Hi,

Right had my 450h for around 3 months. I took it in to get a rattle fixed and when I got it back all my memory settings on my seat had been reset. I am a really fussy "sitter" it takes me ages to get my seating just right so I was well miffed off! Anyway It will probably take me another month to get it tweaked just perfect I am a bit of a geek and would have one setting for city driving and one for cruising on the motorway/highway.

Anyway I was just wondering if anyone out there had any guidelines or tips on how best to find the optimum seating position. Its almost liek having too many options can just get confusing!

thanks in advance.

 

FWIW, seating positions/memory are lost when battery is disconnected. I presume the rattles you were getting fixed were those in the dash. Since they are many airbags in the area this necessitated them disconnecting power to prevent accidental airbag damage or activation

Anyhow, as you mention, [optimal] seating positions are a personal preference. As such, you'll just need to play around w/it. Best way is to try and get it close before you head out somewhere. Adjust during the drive until you are comfortable. When you feel it's just right or that much closer, re-program the memory button (car has to be in park to do so IIRC). Tweak the settings more on next drive. If you don't hit the memory button to store the setting you'll get to repeat the exercise often

 

Yeah thats what I do its a war of attrition! I was just wondering if there were some standards like your arms should never be fully extended when touchign the steering wheel - and the height of the seat etc. I just tend to go with what I feel is comfortable though.

 

I believe the general recommendation is that if you hold the steering wheel at 9 and 3 (not 10 and 2...), you should be able to turn the wheel 180 degrees with both hands on the wheel and both shoulders not leaving the seatback. An extension of this is that your wrist should be able to be draped over the steering wheel at 12 o'clock without your shoulder leaving the seatback.

Also, you should be able to press down firmly with your foot behind the brake pedal (i.e. put your foot behind the brake pedal and try to press firmly against the firewall).

These are the recommendations that I see time and again from auto journalists but I guess whatever is most comfortable for you and affords you the most control over your car is the way you should drive. The above setup theoretically gives one the most control under normal and panic situations.

 

since almost everything is adjustable, I'd suggest you start from adjusting your position to something NON-adjustable--- in this case, paddles.
To add onto RudeDoggy's suggestion, adjusting seat cushion tilt to fully support your thighs is also very useful to relieve the stress for long cruising.
once these 2 things are done, tweak all other settings and you should do fine.