Uncomfortable Seats

[keiron99]

I picked up my 2014 GS300h last week.

I have quite a commute each day – an hour to work and 60-70 minutes home. 

Unfortunately, I have to report that I cannot get comfortable in the seat. I can’t wait to get out when I get to my destination. 

I’m constantly fiddling with the settings to try to get comfortable. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but I do feel that despite being short (I’m only five seven), the seat cushion doesn’t extend far enough. Certainly not as far as my old E Class which felt more like an armchair. 

It therefore feels like all the pressure is on just a short portion of the back of my legs. 

In an ideal world, I’d have the seats from the Premier model which I think have many more adjustments including an extendable cushion. (What chance I could find one of them?!) 

I’m really at a loss as to what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions that might help? Are there any aftermarket accessories that don’t look to crappy that might help?

[Zotto]

I have a Premier with 18 different adjustments, but also with a standard GS you have many settings to work with.

So, try with these steps:

Sit on and move the seat till you can put your feet comfy on pedals and left foot on rest position.

Raise the height of seat till you can see well front car shape and , with feet on floor, you feel comfy and knees are a little more than 90 degrees.

Now regulate the angle of back to have a good support, also with an angle only  a bit more than 90 degrees, but not too much.

Then, go on with other settings to have the best seat you feel.

After this, without moving your back, move your arms and give a look how you reach the steering wheel:  you have to set the right position for steering wheel in length  and height with the electric knob at side of it, it's right when you can put your wrists on top.

After all these operations, set in memory keeping one of 3 preset keys till you hear a beep.

You can modify your settings and memorize them on other keys on door to try later which one of 3 settings you like more.

To recall position, press in P one of 1-2-3 keys.

 

[rayaans]

I have to say, you're probably 1 in a 100,000 as the GS seats are some of the most comfortable seats ever made. Thats a fact, not an opinion.

Anyway, you're seat adjustment isn't right if you're feeling pain in the back of your legs. Id say you need to raise the seat from the front upwards whilst keeping the back of the seat lower so the seat base is at an incline instead of flat. 

You can do this by pressing down on the back portion of the seat raising button whilst pressing up on the same button from the front if that makes sense.

[keiron99]

Thanks for the replies.

I appreciate I am in a very small minority. But comfort is a subjective thing, it's not a fact! Anyone who has tried shopping for a bed or sofa with their wife will know what I mean!

I actually think I may have got things completely the wrong way round.

Rayaan, you suggest raising the front of the seat. I had thought that there wasn't enough support just behind my knees too. But apparently, it's pressure in that area that causes pain, if this document here is to be believed:

http://drivingergonomics.lboro.ac.uk/downloads/initial driving position and posture guide.pdf

the only way I can get thigh support along the length of the cushion and comfortably control the pedals is to have the seat very low down. It feels a bit odd, and I would rather be higher up in a more commanding position. I also probably look a bit of a ***** (likes those kids who slouch in their Saxos!) but I tried it on my commute this morning and it was a bit better. 

I am also going to try to make the leather a little more "slippy". In my Merc, I could just slide myself a cm or two just to keep the blood flowing. The leather in the Lexus (lovely though it is!) seems to be a bit more "sticky". So that's a job for the weekend!

 

[rayaans]

Are you sure you're not sitting too far back and overstretching? Just a thought.

 

[OldTrout]

I don't want to hijack this thread about seats but I had a problem with the head restraints on a GS300h I drove recently whilst my car was being serviced.

I am very long in the back (one extra vertebra) and if my legs were in proportion I would be about 6’4”. The driver's seat in my 2007 GS450h is very comfortable for me. (The best car seat I have ever had.)
The head restraint of the 2016 GS300h had only two notches on its stem and neither was anywhere near high enough to put it at the recommended position for me. Worse, it poked forward a long way. The restraint in my 2007 GS tilts a bit but this new GS one appears not to do this. It forced my head forward and was very uncomfortable. (Think 007 in "The world is not enough".) I took the head rest off completely after a few miles and then felt comfortable though very vulnerable. The seat itself seemed fine although I was not in it for more the 30 minutes at a time.

When I returned the car the sales staff had gone so I could not ask them.  I checked all the cars in the showroom - IS, NX, RX, CT and possibly an RCF.  Non of them tilted and all except the NX were poking forwards too much for me. The NX was still too low however. They all had just two notches. Did I miss some adjustment that would have enabled it to fit me?

Very strange. The cars are getting bigger but for smaller (Japanese?) drivers.

[arkviz]

I have to say, few months ago, when i was purchasing my GS300h, there was one 2014 model for test drive. It was great car except for it's seats. They were too short and too firm for me. It was evident, because few minutes before, i was testing IS300h F-sport, which has the best seats, I've tried. Instead, in showroom, there was my current car, 2016 GS300h with standard seats, which looks the same, but they were much more different to sit. Not as comfy as IS  F-sport seats, but really good. My bigger problem is i cannot put them lower and I am only 170cm (5'7") but if go further with seat, also steering wheel is too far in it's closest position.

[keiron99]

OK so here's my update...

On Monday morning, I thought what the heck, I should try a COMPLETELY different position (ooerr, missus).

So I put the seat high up, and the back almost bolt upright.

And you know what, after 10 minutes, it didn't feel too bad. I lowered the seat a bit, and reclined just a little, but after another 3 journeys each of 40 miles it doesn't feel too bad at all. Still not quite as "natural" a fit as my Merc - but then I had covered 70k in 4 years, I had moulded to its shape!  And the Lexus is an undeniably classier environment (save for the failings of the "infotainment" which is rather lacking on the "info" side of things...!)

[keiron99]

On 14/10/2016 at 7:42 PM, OldTrout said:

 

The head restraint of the 2016 GS300h had only two notches on its stem and neither was anywhere near high enough to put it at the recommended position for me. Worse, it poked forward a long way.

1

You know, you are right,  they do poke forward. I have noticed that whilst messing with the settings this last week.

You only have to look at the seat to see that. I really don't know why it sticks forward quite so much.

[OldTrout]

Whilst my dampers were replied on 23rd. Jan I had an NX300h Luxury for the day. I chose the NX as it was the only one of IS, NX, RX, CT and GS that they had available that I could sit in without having my head forced onto my chest. However I have to say that after about three hours I did find the headrest uncomfortable.

I did find a sentence in the brochure about seats designed for the larger European frame or words to that effect.  But not big enough for this European. I did have plenty of headroom even with the panoramic roof. It is just the headrest which only just high enough and pokes forward too much.

I hope my 2007 GS lasts a very long time as none of the current Lexus UK range is suitable without modification. (I've not tried the LS or even seen one for that matter.) 

John

[GSLV6]

I have to agree with some on this thread.  My 2007 GS had the most comfortable seats I've ever encountered (10 way adjustable) with adjustment of the head restraint.  I tried a 2014 GS450h and felt that 1) the seats were too firm and ii) less supportive because the seat cushion was shorter (and felt narrower, whether it was or wan't) and in common with the IS300, the head restraint I felt was  too far forwards at too aggressive and angle.  It would have cripled me on a longer run.  The solution in a borrowed IS300 courtesy car I had for a weekend, was to lower the head restraint to its lowest setting so it didn't catch the back of the head in the middle, forcing the neck into a cricked position.  It was fine with the seats quite reclined, but anything like an upright driving position and I found it agonsingly uncomfortable.

The RX seating, by complete contrast, I find way more comfortable.  They're not as firm and the head restraint doesn't seem to push the head forwards quite as much.

Lexus seem to have taken the 2007 Mk3 GS and actually made the seating far less comfortable in the new models despite all the R&D.