Accident Safety and the Fit's Rocking Seat Issue
 

My 2010 Fit Sport has that "rocking seat" issue that seems to be fairly common among 2nd generation Fits:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...vers-seat.html

On mine, the inward side of the seat has more play than the outward side, which causes a little bit of a twisting effect when the seat rocks. I'm concerned that this might cause back injury from repeated twisting (or especially in the event of an accident).

Of course, I took it in to the dealership and was told that it's normal and that there's no problem. I even pulled on the seat of another 2010 Fit on the lot and the seat did have a little bit of play (although not nearly as much play as my 4-week-old Fit with 1,000 miles). It seems like it takes them a few weeks of driving to loosen up.

I've read that the Fit has good safety in crash tests, but maybe this doesn't take into account the fact that the seat moves and twists after the car is a month or two old. What's the point of seatbelt pre-tensioners if the seat doesn't hold you firmly in place?

I love everything else about the car, but the seat issue makes me think that buying the Fit was a mistake. I hope that Honda comes up with a fix for this.


:confused:

No expert here, but as long as the seat rails are properly affixed to the floor pan and the seat can't actually move on the seat rails, there shouldn't be any compromise to the cars crash-worthiness.

If however if this rocking motion (my Fit seems OK) becomes excessive and causes wear on the latching mechanism, this could be a potential safety issue. What's excessive, I don't know.

I can imagine that the rocking would be annoying at the very least though.

Barb

I'm no expert either, but it seems like adding a spine/neck twist to all of the forces exerted on someone during an accident would be a very bad thing.

I guess the rocking wouldn't bother me as much if it was straight back and forth, but the twisting is the worst part...

My civic had this problem at about 190k miles. I just had to tighten the loose bolt that attached the seat to the rails. It was rather difficult without removing the seat from the car, but do-able.