2012 Toyota Camry SE: Driver Seat Minority Report
May 09, 2012
My colleagues love the seats in our Camry. I like the surfaces, the bolsters and the heater, but the driver seat is too deep for me. The front edge bumps up against the back of my knees and calves, and I feel like a little kid who's been plopped in a chair that's just too big for her.
I'm 5' 4'', which is the average height for U.S. women. My legs are short, however, and I guess that's the problem. It's just a minor discomfort for a half-hour drive, but think it would bother me over a longer trek.
A 2007 Edmunds feature story talked about the difficulties carmakers face in pleasing everybody when it comes to seats:
"Thigh support is the peskiest aspect of cushions. 'If your thighs don't have enough contact with the cushion, you create a pressure point where you're actually sitting on your tailbone, and your weight isn't distributed,' explained [Michael] Sweers [general manager of engineering design for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America]. 'An hour or two along, you get "tailburn" — a lower backache. Most people associate that with not having enough lumbar support, but it's really the pressure on your tailbone.'
"So seat designers can make cushions longer or wider, or make them electrically movable. But they also have to watch out that the calves of shorter drivers don't come into contact with the longer cushions..."
That's me: a cushion contactee. Probably a misdemeanor in several states.
Carroll Lachnit, Features Editor @8,327 miles.
