BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 3 Feb 2016 08:22

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - Chrishunt

I have the BMW 2 Gran Tourer Luxury edition and whilst it's a fine car in many respects I find the driver's seat causes pain and discomfort to my right leg above the knee. This is down to the shape of the seat base and not helped by the double row of stitching running around the top of the edge of the seat.

I brought the issue to the attention of the dealership soon after taking delivery of the car and they referred the matter to BMW. BMW responded by saying that as the seat is as designed and has no technical flaws there is nothing they can do.

I'm a little over average height and of average build so no issues with fitting into the car but I'm close to the point of changing the car for something else but don't want the resultant financial hit. Any suggestions?

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Wed 3 Feb 2016 12:06

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - Peter.N.

I had a similar problem with a 5 series estate I had some years ago, I tried all sorts of cushions but could not make it comfortable, I disposed of the car soon afterwards, not just because of the seats though, I didn't like it much compared with the Citroen XMs I hade been used to.

Had I kept the car my only solution would have been to see if there were seats available from another vehicle that would be more comfortable, possibly from a scrap yard.

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Wed 3 Feb 2016 12:35

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - skidpan

Swapping seats is not really a solution today because of the safety systems built into cars. A change would also require notifying to your insurers.

I had a Ford Puma and any journey over about 40 miles caused terrible back pain. Never had it any other car before or since. Just had to stop and have a walk around for a few minutes, that solved the issue for another 40 miles. Managed to work round it for 6 years.

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Wed 3 Feb 2016 16:59

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - RobJP

The seat is adjustable in nearly every way. I'd suggest raising the front of the seat base so that your knees are better supported.

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Wed 3 Feb 2016 17:20

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - Avant

I'll move this to Motoring as it's an issue of general interest.

The 2-series Active Tourer (same seats as yours) is on my shortlist, and I too found the Luxury seats uncomfortable: the base is much too flat and hard. No help to you - but the seats in the cheaper Sport version are much more supportive.

As Rob says, raising the front of the seat should help, but no doubt you've tried all the permutations already. It's possible that BMW could replace your seats with Sport seats, but it would cost a lot and trying various cushions or cut pieces of foam would be cheaper.

The only alternative would be to try to do a swap with a dealer with a Sport version: you might get a straight swap with one of comparable age / mileage. (Aleays supposing you find the Sport seats comfortable!)

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Thu 4 Feb 2016 07:30

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - Chrishunt

Thanks for the responses. These particular seats are the manually adjusted version so don't have the full range of adjustability afforded by the electrically adjusted version. We have looked at the sport seats but they present a problem for my wife; she's a little over 5 foot and her legs are too short for the base of the sports seats - a common problem I understand.

I have used a cushion but that fell apart so will need a new one. It's just a bit galling to have to spend money to make up for a very poor design.

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Thu 4 Feb 2016 08:11

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - daveyjp

On a 3 series GT test drive I knew before we even began the drive that it wasn't for me as the manual seat adjustment system was absolutely terrible.

When you have two drivers of a car this is important as adjustments are made between each driver.

Unfortuantely if you find a car where the seats do not work for you the only option is to swap the car. Our Hyundai i20 was one such car - the seats were never comfortable for either of us due to a lack of lumbar support.

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Thu 4 Feb 2016 09:04

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - RobJP

Have a full read of the handbook. The seats do have full range of adjustment/movement, but it can be a bit confusing to figure out.

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Thu 4 Feb 2016 09:21

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - movilogo

Unfortuanately some cars are just unconfortable for some people.

After buying my car recently, I took me a whole 1-month to figure out most comfortable position!

I have never sat on that BMW model but assuming it has plenty of adjustment, if none of the settings work out for you then I'm afraid there is no easy way to sort it out other change changing the car.

How long did you take a test drive? I know it is too late for this car, but may help in your next car.

For me I noticed that if seat is not comfortable I definitely feel this after 30 mins (sometimes sooner).

Although I can't provide any rational evidence, I noticed that if I feel uncomfortable in one car, usually none of the cars from same manufacturer provides a comformtable position. On other hand, if I feel comfortable, usually other cars from same manufacturer (either bigger or smaller models) also prove comfortable.

Sometimes seating comfort becomes psychological issue. For me, if I can't see the bonnet of the car (at least by leaning forward a bit during parking) I start feeling unfortable, which makes my body stiff and then neck and back pain after some time.

Also, I find higher seating position more comfortable than lower seating (I will never buy any sports car because of this).

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Thu 4 Feb 2016 20:49

BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer - Poor Front Seats - Chrishunt

The post above raises an interesting point... I test drove a number of different models of the car but none had the luxury seats. What we did know is that whilst the sport seats suited me they didn't suite my wife so we knew we didn't want the sports seats. We went as far as having the luxury seats measured (by the dealer) front to back so we could be sure that the seat would be fine for my wife (which, incidentally, it is).

Added to this is that the electrically adjusted seats have a greater range and direction of adjustment than those with the manually adjusted seats.

The point here is that it's obviously important to test drive the model of car you want to buy; however this does depend on that model being available to test.

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