You guys have convinced me that the Forester is ok on the highway (see topic below). I just drove one, and I agree. It has a vibration between 65 &
80mph, but that's probably a tire or wheel balance problem.Now, what about the seats. This is a fancy model, with leather seats. I found it uncomfortably hard. I tried playing with those two knobs on the left, but only succeeded in making it more uncomfortable. It gave me a back ache in less than 30 minutes. Any suggestions?
Dick.
That's a matter of taste. I don't much care for the seats in my wife's 1999 Forester, but my wife thinks they are much more comfortable than the seats in my 2003 Infiniti.
I will say that we drove the Forester from the DC area to Utah and back several years ago, and to Florida and back last month, and I didn't have any backache problems on either trip. (I'm 69 years old and have been known to get aches in my back or my neck after long drives. I recall a killer ache in my neck after a 17-hour solo non-stop drive from Dearborn, MI to Boston in 1956... I got X-rays after that one. That drive was in a 1955 Ford sedan.) I have found that setting the seatback more vertical than usual helps with the ache problem on long drives. You couldn't do that on a 1955 Ford.
My USA 2005 Forester XT is a dream for long distance drives. Last year I drove from Las Vegas to Lake Tahoe (via Bakersfield -> Sacramento CA) without the usual backaches I got in my wife's Dodge Caravan on long drives. IMHO,the countour of the seats, power adjustments and lumbar & lateral support made the difference.
These occasional complaints that the XT-PP leather seats are "hard" leave me dumbfounded. If anything, I'd like them slightly firmer (especially the side bolsters), but that's an extremely small concern. As they are, these seats are virtually as comfortable as our Volvo's seats (and to many, Volvo is the gold standard on seat comfort). I'd suggest a ride in a Volkswagen, and then you could talk about hard seats with more perspective. I can't imagine having mushy seats that might come from a Buick Le Sabre in a Forester--no way is that desirable, but that seems to be what some would prefer. I understand that there's a range of preferences, but it's really hard to understand those that, IMHO, are beyond reasonable limits one way or the other.
HW
It could be that this car just isn't for you. You could replace the seats, but that's pretty expensive when you're buying a new car.
I got my 2000 Legacy L wagon with cloth seats two months ago. The seats are the worst feature of the car. I miss my Saab!
It's really a matter of what fits you. One person's pleasure is another person's agony.
After driving an XT-PP for a year, it's not the firmness of the seats that bothered me but the lack of any useful contouring on the seat bottom and back. Frankly, it feels like sitting on a church pew, albeit one that goes to 60mph in less than six seconds!
Our Saab's seats look flatter and softer than the XT's but they're much more supportive. And our BMW's seats are definitely firmer than the XT's but they're designed like Recaros and feel much more comfortable in the long run.
Cheers,
David
Yup. I just moved from a 1995 Saab 9000CS to a 2000 Legacy L wagon. Ouch. Another thing is that the seat bottom is too level, i.e. I wish I could tip it back. I don't think this will be my roadtrip car. I might just rent a minivan if we take a trip.
Tom
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