Anyone Noticed The Stupid Centre Seatbelt?

rayaans · November 27, 2014

As per the title, has anyone noticed it?

It overlaps and makes a mess of things! Why make something so complicated! I dont understand the logic behind it.

It comes from the roof - distracts you when looking in the interior mirror, makes it uncomfortable for 3 people and its a faff getting it on and off and putting it back into the holder in the roof!

What kind of afterthought was this? Lexus make a good all round car but they sure do screw up on some things don't they?

stevet · November 27, 2014

Our old Rav4 used to have one of those as well. Really annoying.

jathreem · November 27, 2014

As per the title, has anyone noticed it?

It overlaps and makes a mess of things! Why make something so complicated! I dont understand the logic behind it.

It comes from the roof - distracts you when looking in the interior mirror, makes it uncomfortable for 3 people and its a faff getting it on and off and putting it back into the holder in the roof!

What kind of afterthought was this? Lexus make a good all round car but they sure do screw up on some things don't they?

Hi,

that could be a problem for all, who would use the rear with two ISOFIX child seats. In this case you can't use the seat belt in the middle. That's a poor technical solution from Lexus. :megaangry: :iraqi-info-minister:

AndyMJ · November 27, 2014

Can't say I'd noticed this in the pics and videos that I'd seen to date. Now you've mentioned it I've looked online and found what your talking about. Silly design.

I get mine on Monday. Now you've said - its going to bug the hell out of me lol Thanks lol

rayaans · November 27, 2014

Can't say I'd noticed this in the pics and videos that I'd seen to date. Now you've mentioned it I've looked online and found what your talking about. Silly design.

I get mine on Monday. Now you've said - its going to bug the hell out of me lol Thanks lol

Yes I see what you mean. I only found out as I had my 3 kids with me and my daughter likes sitting in the middle seat so needed a seatbelt and I couldn't find it until the dealer showed me where it was. It was a pain, it overlaps and make a mess and its very fiddly to use. Best to just not use the middle seat I guess but it'd be annoying if you have 3 kids who'll be in the back most of the time

AndyMJ · November 28, 2014

Thankfully - no such problem. 90% of the time it will be just be in the car, 7% of the time my wife in the passenger seat (she thinks she's going to take it horse riding lol), and the other 2% with my one daughter in the back (who was looking forward to the electric reclining seats - until I told her they dont come in the UK spec cars).

Roll on monday. Bye bye BMW 330D - hello milk float.

DJP · November 28, 2014

Thankfully - no such problem. 90% of the time it will be just be in the car, 7% of the time my wife in the passenger seat (she thinks she's going to take it horse riding lol), and the other 2% with my one daughter in the back (who was looking forward to the electric reclining seats - until I told her they dont come in the UK spec cars).

Roll on monday. Bye bye BMW 330D - hello milk float.

Can I have it for the remaining 1%?

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

AndyMJ · November 28, 2014

Thankfully - no such problem. 90% of the time it will be just be in the car, 7% of the time my wife in the passenger seat (she thinks she's going to take it horse riding lol), and the other 2% with my one daughter in the back (who was looking forward to the electric reclining seats - until I told her they dont come in the UK spec cars).

Roll on monday. Bye bye BMW 330D - hello milk float.

Can I have it for the remaining 1%?
Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

lol ... deal, if you fancy paying 1% of the price of the car ?

Ricey7000 · April 15, 2017

Hi Folks

Doing some research to put together a short list of cars and just wondering is this still an issue in the latest model? We've three kids (only one still in a car seat) and this would be a deal breaker if we couldn't have 3 people in the back

Thanks

rayaans · April 15, 2017

1 hour ago, Ricey7000 said:

Hi Folks

Doing some research to put together a short list of cars and just wondering is this still an issue in the latest model? We've three kids (only one still in a car seat) and this would be a deal breaker if we couldn't have 3 people in the back

Thanks

You can have 3 people in the back

The centre seatbelt comes from the roof though so if you want, you can just leave it hanging from up there permanently.

Ricey7000 · April 15, 2017

58 minutes ago, rayaans said:

You can have 3 people in the back

The centre seatbelt comes from the roof though so if you want, you can just leave it hanging from up there permanently.

