after like hot cakes at a breakfast buffet, but found some bb8 prelude seats totally covered in dog hair, but mint otherwise so i said eff it and cleaned em, and required some McGuyver tweaks to work, but were epic. Could drive for hours in em. 10/10
The s10 i did a 3rd gen cavalier swap which only required rails to be swapped, which in hindsight, would work great for shaq with ALL the legroom one would gain, but awfull for very short legged people. But nonetheless, quite comfy and had excellent bolsters to them.
Good case for different seats fitting different people. I LOVE the bench seat in my 2000 S10 and others have commented on how comfortable it is.
Only time i had a bench was my 93 sonoma, and i felt it was ok, not awful, not great.
But yeah, i definitely agree there ought to be perhaps a couple of seat sizes offered by factory because some of america is built like me, a 5’10 250# guy and others not so much.
One size doesnt fit all, lol
I rented a rather large SUV in Maui. Giant door, yet, I could not for the life of me figure out how to get in without banging my head. Finally resorted to getting in head-first, leaving head last.
New Audi Q5. We took my wife’s 2016 in for service recently and were given a brand new model as a loaner. It had some nice features, but the seats weren’t one of them. They’re hard and the bolsters are so prominent that the either squish you between them or poke into your back/thighs. I don’t know what we’ll end up getting when we replace the old girl in a couple years.
I’ll also say that the the ride comfort on my 1996 Trooper isn’t great, compared to the 1996 Cherokee that it replaced. A lot more rolling and the seats just don’t hold you as well on turns.
Are you sure they weren’t adjustable bolsters that someone had set extra tight? The “comfort” seats on my S5 don’t have adjustable bolsters but they’re definitely not too tight at least for me, I wish they held me better. Our Q7 has adjustable ones.
Surprisingly uncomfortable is how I’d describe the driving position in my original 1993 Grand Cherokee ZJ. I’m a bigger guy so that doesn’t help the situation either. It’s an automatic, and there’s no good place at all to rest your left foot due to lack of space I guess- no wonder DT is always looking for Holy Grail Manual ZJs. And on the right side, the shifter for the transfer case is sticking out right where my knee wants to be, so there’s no place to rest my leg comfortably. I love driving her on short trips to the office and such, but anything over an hour is agony for me.