Height Adjustable Passenger Seat

[Neil Ives]

I am flabbergasted that a dealership would even consider a modification to the seats. They are laying themselves wide open to prosecution in the event of injury to a person using that seat if something fails, during a vehicle crash for instance.

[Expatman]

It’s not the comfort of the seat once she is in it that’s the problem. It’s the drop into it and the climb out of it! Ideally she needs a seat at about 650 - 660mm height from the road surface so that she can slide in and slide out without bending down too much. The Crosstar drivers seat set to max height is approx 639mm which is just about okay. Passenger seat at 588mm is just too low.
Looking at the new HR-V I can’t find the actual numbers but based on previous model and press releases on ride height we are estimating a ride height of about 655-660 mm - of course we won’t know till we see one or RIDC conduct their tests.

[Pine]

The option of a height adjustable passenger seat would be great but wouldn't be necessary if the standard seat was at a sensible height to start with.  Everyone seems to agree that the existing seat is far to low.

[bill ericay]

Why don't you just find a company that modifies cars for disables drivers/ passengers and find out how much they would charge to raise the seat of a new Jazz  by 50mm or whatever you need. The work done has to be safe and comply with regulations.
Personally I would just fit longer bolts and fabricated spacer blocks myself, an easy enough job for any competent person.
You would then have a choice of all the cars you desired without concerns about seat height.

[richardfrost]

Why don't you just find a company that modifies cars for disables drivers/ passengers and find out how much they would charge to raise the seat of a new Jazz  by 50mm or whatever you need. The work done has to be safe and comply with regulations.
Personally I would just fit longer bolts and fabricated spacer blocks myself, an easy enough job for any competent person.
You would then have a choice of all the cars you desired without concerns about seat height.

Most sensible suggestion yet!

[Neil Ives]

Apart from my post about liabilities you need to take care modifying a car that is still under guarantee.

[Expatman]

The reason why I wouldn’t modify the seat height myself is precisely because it would/could invalidate warranty and I would have to declare to insurance company, and that could create all sorts of problems.

[Expatman]

Well I wrote to the CEO of Honda(UK) asking about the lack of passenger seat height adjustment on the Jazz, Crosstar and new HR-V. Got a polite reply today...
"I have spoken with our Business Planning Department to discuss your enquiry. They have advised that there is no demand globally for this feature and therefore it is unlikely to be added to any of the models.”
So there you are then, no-one wants height adjustable passenger seats! So their competitors who are fitting them are wrong and Honda are right! People on this forum who need a height adjustable passenger seat are all wrong because there is no demand!
The arrogance of the reply is unbelievable - if that is the way Honda treats customers then I will have to rethink my planned purchase.

[sportse]

It’s apparently a standard feature on the base model vw polo, so likely also on the vw t-cross as that’s a raised polo just like the crosstar/jazz.

T-cross is a direct competitor.

I can see Honda losing sales to competitors unfortunately for silly things that should be easy /cheap to fix.

For example, disabling RDMS on the jazz involves a button by your knee and going through different menus and pressing a few buttons. On the t-cross it’s a press of a steering wheel button and the ok button. Easy to do and explain.

[Jazzik]

For example, disabling RDMS on the jazz involves a button by your knee and going through different menus and pressing a few buttons. On the t-cross it’s a press of a steering wheel button and the ok button. Easy to do and explain.

You don't need to use the button by your knee, however it is a "shortcut" (once that button, once the rotary button, home button). The other possibility is going through the menu.

In my view easy. However... I never switched it off (till now), so maybe it's more difficult than I think.
Once I should try... 

[Kremmen]

I had one difficult journey because I forgot to turn RDMS off.

Now I know exactly how to turn RDMS off I can safely do it whilst driving if I forget.

[Expatman]

Just checked and the Toyota Yaris Cross has height adjustable passenger seat. Probably most direct competitor and I would have thought Honda would want to match such a simple feature.

[Lord Voltermore]

"I have spoken with our Business Planning Department to discuss your enquiry. They have advised that there is no demand globally for this feature and therefore it is unlikely to be added to any of the models.”

All the effort Honda put into engineering excellence  only to be let down by an incompetent ,'business planning department'.     If you fail  to plan you plan to fail.   Presumably by 'global' demand they have been lazy or lack the vision  to look beyond local demand in Japan and China etc where buyers are mostly  younger  with different priorities.
Maybe on the Asian market the cost savings per 1000 cars produced outweighs a few lost sales.
In europe more potential buyers  will see it as an absolute deal breaker, or part of an accumulation of missing features that makes them look elsewhere.
If  their European CEO's raise the concerns of potential customers  they are fools to ignore them.

 Maybe a more senior or wider thinking  Honda executive will read this and sort them out.

[Expatman]

"I have spoken with our Business Planning Department to discuss your enquiry. They have advised that there is no demand globally for this feature and therefore it is unlikely to be added to any of the models.”

All the effort Honda put into engineering excellence  only to be let down by an incompetent ,'business planning department'.     If you fail  to plan you plan to fail.   Presumably by 'global' demand they have been lazy or lack the vision  to look beyond local demand in Japan and China etc where buyers are mostly  younger  with different priorities.
Maybe on the Asian market the cost savings per 1000 cars produced outweighs a few lost sales.
In europe more potential buyers  will see it as an absolute deal breaker, or part of an accumulation of missing features that makes them look elsewhere.
If  their European CEO's raise the concerns of potential customers  they are fools to ignore them.

 Maybe a more senior or wider thinking  Honda executive will read this and sort them out.

I hope so, watching Honda die in the UK from such arrogance is so sad. As you say people won't buy a car they or their partner can't be comfortable with. No matter how good the technology.

[culzean]

"I have spoken with our Business Planning Department to discuss your enquiry. They have advised that there is no demand globally for this feature and therefore it is unlikely to be added to any of the models.”

All the effort Honda put into engineering excellence  only to be let down by an incompetent ,'business planning department'.     If you fail  to plan you plan to fail.   Presumably by 'global' demand they have been lazy or lack the vision  to look beyond local demand in Japan and China etc where buyers are mostly  younger  with different priorities.
Maybe on the Asian market the cost savings per 1000 cars produced outweighs a few lost sales.
In europe more potential buyers  will see it as an absolute deal breaker, or part of an accumulation of missing features that makes them look elsewhere.
If  their European CEO's raise the concerns of potential customers  they are fools to ignore them.

 Maybe a more senior or wider thinking  Honda executive will read this and sort them out.

I hope so, watching Honda die in the UK from such arrogance is so sad. As you say people won't buy a car they or their partner can't be comfortable with. No matter how good the technology.

The level of equipment fitted to basic car models took a quantum leap when Japanese cars came on the scene. people like BMW have a basic car and a massive list of extras.  Seems to me a lot of these 'problems' are definitely in the 'first world problem' basket,  we have to work out the carbon footprint of a 'height adjustable passenger seat'.