But does it mean the person sitting to the left of the middle seat has the seat belt connector sticking into their back?

BTW Thanks for the quick response.

rayaans · April 15, 2017

3 hours ago, Ricey7000 said:

But does it mean the person sitting to the left of the middle seat has the seat belt connector sticking into their back?

BTW Thanks for the quick response.

I can't remember.

From memory yes, there will be some belt there. Best to check it out on a test drive though

Ricey7000 · April 16, 2017

8 hours ago, rayaans said:

I can't remember.

From memory yes, there will be some belt there. Best to check it out on a test drive though

Yep , I'll keep it on the shortlist 👍

C Mclean · April 16, 2017

First thing I done was to stow the belt back up into the roof mount out of the way, and so far I've managed to have a max of three passengers.

paulrnx · April 17, 2017

I squeeze 5 kids onto my back seat with no seatbelts and it works fine. They're wedged in too tightly to move

Capitalmagpie · April 18, 2017

On 16/04/2017 at 9:39 AM, C Mclean said:

First thing I done was to stow the belt back up into the roof mount out of the way, and so far I've managed to have a max of three passengers.

Thanks just done the same with mine

noby76 · April 19, 2017

On 27/11/2014 at 0:07 AM, rayaans said:

As per the title, has anyone noticed it?

It overlaps and makes a mess of things! Why make something so complicated! I dont understand the logic behind it.

It comes from the roof - distracts you when looking in the interior mirror, makes it uncomfortable for 3 people and its a faff getting it on and off and putting it back into the holder in the roof!

What kind of afterthought was this? Lexus make a good all round car but they sure do screw up on some things don't they?

My guess will be it's there to brace the chest of the middle passenger in case of a collision so they don't go flying off into the front passengers or windscreen. its more secure when compared to cars with the waist strap seat belt alone in the middle.

rayaans · April 19, 2017

4 hours ago, noby76 said:

My guess will be it's there to brace the chest of the middle passenger in case of a collision so they don't go flying off into the front passengers or windscreen. its more secure when compared to cars with the waist strap seat belt alone in the middle.

I would be inclined to agree.....

.....However, my RX also has a 3 point seatbelt in the middle and that doesn't come from the roof. Same with the wife's IS

Ricey7000 · April 22, 2017

I went to a dealer today with my eldest and gave the back seat a try with him in the middle and me to the left of him.

It was fine - the buckle didn't dig into my back at all and he was comfortable in the middle ( for reference he's about 5' tall and I'm 6' 3") and there was still room for our youngest in an isofix seat

R

Goggy · April 25, 2017

Only once had three in the back, so used the center seat-belt. Seemed to work fine, then I just stowed it away in the roof again. No problem.

paulrnx · April 26, 2017

It's a naff design isn't it. I've only used it once in my car in a little over two months and I keep it secured in the roof when not in use. Guess it's safety related and considered better than mounting the centre belt on the seat back I suppose

rayaans · April 27, 2017

On 26/04/2017 at 7:47 PM, paulrnx said:

It's a naff design isn't it. I've only used it once in my car in a little over two months and I keep it secured in the roof when not in use. Guess it's safety related and considered better than mounting the centre belt on the seat back I suppose

Nah its not that as the new RX has a conventional setup.

Its because the Toyota Rav4 has it in the ceiling and they couldn't be bothered changing it

paulrnx · April 28, 2017

17 hours ago, rayaans said:

Nah its not that as the new RX has a conventional setup.

Its because the Toyota Rav4 has it in the ceiling and they couldn't be bothered changing it

Ah. Ok. It looks even better if you leave the centre belt plugged in. So nice to see the belt trailing down from the roof. Classy. Well done Lexus!

had a good look over a brand new RC in the showroom this week. Very nice indeed

Heanorboy · April 30, 2017

Guess is not a problem for me as it is the same set up as my previous Honda CRV.

I thought that although a little fiddly to use it worked well when needed and once put back in its holder you wouldn't even know it was there.

It also means that there is no obstructions when the back seat is down which there was on an estate car I owned when the seat belt came out of the back of the seat.

David